Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise - Nintendo Switch Review

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The real mystery here is why we enjoy such a bad game so much...

• System: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Rising Star Games
• Developer: Toybox
• Release Date: July 10, 2020

• Pricing: $49.99
• Rating: M
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Survival Horror
• Players: 1
• Official Website: https://www.risingstargames.com/games/deadly-premonition-2

Deadly Premonition 2 - Release Date Trailer Extended Cut | Rising Star Games

Who it Caters to

The easiest way to know if you would enjoy a Deadly Premonition game would be to ask yourself how much do you actually enjoy B movies. Just like it happens with a lot of books, TV shows, movies, and even other video games, Deadly Premonition is a franchise that doesn't take itself too seriously, using all its flaws to shape itself as a cult classic that's so bad it's good. However, Deadly Premonition's lore and internal coherence are actually above average, so take any words of criticism with a grain of salt. You might even like it!

What to Expect

A Blessing in Disguise is both a prequel and a sequel to the original Deadly Premonition. At first, we play as FBI agents Aaliyah Davis and Simon Jones, who are after Francis Zach Morgan. This part of the game, based around interrogations and flashbacks to old cases, takes time 9 years after the events of Deadly Premonition. But don't worry! We obviously get to play as a young Francis York Morgan (plus Zach) too, and so we learn why Zach did what he did, and why the FBI is after our protagonists. Although small, we have an open world, so you'll be running around the fictional town of Le Carré in search of clues to solve a murder mystery. Hope you like paranormal stuff, though. Expect dark alternate realities, cults, sacrifices, and lots of bad jokes! Oh, and did we say Deadly Premonition 2 makes nothing to look like a graphically polished game?

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Visuals

A Blessing in Disguise runs poorly, very poorly. It doesn't even look good on handheld mode, so imagine playing it on a big TV. That being said, that's part of this game's charm, so you'll have to bear with it... or not, because we can't blame you for uninstalling the game after half an hour of gameplay. At least we didn’t experience any game-breaking bugs or anything like that, and the story is good enough to compensate for all the graphical difficulties. Most of the time, you'll be looking at blurry texts, lo-fi textures, weird animations, jagged edges, and the like. For this reason, we can't but say that Deadly Premonition 2 is a technical disaster, although, at this point, it's hard to tell whether these performance issues are the result of poorly trained developers or just a fashion statement. Yeah, it's awful to look at, but old Kaiju movies wouldn't be the same with top-notch CGI effects, right?

Sound, Music

The OST is perfect for a game like this one, but that's only when there's background music. Be it when you're walking around the streets, visiting a building, or shooting monsters from the Otherworld, all songs are designed to help build an atmosphere, but none of these tracks is powerful enough to overshadow the gameplay nor the dialogues. It's just a set of interesting loops that lose meaning the more they repeat themselves, but there's no need for these songs to carry the weight of the whole game. The dialogues, on the other hand, are the very best of any Deadly Premonition game. Full of weird turns, awkward silences, cheesy jokes, and movie references, the voice acting is exactly what you would expect from such a peculiar video game. One of our problems with Deadly Premonition 2, though, is that some jokes get old really fast, and soon you'll note how annoying all of York's inner monologues are, for example. Just skate and be quiet!

Gameplay

As we stated previously, there are 2 timelines in this game: the present, when we play as Aaliyah, and the past, when we play as York. This is interesting because, at the start of the game, we don't know why the FBI is after Zach or what exactly happened in the Le Carré case, but then we slowly gather enough information to understand both parties involved. In 2005, York and his partner Zach were in a town called Le Carré when they ended up unintentionally involved in a mysterious murder case. A beautiful girl has been killed in what looks like a sacrifice, and now the body of this dismembered young girl is kept in a block of ice. Who could do such a thing, and what's the story behind this gruesome event? Although small, Le Carré is full of odd people, and so we instantly make both friends and enemies. Or is it because it's hard not to attract people's attention as an eccentric FBI agent with multiple personalities? Whatever the case, one of our new allies is Patricia Woods, the teenage daughter of the Sheriff, who acts as both our Le Carré guide and a trustworthy source of advice.

The gameplay mechanics are quite simple. You have to walk around Le Carré in search of clues to solve the case, interacting with the townspeople, and doing several quests for them to gain access to specific items or data. If you want to get faster to places, you can use your skateboard, but you still need to avoid dogs, alligators, and other wild animals. Between 0:00 and 6:00, monsters from the Otherworld will spawn near you with the sole intention of killing you, and since they keep spawning, you can either shot them ad infinitum to try and farm different items or just run away and take refuge in your hotel room. Once you get to specific places related to the crime or the suspects, you need to find evidence. These portions of the game are all about highlighting some items and triggering dialogues that move the plot forward, but please note that some places and stores only open at certain times, for example, so you're pretty much forced to sleep, smoke, play minigames, or do some sidequests to pass the time. As part of the main missions, you'll have to visit the Otherworld sooner or later, so you better spend some time crafting voodoo items to improve your stats, too!

Deadly Premonition 2 combines some Survival Horror elements with open-world action, but don't come here expecting it to be Silent Hill and GTA's child. It is what it is, and the low-quality graphics make it all less appealing, but please believe us when we say the story really pays off and all characters are a joy to interact with.

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Honey's Gameplay Consensus:

For a better understanding of the plot, playing the first Deadly Premonition game is a must. A Blessing in Disguise is more of the same, with more technical problems—sadly—but the same old charm, so it's safe to assume that if you fancied the first entry, then you'll enjoy this prequel/sequel too.

Honey's Pros:

• Tons of cheesy dialogues and surrealist situations, like every cult game needs.
• If you’re able to turn a blind eye to all the technical problems (which at this point, we can’t tell if they are mistakes or something intentional), it’s a great mystery game in its own way.
• This prequel/sequel perfectly complements the first game.

Honey's Cons:

• Blurry texts, jagged edges, fps drops, and other performance issues. If you’re a graphics person, you’ll hate it.
• This game/franchise makes nothing at all to lure you in if you're not its target audience.

Honey's Final Verdict:

York continues to be a magnificent protagonist, and the plot is tailor-made for a character like him. Some people definitely are too cool for a game like Deadly Premonition, but for what it's worth, this saga has always been kind of a guilty pleasure, a prime example of lore and world-building over graphics. If you ask us, however, we really don't know why we can't have both the essence of the Deadly Premonition franchise and graphics that take full advantage of the Switch's capabilities, but we did enjoy A Blessing in Disguise from start to finish, nonetheless.

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