Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut

Got it cheap but be prepared to jump through hoops outside the game just to get it to run properly

Absolutely trash port does this cult classic a huge disservice. Unironically easier to play on rpcs3 or yuzu.

Let me be clear here in that I enjoy Deadly Premonition. I enjoy the setting, the quirky/weird characters. I own Deadly Premonition on my Switch and cleared it fully. Anyways, no matter what I do I can't seem to get this to run properly with a controller: I tried to use DPFix, I tried running window mode, I did everything suggested to the point I was already browsing forums from today to 10+ years ago and, besides the issues I seem to have, there are people STILL complaining their save game gets corrupted later on in this day and age. I actually enjoyed the playthrough on the Switch enough, I just wanted to get this on PC for the sake of the collection and quite honestly I'm not as cheap to the point that I refund to get back 1 euro but this game is the exception: I'm refunding, ignoring this version and making sure I never see it again. It's maddening that to this day this game hasn't yet been fixed to at least be playable without having to go into a rabbit hole of dead forums and links. If anybody's thinking of buying this, don't. Just watch a playthrough or download a PS3 emulator to play it. You'll get a subpar experience with this version AT BEST and you'll just be wasting your time if on the last few chapters your save craps out.

quite possibly one of the worst ports ever, but its always on sale for less than $2 so if u really wanna play and have literally no other way too then its doable with mods and caution

Intriguing, but not enough to tolerate the tremendous amount of bugs. The games in such state should not even be put on sale, and if players don’t speak up it’ll keep happening.

I know that people say this game is bad, but its actually very quickly charming and I was really enjoying it. However I can't recommend it on PC because of technical problems. This thing does not run, crashes constantly, and is impossible to fix.

straight up yorking it

Despite the many, many flaws with this game, it somehow ended up being one of the most enjoyable pieces of media I've experienced? Should I take that as a sign that I should really watch one of it's inspirations, Twin Peaks, in the future? Maybe! Back on topic though; the story? While not the grandest tale I've seen (or necessarily the best), was an enjoyable murder-mystery to try figuring out from beginning to end. And if it wasn't being a thrilling murder-mystery, it was being a surreal comedy (be it intentionally, or unintentionally because of the bizarre choice of stock sounds or other odd decisions from a directorial standpoint). The fictional town of Greenvale? Honestly hits close to home for someone like myself. This feeling is made even more heartwarming after viewing the real life pictures used for reference, which they included in the game's unlockable Extras menu! And the character? Don't even get me started! Just about every character I found entertaining and/or rather memorable, with only maybe two or three I wasn't too keen on. That all said I wouldn't say the game is a pretty one visually, even with the improvements you could add from community fixes. As for how the game plays? It's a survival horror game, but you're given an overabundance of resources (notably infinite food at specific spots to ensure you can't starve) and what little horror there is mostly comes from scripted events. Not to say there isn't any scares at all, just that most of it kind of falls flat for me. As bizarre the keyboard/mouse controls are (especially for driving vehicles), the pin-point accuracy you have while aiming is insane! Definitely makes combat easier in the dark world sections compared to using a controller. Though despite how much I adore Deadly Premonition and am willing to disregard a lot of it's gameplay flaws, there's a big elephant in the room I've yet to address: Bugs, crashes, and general instability. Even with a dedicated collection of community fixes and the compatibility manager being a godsend for running this game in 2026, it's still an incredibly buggy and crash-prone experience. This problem is further made worse by the game not allowing saving when revisiting earlier chapters until you finish them again, which you'll want to do if you missed any side-missions. Well now you [b]actually[/b] have something to be horrified of; better cross your fingers that no Runtime errors occur while trying to have the weather be rainy at night for those few particular side-missions! This instability issue is the sole reason for the negative grading on this review above all else, and it genuinely saddens me that the developers were never really able to truly fix this version. Heck, I don't feel the Director's Cut additions were really all that necessary to begin with. Maybe some of it will make sense once I've played Deadly Premonition 2, but as of the time of writing I've yet to get around to it. So yeah, if you're playing this game in 2026 I'd highly recommend seeking out the original Xbox 360 release if you're willing to tolerate the combat being far more frustrating. Can't vouch for the PS3 or Nintendo Switch versions, but I imagine they're slightly better alternatives than picking it up on Steam. If you [b]have[/b] to have it on Steam for whatever reason though, I'd highly recommend waiting for a heavy discount like I did as this release absolutely isn't worth paying $25 USD for.