Deadly Premonition Origins review for Nintendo Switch

Just when you thought the Switch had every port the library continues to grow with even more relics of the past! Well Deadly Premonition is one such relic but only from the Xbox 360 generation and this is its debut on a Nintendo platform. So if you had never heard of the game until a sequel was announced in a recent Nintendo Direct with the surprise release of Deadly Premonition Origins on the same day then don?t feel too bad!

But the majority of people here to check out the review are gonna be longtime fans who just want to know if the game checks out before going back into the town of Greenvale. And for the most part it does! It runs at least at the same level as the 360/PS3 games from how I remember which does mean it has issues but nothing worse than its original release. I don’t own these versions of the game anymore so if you want a head-to-head comparison just check out Youtube.

So we can talk more about performance further down but for anyone wondering what a game with a scary title like Deadly Premonition is about then you might find a game that has more of a cult following for being an oddball mix of influences like Twin Peaks and Resident Evil with a bigger emphasis on the Twin Peaks part.

You will play as FBI agent Francis York who we?ll just call York. Everyone else does! So the town has seen a mysterious murder of a beautiful young girl and you are left to uncover the mystery of her death and more! And it may sound typical but the feeling of the game is anything but this with lots of weird characters and disjointed gameplay that is either dull open world exploration or survival horror inspired puzzle and combat sections. 

But just because the open world is dull does not mean it?s boring because it is here that the colorful residents in the town can be spoken to and the game?s charm is in full effect. There is always more detail than you would expect like weather and how the blinkers work in your car. Cutscenes are always fun to watch with characters who are almost parodies of themselves but you still want to keep going to see what happens next. If you like games like Shenmue then you might find this to be worth checking out!

Just know that this is a game which is technically more ambitious than the team was capable of so you will be playing something that loves its influences and does a charming job of stumbling through imitating them. And that also means you will still see the frame rate dying when in bigger environments and still have to adapt to the game?s at-times clunky choices.

But this also means the game is riddled with low quality assets and performance issues which were there in the original. This is on top of some ugly in-game assets and questionable audio mixes. But it’s all very playable and if you like what’s on offer for the story then you will understand how an unoptimized game is par for the course.

So if you want to know how well the original game is represented then the answer is pretty well! Because it?s still so cheesy! But there don?t seem to be any improvements to separate it and so you will be getting the console version instead of what the PC was capable of.

Still the fact that this game has always been janky is also part of Deadly Premonition?s territory and so this is less of a factor in my enjoyment than it might be for other games. No I won?t be giving it a free pass but all the important things in the game such as its charm and gameplay made the jump to Switch just fine and that?s really what counts. If you?re okay with some jank and want a very unique game then look no further than Deadly Premonition Origins!

Note: TOYBOX provided us with a Deadly Premonition Origins Switch code for review purposes