Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise Reviews
A characterful, frequently charming sequel that doesn't quite match up to the original - and somehow performs worse.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise isn't so bad that it's good, it's just average and technically rough.
A technical disaster in almost every conceivable way, which obscures not only the hilarious characters but the fact that the game is considerably less compelling and nuanced than the original.
Revisiting Deadly Premonition's unique sensibility is fun, but aggressively poor production values and shallow gameplay make it tough to stick around
I'm going to tell you something that I can't easily explain: When I advance the quest, I'm having fun. I barely know why, in the same way that it's difficult to explain why paying off a mortgage in Animal Crossing is fun.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise is a welcoming return to its strange and absurd world, but feels diluted and missing many of the flavor notes that defined its predecessor.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise is hard to love, even by the standards set by its predecessor. In leaving Greenvale behind for a style of prequel and sequel storytelling split across Louisiana and Boston, Deadly Premonition 2 jettisons the much of what made the original charming (along with some interesting mechanics and variety) in favor of an empty town and a story that serves up tropes and bits of lore that do little to enhance or build upon what made the original fascinating. All the while, terrible performance makes it more of a slog than its uninspired ideas and pacing do on their own.
It's a weird game to review because so many people are going to expect drastically different things. How many games force you to shave and send your clothes up for dry cleaning? How many times can you say that you hexed an old widow so that you could go bowling in the past...oh say decade or so? Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is another trip. You've been warned.
An adventure that, like the original, you won't know if it's a joke. You'll love it, or hate it. Unpolish, rough around edges... but still an adventure unique on its own ways. If you connect with it, you'll enjoy it till the end, with a delightful script, crazy situations that will hook you on and all the crazyness you can hope from Francis York.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Deadly Premonition 2 feels like a step forward from the first game. It still has the same quirky and unusual humour, but this sequel brings with it improved combat and better visuals. It's a shame it's held back by poor performance on Nintendo Switch, but fans of the original are going to love Deadly Premonition 2, the city of Le Carrè and the story it has to tell.
Deadly Premonition 2 is a real hymn to the atavistic principle that "graphics are not everything". Stopping at the disastrous technical sector of the game could deprive you of a very interesting experience, especially if you loved the first chapter. Artistically intriguing and narratively full of ideas and revelations, this sequel by TOYBOX is expressly dedicated to fans of the first Deadly Premonition, of which it takes up history, characters and suggestions. Otherwise, it is difficult to fully enjoy the only element that barely keeps the entire production on its feet: a fascinating story, framed by a surreal aura, deliberately over the top and quotationist to the extreme.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The sequel to Hidetaka "Swery65" Suehiro's most memorable creation rests entirely on the same things that made the former a cult game. For better and for worse.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
In the end, a traditional review may be rather pointless, since the Deadly Premonition games operate on the same level as a film such as The Return of Captain Invincible (possibly the lone cult '80s film that York shockingly doesn't reference): something that operates on a completely different plane of reality than the rest of us, one where the mere notions of "good" and "bad" don't really apply.
Deadly Premonition 2 on PC features some improvements to the Switch version, but a fair few issues are still present.
A worthy sequel to the 2010 cult classic, Deadly Premonition 2 retains the series trademark charm with its oddball characters and outlandish story. The open world frame-rate isn't good enough, but if you can overlook that there's plenty of intrigue and laughs to be found in Le Carre.
Veterans of the first game won't be expecting a technical tour-de-force, but Deadly Premonition 2 still manages to underwhelm in pure performance terms. However (and this is a big however), it's a game with real character and it's very tough to dislike, even as you stutter your way around Le Carré on your skateboard. If you've ever been intrigued by the original, we'd recommend giving this a go. It's janky and derivative, yes, but it's also irresistibly wonderful and strange, and there's no other video game quite like it.
Deadly Premonition 2 marks the return of Francis York Morgan and his brand of weirdness. He can also skateboard now. It's rad.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is somehow much, much worse than the original. The game looks and feels awful, with an unacceptable framerate and PlayStation 1 level textures. While the story is great, it's brought down by even more tedious gameplay and some harmful stereotypes.
Deadly Premonition 2 is not Swery's gaming maturity, but it is perhaps his consecration as a screenwriter, storyteller of the bizarre, creator of unforgettable characters. His ambition, however, clashes with the limited budget and, probably, with Toybox's modest ability to create gamplay. But these are works that must be left to rest, metabolized and then perhaps rediscovered, like a nice b-movie, ready to become one of our favorites when the time is right.
Review in Italian | Read full review