Deadly Premonition

you hear that, Zach? getting the game to run properly on PC is a survival horror in itself

Let’s get one thing straight right out of the gate: Deadly Premonition is not a good game. The controls are a crime. The combat feels like it was added two weeks before launch by someone who had only seen guns in movies. The driving mechanics? I have piloted shopping carts with better handling. The graphics range from “late PS2” to “why does the rain look like glitter glue?” And I love it. I love it. I don’t love it in a “so bad it’s good” way. I love it in a “this is art and I will protect it with my life” way. This game is magic. It’s Twin Peaks fanfiction filtered through espresso, surrealism, and budget-induced delirium. It’s awkward, charming, deeply broken, and somehow manages to be one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had in gaming. You play as FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan—a man who talks to his imaginary friend “Zach” in the middle of conversations, ranks coffee on its emotional honesty, and casually comments on 80s horror movies while investigating brutal murders in a cursed forest town. And somehow? It works. The story is genuinely compelling. The characters are weirdos in the best way. And despite the technical mess, the game somehow manages moments of sincere beauty and emotional weight. Now, about my Steam playtime. It says like 3 hours. That’s a lie. That’s the Steam version being Steam. It crashed, froze, glitched out, and lost save data like it was part of a performance art piece. I played way more than that. At least 30 hours across reinstalls, alt-tabs, and weird workarounds. And I don’t regret a single second. Not even the time I got stuck in a wall. Twice. Is the game good? No. Is it great? Also no. Is it somehow essential? Absolutely. Deadly Premonition isn’t a game you play because it’s good. It’s a game you play because it stares into your soul, hands you a turkey sandwich with strawberry jam, and tells you to believe in the heart of the town. It’s terrible. It’s brilliant. I love it unconditionally. And if you don’t, that’s okay—Zach and I understand.

schizophrenic game sent from hell that makes you set the game to win98 compatibility mode and restart your pc everytime you boot it up so it doesn't run at 8fps

An ambitious, unconventional and gripping game held back somewhat by a low budget and technical problems. This game will really fight you at times and you've got to push on. Twin Peaks X RE4 X Silent Hill X a lot of other things. If you want a truly unique experience I cannot recommend this enough.
Quick summary of what I used: DPFix patch (settings tweaked to taste), Deadly Premonition Controller+ Steam input layout (this one fixes the right stick. The game also has issues with triggers, so swaps trigger and button functionality). Set Win95 compatibility for the games .exe's and then restart your PC so you can up/down further (You can get by without it, but you NEED that aiming later on to beat that game). See PCGamingWiki page for details.
PRO TIPS
- Save save save save save save. Save often.
- Back up your saves often. As often as you want, for me that was every 2 hours or so, just in case.
- The game has a tendency to crash and be hard locked during a certain chapter (8 or 9 roughly? Smoke cigs inside the diner before leaving. See PCGW.) Keep all your saves just in case!. Your save is in the game's main folder with the .exe, in the file "savedata" called dp.
- YOU CAN LEAVE STORY MISSIONS WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE. They just take place the next day, so don't feel bad about leaving them for side stuff. No Dead Rising "SCOOP LOST!" here. However, you CAN miss side missions, say... if anything happens to who gives you them...
- Some story missions "flow together", so you can't do side stuff with certain people between them.
- Side missions, there's a great steam guide for them listing how to find, start and do them:
- DO MISSION 4 (Dumbbell), THEN 5 (get a flower when it's raining) ASAP! It unlocks fast travel to anywhere you've been before with the Radio. YOU REALLY WANT THIS.
- The Spirit Maps you can buy from The Milk Barn store (talk to the rocker bro!) lead you to brief combat gauntlets and reward you with infinite ammo upgraded weapons, get them.
- Do side missions 24, 23, then 25 (they are rather short, don't worry, a cinch with fast travel too) to get increased item slots.
- Play darts and beat the high score at SWERY65 to earn increased weapon slots.

I hate this game. It drives me crazy. This game will truly test your patience and annoy the hell out of you. It's a pain to even get it working. I had to download someone else's save-file to get past a crash that kept happening early in the game. Some parts are almost impossible to get through on a mouse and keyboard, at least with the aiming bug that I could never get rid of. I recommended using the auto-aim feature pretty much all the time, unless you start to feel bad for shooting enemies in the crotch repeatedly.
This game will make you want to slam your head into a wall. Sometimes it will be out of frustration, other times boredom. Most often however, it will be out of wonder (or confusion?) at just how ridiculous the writing and directing is.
Play this with a friend while inebriated and you'll be in for a time.

The game is great! There's nothing else quite like it! It's like a Twin Peaks Inspired detective based immersive sim where you play as a strange FBI agent solving mysteries in a small town. It's free roaming but, the main missions are linear. Kinda reminds me of Heavy Rain except that you can drive around and shoot things and the story has a more supernatural bent. I'd have to detract some points because it crashes every now and then but, i'd still say to get the game on sale if it looks like something that interests you. It's frequently on sale for like 2 bucks and I can think of a lot worse ways to spend that amount of money.

F...K in the coffee. Fantastic story in my opinion. But holy shit you better be prepared to deal with an absolute headache getting this game to be stable even with all the fixes that are out there. Make sure you back up your save, a lot.