The pacing is more than enough of an excuse to give up on Deadly Premonition. Things don't get much better, even if you can convince yourself that the story and quirky sense of humor the game offers are enough to make up for all of the technical shortcomings. The graphics make this title look like a bad PS2 game. The battle chatter - particularly that of the enemies as they die - is downright awful. The controls are a bad version of what you get in Resident Evil - there is no free camera movement and you can't move while using weapons or reloading. Deadly Premonition gives about the worst first impression a game ever could. Actually, you'll probably turn the game off before you get that far. You'll search for clues and canvas the town, taking part in mini-games like car races or fishing to pass the time.

You'll wonder why Agent York has an imaginary friend named Zach that he talks to. You'll be introduced to Greenvale's quirky inhabitants.

The opening scene shows a set of twins discovering a mutilated body hung from a tree, you begin the game in a trippy room covered in fallen red leaves, and it doesn't take long for monsters from another dimension to start attacking you after a car crash. The surreal presentation kicks off straightaway. You play as Agent York, a city-slicker FBI agent who has ventured out to the quaint town of Greenvale to investigate a murder.

I don't think the final product could be any more disappointing. It looked like a Twin Peaks knock-off, and when I later learned it would be a survival-horror game I was intrigued. Where to begin? I've been following Deadly Premonition with interest for ages, ever since a wacky trailer was released at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007. Deadly Premonition isn't just outdated in its look. We of course would have been deluding ourselves. It's got an entire city to explore, citizens to talk to and side-quests to find all tucked inside a survival horror package. If Deadly Premonition were to release eight years ago, we'd probably be hailing it as the Shenmue-killer.

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