Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise Reviews
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is messy, bizarre, and ultimately exactly what it needs to be: A great sequel to a cult classic.
Deadly Premonition 2 delivers exactly what fans have been craving for years
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 is a competent sequel that comes close to reaching the heights of the original, but falls short due to sloppy gameplay, technical issues and an unwillingness to stray too far from its comfort zone.
It is one of the great lies of our times that the shoddy quality added “charm” to Deadly Premonition. If Swery could choose to release Deadly Premonition 2 flawlessly optimized, he would. It is extremely remote that anyone would purposefully intend to release a broken product.
Deadly Premonition 2 didn't learn from the mistakes of its predecessor. It added more flaws into the mix with a less intriguing story and a painful experience lasting more than 20 hours!
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Fans of the original from 10 years ago, or Origins that released on Switch last year, will most certainly enjoy what’s on offer. Newcomers, however, will find it hard to look past its many flaws even if the storytelling is compelling and the conclusion is ridiculously extravagant. Deadly Premonition 2 is up there with Travis Strikes Again levels of weirdness, but much like Suda 51’s hack ‘n’ slash Switch exclusive, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise isn’t really a blessing for Nintendo’s hybrid console. If this second title in the Deadly Premonition series sacrificed its Switch exclusivity and had more development time, it may have been saved from being a sloppy mess that doesn’t deserve its otherwise fantastic story and loveable cast of characters.
A plot , dialog and character driven experience just like the original, but it's a slight step backwards where every aspect feels rushed, but it still is an enjoyable and unique experience for those willing to overlook its flaws.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Deadly Premnition 2 is a greatly written horror adventure with a really terrible performance. It's almost unplayable.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Hey, Zack, we are not perfect. Yet again. But hey, we are among one of the most unusual games released in recent years. Deadly Premonition 2 is charismatic, atmospheric, but definitely not for all. Fine with us.
Review in Russian | Read full review
While Deadly Premonition 2 is not for everyone (and potentially offensive to some), games as an art form are better off having works like this to exist in parallel to mainstream entertainment.
Ultimately, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise just isn’t acceptable in this day and age. There’s simply no reason why a game should perform this badly. Try as you might, it’s hard to thoroughly enjoy something that’s such a technical mess. If you’re a glutton for punishment and want to spend more time with the most bizarre protagonist in video games, go right ahead. But don’t say that you haven’t been warned. It isn’t a blessing, it’s a disappointment.
Well, except David, he'd fit in Greenvale pretty well. If you like the first Deadly Premonition you likely already know what you want and what you're getting into, and you'll likely be pretty happy with this sequel. Your everyday average player should probably weigh how much jank they're willing to put up with before giving this game a shot, though.
It’s a very hard task to follow up such an iconic cult classic as the original Deadly Premonition and satisfy the high-expectations by fans. Speaking as one of those fans, the sophomore slump hits pretty hard, even if there is a great story and immeasurable charm underneath all of Deadly Premonition 2’s issues.
The original Deadly Premonition was a polarizing title to say the least, some people really loved the quirk and utter weirdness of the characters and overall design (willing to overlook its technical shortcomings) but if you weren't in that camp there was generally negativity instead...
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise has quite an ironic title considering it just made me appreciate what a flash in the pan the original title was. Everything in this sequel is a step or more back and despite that intoxicating SWERY quirk, this title just isn't enjoyable. I don't think I'd be able to recommend that anyone plays this game. Fans of the original and SWERY enthusiasts may get a few kicks from it, but in my humble opinion, this ranks as his worst work and feels as bad as the consensus about Deadly Premonition 1 is.
In all the right ways, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is exactly what you would expect from a sequel to the cult classic. It’s a horror game that feels like an unofficial adaptation of Twin Peaks and you love it for that. It’s also a flawed game but that is also what makes it memorable.
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice. Maybe the first Deadly Premonition was an accident, or maybe it was just good enough for that cult following to remember. For that, I can say it can all be debunked. I think Deadly Premonition 2 displays SWERY’s capability to develop.
Even with all the issues with performance and objectives that are more mystery than the game’s actual case, I still thoroughly enjoyed Deadly Premonition 2 and could barely put it down. The characters, York’s continuous Movie References, even the combat works a treat with no need for melee whatsoever. But, like the original, this game is gonna be just as polarizing, you can either look past the decade-old graphics or not, you can see Morgan as endearing or insane. But one thing you can’t call Deadly Premonition, is boring.
Let’s get straight down to brass tacks. The performance of Deadly Premonition 2 is nothing short of appalling. With a stuttering frame-rate, inaudible cutscenes, texture pop-in that begs the question as to why they even bothered adding the asset in at all and loading times so long you’ll be left wondering if the game has crashed. All of these equate to a game that is almost unplayable. The most important word in this paragraph? Almost.