Deadly Premonition Origins (Nintendo Switch)

Deadly Premonition Origins is a port of the original Deadly Premonition which originally launched on the X Box 360. Headed up by SWERY creator of titles such as Lords of Arcana and D4, Deadly Premonition has a massive cult following and quite the legacy, how does it stand up on Switch then Zack?. 

As mentioned this is the 360 version of Deadly Premonition so it is missing the additional scenes and tweaks of the Directors Cut, this shouldn’t put you off as the additions and tweaks were minimal and you still get the full experience here, just with the added bonus of it being portable!.

Deadly Premonition stars eccentric FBI Agent Francis York Morgan, he is called to Greenvale to solve the mystery of the murder of 18 year old Anna, possibly tied to other murders around the country. Within minutes you find out this isn’t your standard murder case, zombies start chasing you through the woods and the mysterious Raincoat Killer makes their appearance soon after.

What follows is a tale that feels like it was ripped right from the hands of David Lynch himself, to say it’s inspired from Twin Peaks would be under selling the title massively.

Deadly Premonition leads it’s cooky and endearing cast with York, he’s awkward, goofy, has an imaginary friend called Zack and manages to rub EVERYONE the wrong way, but you can’t help but love him. Every character has some quirk to them, be it initially obvious like the woman who talks to her cookery pot or some of the more guarded of the cast.

The narrative creates a beautiful balance between bizarre and intriguing, between the odd ball cast and the strange events that transpire throughout you’ll be gripped if not for the fact you really want to know, what the hell is going on in this game.

Graphically the game looks like a PS2 game, there is no dodging this fact, it animates like a game that should of come out that generation too, it looked outdated on it’s original release and that hasn’t improved any, nor does it need to.

I know that’s a strange statement (Zack) but hear me out. This game is presented like the best of B-movie, it doesn’t have Triple A graphics or motion capture, it does infact have a self aware charm that you can’t help but find endearing.

The sound once again follows suit, the voice actors range from passable to confused man trapped in a booth. The songs seem to flip between perfect to completely random and the fact the music can drown out the dialogue just adds to the bubbling mess on paper Deadly Premonition is.

Deadly Premonition plays like an open world survival horror, you’ll be driving around Greenvale between action sequences, solving side cases, gathering cards, learning more about the locals, shaving, changing suits, indicating, the game takes an “immersive as you want” approach.

For a game that looks like a Ps2 video nasty it is an insanely ambitious title, not much of it is essential to play through the tale but it does help suck you into Greenvale with outstanding accuracy. You need to feed and sleep which is easily done via beds, food or items such as Coffee 

The action sequences play like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, you have supernatural zombie beings chasing you, QTE segments where you are being chased & should you want to sneak, you can hold your breath to do so. The controls do need tweaking which is one of the things the Directors Cut fixed, fortunately you can change the button mapping here so it’s a none issue.

The performance of the title is slightly better than the 360 version (from memory and comparing to playing it recently on XBox One) though Deadly Premonition is far from the most optimised title around! There are some strange audio bugs in the title, most have been patched out but one still remains where your car makes no sound while driving!.

Deadly Premonition is an anomaly of a title, on paper it sounds like a mess and I suppose it is, but once you play it and get sucked into it, you see it’s gloriously self aware of what a car crash it is and charms the pants off of you. It’s one of this websites all time favourite titles as it’s just one of the most punk titles this side of Suda 51, plus we are massive Twin Peak fans!.

Even if you are slightly curious I would suggest taking that leap, videos don’t do the game justice and this is the perfect chance to get ready for the recently announced Deadly Premonition 2!. If you are a collector there is also a tasty Collectors Edition on the horizon too which looks like a right treat, right before Christmas too so would make the ideal gift for any Switch owner.

You’ll either love or hate Deadly Premonition Origins, there is no middle ground and you can be sure the game wasn’t intended for a mild reception!.