Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise Reviews

only a true gamer, pure of mind and true of heart, may enter and be filled with joy

Well, "DP2" the long awaited (?) sequel/prequel to the uncanny and bonkers original. Let's be clear: Nobody will probably play this without knowing the first one, so this is a question of recommendation for those oddballs who "enjoyed" the first one. All in all it really feels like a faithful second installment with all the caveats the first one had, even mimicking some atrocious design choices, so let's start with the negatives. - First, the controller binding: Who on earth makes "Accept/Action" on B and "Cancel/Back" on A? This required seroius adaptional brainpower; is this supposed to be trolling? (This is not changeable btw, except you use third-party programs) - While there are no serious bugs, there a still some graphical glitches, pedetrians popping up on you at the very last second, the charcter models seem sometimes wobbly up close and in idle, people that are in car animations but without cars (which is hilarious) - The very stiff vehicle controls are switched for a skateboard which does not control any better (maybe a little, you can add stat boosts to it). - Dialogue scenes and interactions can be quite awkward (again, this is faithful and can be a positive of sorts) - There is a neat new system to boost your stats by creating and upgrading voodoo-charms, but the sidequest-grind is just unbearable, same for the stamps and achievements - Only one weapon with minor unlockable stat upgrades (at least in the orignal was "some" selection) - There a (again) a myriad of clunky minigames to "help" you with the crafting grind - The side-quests (as in the original) were tedious and not worth it - The otherworld-dungeons are quite bland and the enemy variety, while they have interesting design choices (what on earth are these ground-crawling voodoo-dominatrixes?), is near to none. There were very few enemy-types in the first one as well, but the otherworld stages were somewhat realted to the "light-world"counterpart, which is not the case here. - Inventory management is tedious (ok, it is a survival-horror game, so it is supposed to be?), there is a overabundance of items, making the difficulty trivial - Talking about trivial combat: One section of the game says you should defeat the alligators, but they seem to spawn indefinetly and tear you apart, if you don't run for it. (This was the only time I actually died in this game) - There is a fetch quest in the main questline, that is absolutley pace killing and really bad 8(York even mentions it) - Also around this corner are some "quests" where you just follow NPCs slowly (but these were also in the original) - Chapter 3 and 4 can get a little convoluted and I didn't find the ending that endearing than in the first Now for the good stuff. - York is as nice as ever! He is the anchor of this whole series and dale-cooper's this whole ordeal masterfully! - The popcultural and intellectual references are also top notch, ranging from J. Carpenter, Cronenberg, Nietzsche and Hyperrealism (the pizza bit was a little off, but hey, to each his own). Yes, it can be a bit on the nose, but this is just how I like it - The characters were zany (really liked David) as to be expected. Melvin and Patricia were not as memorable as Emily and George in the first one, but still good - The setting is quite interesting, the whole Louisiana/South bit with the ritual murders; it felt a little like the first season of "True Detective" (the opening cinematic further cements that) - York's banter with Zach while travelling is as good as ever, sadly there seems to be fewer dialogues and they can cut quickly trough transitions - The scenes that take place in the future, where the terminal ill Zach gets interrogated by the new generation of FBI are really well done. The tone and the pacing is outstanding, it really nails the thriller/mystery aspect. - Really liked the small parts like Zach's fictional DVD collection. It was whimsical to think about what they would look like. All in all a "good" addition to the series for your average DP-fan (if this exists) that can be "enjoyed" on a deep sale (in which it is often) and when you tone down the expectations a little.

first let me say that this a good game but has some problems that need to be fixed which is the resolution needs to changeable and the graphics options to fix the lagging of the game in some part when loading the open world part please fix this game and remaster the first deadly premonition too while at too hit two birds with one stone.

I really wanted to complete this game because the first one was interesting, but... the gameplay is pretty bad.

Easy recommend for fans of the first if you're not done with FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan. It's still not a perfect game but hey at least this one runs on PC with zero crashes and minimal bugs (in my playthrough at least). The characters are more entertaining, the soundtrack is stronger as a whole, and the gameplay is smoother. It's still stupid easy combat-wise along with the bosses but you don't play Deadly Premonition for the combat despite wishing it was better. I also think the main story is not as good as the first but it's still entertaining and adds more depth with the alternating flashbacks and present day. Insane final chapter though. I hope you get to see it.