One of the best stories in any game I've ever played.
The faults of this game are numerous but first and most irritating to me is the sound. At times it goes almost completely quiet when someone is talking and you are forced to rely upon the subtitles to know what was said. At other times, the background music drowns out the voices and you are forced once again to read what is being said. And even the subtitles aren't perfect. The sound effects for the game are really, really bad. Every low level creature makes the same sounds throughout the entire game and when you're in a vehicle and are making it go fast, there is some ungodly noise that is produced.
Since I mentioned driving, let's talk about that part of the game now. Most of the vehicles at the beginning of the game are extremely slow and drive like the front end is out of alignment. You will be driving along in a straight line down a straight road and the vehicle will make an abrupt turn. None of the game play controls are great but driving is by far the worst aspect of game play. At least towards the middle of the game you can buy other vehicles that are faster and control just a tiny bit better, but driving anywhere in this game can not be described as a pleasant experience.
The other controls in the game aren't horrible but they aren't new or original either. The rest of the controls in the game are like playing the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games. You can only attack when your character is stationary. But unlike those games the items you pick up along the way are around in abundance and there are places where you can buy even more. So, while this game does fit into the horror genre, it is by no means "survival horror".
I saved the last short-coming of the game until the end because its the one most people will pick up right away: the visuals. Graphically this game de-evolved into a previous generation of consoles. Actually I've seen better graphics on the previous generation consoles. Characters facial expressions don't change very much no matter what emotion they're supposed to be showing and the scenery has block-y looking edges. This is really apparent when driving. The yellow line in the center of the road comes to points in the curves.
I've talked a lot about the things that detract from the game but only mentioned in passing the strong points. Lets get to those now. The character interactions are one of the strong points of the story. At times they are funny. At others they are down right sad. Yet others are extremely disturbing. Just when you think you've got the game figured out, here comes another twist that sends what you thought you knew go flying right out the window. Not many points of the story itself is entirely original, (the game is keen on pop culture references and uses the different aspects it has taken from other sources and uses them as an homage) but put together the way they are the creators made something new and original by using those pieces in an entirely new way. Sort of like the chefs on Iron Chef take an ingredient they're given and use it to make dishes that are fit into their area of expertise. The makers of this game are certainly fans of B-rate horror movies like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and the quirky TV series Twin Peaks and taking parts from each made a unique story that pulls you towards the finale more forcefully than a fat kid snatching the last doughnut from the box.
Overall Deadly Premonition was a good game playing experience. Its just a shame that the creators of the game didn't know as much about making video games as they did about 1980's movies. if they had, this one could've been great.