Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut

I really want to like this game, but the absolutely terrible technical issues that plague this game are rampant. I'd be amazed if anyone could get through this game without it crashing. This would be a premier game in horror, mystery and storytelling if the technical issue were fixed.

The gameplay is actually fine, if not quite enjoyable, but it crash very frequently. Currently, I'm stuck because wherevere I go in the map (not even entering locations) the game would freezen then crash regardless of the compatibility setings used. I doubt the devs will fix the game after all these years and a sequel, but until some action is taken, my rating remains low.

Only you know if you'll like this game. This is either an amazing experience or what could've been an awesome game let down by awful gameplay. This is your typical wacky Japanese game, hence its popularity. 'Big-lipped alligator moments' galore, the music is cheesy and everyone's a nutjob with unspectacular names like 'Brian'. You may have heard that this game is a 'so bad it's good' thing, but for me this concept doesn't work with games. Bad movies are an hour or two and doesn't need your undivided attention, but this is 20+ hours long, VEEEEEERY slow-paced and requires your input. This IS a horror game at times. The horror sections are legitimately creepy at first, and provide a huge to the nutty 'real world' parts. Unfortunately, the gameplay turns these sections as boring and a chore as the rest. It's hard to tell whether the gameplay and cutscenes are intentionally bad or dumb, or if they saw the wackiness as an excuse to put out what unfortunately is a bad game and say that the game being bad is the big punchline. The cutscenes and goofiness are the only parts I stuck around for, at which point I realised I should just watch the cutscenes on YouTube and stopped playing halfway through. I realised I was just running past all the monsters and skipping journeys and time, so what was the point in me playing?

I've played a few hours of this. While it's mechanically simplistic and looks like sixth generation title , the game has a certain something going for it. Feels like David Lynch's Twin Peaks fused with an bucket-sized dose of acid. The problem is that the game is just about the worst port I have ever seen anywhere ever. It barely works, even with fan patch added and following various guides to fix it. It keeps crashing in one way or the other, meaning I cannot recommend anyone buy this. If you really have to, wait for it to go on sale. It usually drops by 90 or 95 percent. Currently, the game is a broken mess.

I'm writing this review a good three years after the game's release, well after a community patch was released, well after the (as far as I can tell, only) patch was ever released, I'm stuck on one particular bug that crashes the game at the start of a cutscene that happens after killing three shotgun toting zombie hicks. This bug was also known about at least three years ago. I've spent hours making dozens of attempts at various suggested workarounds. I've installed Durante's fix. I've started and restarted and restarted the application in just about every version of the windows compatibility mode. I've gone through the launcher. I've changed from windowed to full screen and back again. I've given the game the fairest shake at troubleshooting a full-paying customer can reasonably be expected to. I literally cannot progress in the game any further. But even if by some miracle I managed to bypass this one glitch, there's another infamous showstopping moment to soon look forward in chapter 9. This one not only crashes the game, but corrupts save files for good measure. I'm at my wit's end. The game looks like it belongs on the original Xbox, it runs like shit even at the best of times, the combat and driving are clunkier than a federal car scrapping program, and the number of other little quirks and glitches you'll inevitably slog through are too numerous and depressing to mention. Whatever charms lie underneath the maelstrom of technical catastrophes are not worn the amount of hair I've pulled out of my skull trying to fight through it. This is easily one of the absolute worst console ports ever shoved off onto the PC that I've ever played, and the developers never cared to support it beyond the one tiny patch released maybe weeks after it hit pc store shelves. SOME people have been able to play through it, with a clover field's worth of luck. Do not take their experience as representative. Pirate first, if you must, but otherwise avoid like the plague.