I had originally played Deadly Premonition on the 360 during May of 2010. I was visiting my grandmother and was out with the family at Best Buy, where an uncle of mine was considering getting a printer. Being the dork I am, I went to go check out the video game section, and there were a few copies of Deadly Premonition lined on the shelves. The cover caught my interest as a horror fan, and the cheap $20 price tag sold me on it to make a blind purchase. When we got back from our day out, I put it into the 360 and started to play.

The first thing I noticed about Deadly Premonition, and something that has remained true, is that I love its soundtrack. A few select tracks are used maybe a little too often, but the music perfectly fits the odd tone of the game, and is pretty damn catchy. Even as I am writing this review, I find myself humming a few of its tunes. This is a case where the soundtrack isn't just good, but is a big part of this game. I am convinced the game may not have been as well received by as many if it didn't have this off-kilter soundtrack that really gets you into the mood for the oddness the game throws at you.

The next thing I and about anyone else will notice is that this game looks dated. It's something of a miracle that a game in this graphical condition was released as a published disk-based console title in this day and age. It looks dated, but then controversially I would say the look fits the game. It sort of sets you into a set of expectations for the sort of game you're about to play. This may be backwards logic, but if the game had looked amazing I feel a lot of people would of found the actuality of the game to be lackluster to its looks. And as the game goes on, the odd facial expressions and clunky animations become very amusing. Notably, the Director's Cut does update the graphics some, but honestly its hardly noticeable.

The rest rolls from there. The controls are a bit awkward, but you adjust. The first chapter isn't all that great, but it gets better. And before you know it, you start getting hooked into the game. I know I did. And it's the type of game you want to talk about.

Heavily inspired by Twin Peaks (to a point in development the game got in legal trouble for far too many similarities that they had to change it, back when the game was known as Rainy Woods), the story follows the same basic premise; An FBI agent goes to investigate the homicide of a local high school beauty in a small pacific-northwestern town, but the town has a darker side the FBI agent discovers as he gets deeper into the case. The town is Greenvale, and our character in Deadly Premonition is Agent Francis York Morgan (but just call him York, that's what everybody calls him), an offbeat FBI agent who solves cases through odd measures, particularly of note in the fact he uses a system he calls profiling (that basically results to magic to figure out what happened by collecting clues), and see's shapes and messages in his morning coffee and newspaper that gives him clues to things to investigate. He also talks regularly to some unseen person named Zach. Many will quickly put together that 'Zach' is actually York's way of talking to the player, who only he seems to realize is watching everything, and who only he interacts with.

Deadly Premonition has unforgettable characters. York stands out, as the player really begins to form a connection with their odd agent, but the rest of the cast are just as good. The likes of Emily, George, Thomas, Mr. Stewart, Polly, and the rest of the colorful cast will last with you long after the game has been completed. And the story legitimately begins to get gripping. Like the rest of the game, Deadly Premonition tells an odd tale, and honestly some of what occurs in the game is absolutely ridiculous, but somehow you'll legitimately care what's going on. That is when you're not laughing your ass off, as the game is somehow both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious at the same time.

But it's more than just that, this game manages to actually be touching, and I found myself more emotionally involved with this game's story and characters than most any other game I've played in the last few years. And while I don't want to get ahead of myself, the last few hours of the game's story are unforgettable. Saying bye to York and the rest of Greenvale is up there as one of the hardest things I had to do as a gamer upon coming to the close of the game.

Deadly Premonition is not just, 'so bad it's good' (though definitely parts of the game are just that). The game does some things absolutely wonderfully, really stellar and uniquely. But it does other things terribly, absolutely horribly. It has flaws, a lot of them. But somehow most of these flaws become strangely part of the whole experience. They sort of blend in with everything else and become part of the overall experience of Deadly Premonition. Not everyone will like Deadly Premonition, but the title since I've played it has taken on a fairly big cult following, and for good reason.

Deadly Premonition is more than the sum of its parts. The game has obviously a lot of heart in it, and it shows. But it also is loaded with flaws, and that also shows. But somehow, the heart put into this game and the elements that make it amazing shine above the cumbersome driving, or the glitches the game has, or the fact the game has a few annoying QTEs. The term, 'experience', in games gets thrown around a lot these days, but this truly is what Deadly Premonition is. An experience.

And it's not a short one either. The game should take someone 15-20 hours to complete the first time. To do the side-quests easily adds another 5-20 hours (and you should do the side-quests, they're rather fun and most all of them add additional cutscenes and character depth, plus some of them reward you with handy items, like quick-travel or a weather doll or infinite ammo weapons, or even just new cars and suits).

The PC port has plenty of flaws. There are many fan-made work around's and patches made to help, but these still exist. I was lucky that I didn't run into much, but the game did crash a couple of times for me, and there's this weird thing with the game where the longer you play it without closing it and re-launching it, the slower over time the FPS will get. It's hardly a perfect port, and some will definitely be turned off by this.

But it's also definitely the best version of the game. And if you haven't experienced Deadly Premonition before, you definitely ought to at least give it a try, maybe stick around for the coffee.

Deadly Premonition is not a masterpiece in a traditional sense, and it's too flawed in ways to be named a good game (maybe okay at best). But Deadly Premonition is probably one of the best gaming experiences you could have that's released in the last few years. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, you'll be hit with feels, and you'll panic. When all is said and done, we need more games like Deadly Premonition. It's the mid-tier game in one of the purest forms, flawed and arguably bad, but with so much heart and enjoyable elements you may not care, and hardly any game will put a smile on your face as much as DP does.