Published by Rising Star Games and developed by TOYBOX Inc, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is an open world horror game, and the sequel to Deadly Premonition released back in 2010. The original game divided players and critics with differing opinions. While a lot praised the game, there were also a fair few who despised it. Overall, Deadly Premonition was seen as a “So bad it’s good” type of game, which seems to be part of its charm, and after 10 years the sequel looks to bring back the unusual appeal of the first game.

The story mainly revolves around FBI agent Francis York Morgan who returns from the first game, as he tries to solve a murder mystery in the fictional American town known as Le Carre, Louisiana. The story is the game’s biggest appeal and players will have to pay close attention to all the dialogue to solve the mysteries and gives players a number of different ways to get answers out of possible suspects. Francis retains his charming personality, along with his insane yet calm demeanour from the original game. It’s definitely interesting to witness the story unfold, which on its own makes the game worth trying out. The voice acting is actually done really well and is easy to listen and enjoy, but of course the game does involve more than having discussions with suspects.

Being an open world game means having to traverse around town to get from point A to point B. Instead of driving around an FBI car looking professional, Francis actually rides around town on a skateboard. The game doesn’t seem to make big deal about a Federal agent on a skateboard, but it’s still a quicker way to travel than on foot. While he may not be Tony Hawk, one thing he can do better than the Pro Skaters is skate on grass with very little trouble, however anytime Francis is outdoors while on a board or on foot, the game’s frame rate drops tremendously and becomes almost unbearable to watch.

The town of Le Carre doesn’t seem to have a lot going on, making it feel a bit lifeless and quite bland, which is a wonder how this game can’t seem to perform better on Nintendo Switch, while other games such as Skyrim with an even bigger open world and higher quality graphics don’t seem to have any issues with their performance.

The game does perform much better while indoors, though gameplay during combat leaves much to be desired. The common enemies do look scary, but don’t feel like they take much effort to kill, while the boss battles should give players a bigger challenge like with any game, but even they don’t seem to pose much of a threat either.

The game’s graphics seem to going for a certain art style, similar to a graphic novel. They’re not the most terrible graphics, but also not the most appealing. The animation of the characters during gameplay and cutscenes can also feel stiff and a bit awkward at times, leaving the game looking outdated and feeling like it’s more from the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era.

Overall the story of Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is the game’s biggest attraction. If players can endure the really rough frame rate and not overly exciting gameplay, there is an intriguing story underneath all of that.

Written by: Sammy Hanson