10 Video Games Better Than The Sum Of Their Parts

There are some moments in video games you never forget. For this writer, one of them was loading up Deadly Premonition on the XBox 360, seeing the opening cutscene start and thinking "Good grief, did this start life as a launch title for the Dreamcast?"

Low poly trees, boxy cars and protagonist Francis York's stretchy-faced character model gave the impression of a game that started development in the late nineties and wound up trapped in development hell for 10 years. This feeling persists in the game's opening act - a combat-heavy corridor crawl that feels like a programmer was told to copy Resident Evil 4, but was only given a grainy, 20 second YouTube clip of Capcom's masterpiece to take inspiration from.

Yet once Deadly Premonition opens up and lets you explore its world, all is forgiven. Set in the Lynchian town of Greenvale (one of the side quests is literally a sub-plot from Twin Peaks), Deadly Premonition's cast of misfits carries the game. From the shy, retiring Detective Thomas to the gas mask donning millionaire Harry Stewart, Deadly Premonition does a fantastic job making you care about its core cast so that when the knife twists, it hurts in the way all the best stories do.

Much like the David Lynch work it takes inspiration from, Deadly Premonition asks you to look past the surface and appreciate the beauty, fragility and tragedy of the people at the core of its story. That it succeeds in evoking the legendary director's spirit so well is testament to the remarkable work done by director SWERY and his team.

(RIP David Lynch, and thank you for inspiring this and countless other works. The world is a more interesting place because you were in it).