This is a very hard game to recommend. If you are a fan of Twin Peaks this is basically a videogame adaptation: The protagonist is Dale Cooper if he was a cinephile with a smoking addiction and Diane was called Zach, the plot literally starts with an FBI agent going to a rural town because a teenager was killed and her murder is linked with a serial killer case, and there is even a Red Room (they didn't even bother to change the name lmao) and a bootleg log lady.
The dialogue is really awkward and most of the time doesn't even make any sense (especially because the English translation isn't exactly perfect, there are typos and grammatical errors everywhere, but nothing that will ruin your experience), just like the characters, something that actually helps with the Twin Peaks vibes and is one of my favorite parts. The story also gets really dark and graphic, and I was shocked by many of the events and plot twists that happened, just like when in Twin Peaks they showed how awful the life of Laura Palmer really was (which they also copied into the game lol).
And the knock-off version of Annie Blackburn is actually way better than her original counterpart, as she is introduced since the beginning and has her own backstory and personality, instead of being just an unnecessary love interest for the protagonist added at the last second. Also, the second half of the plot is actually tense and interesting unlike most of the second season of Twin Peaks, so the game improves in some of the weaker elements of its main inspiration!
Aside from the Twin Peaks elements, the gameplay is a mix of Silent Hill and GTA: You explore a big town where you can talk with NPCs, help them with sidequests, clean your clothes, shave, eat, sleep, drive through the entire map, visit bars, and much more.
But sometimes you enter an alternate world where everything is bloody, creepy and there are monsters that try to kill you, like a killer in a raincoat that you have to avoid. So you have to solve the case and find hints while trying to stay alive from monsters, but you also have to go to bed and eat or you will pass out, a combination that shouldn't work, but it actually does!
So far, it sounds like a really good game, especially if you are a Twin Peaks fan and like horror games, but that's because I hadn't mentioned any of the millions of problems it has. For starters, all the versions are unplayable without fan patches, especially The Director's Cut version.
It crashes a lot, there are some chapters where you have to restart your PC to be able to continue, the normal coloration is so bright and awful that driving is almost impossible and it even hurts looking at the screen for more than 30 minutes, and you will find lots of annoying bugs. I had to troubleshoot for like 2 hours until I was able to play without hurting my eyes in the process, and suddenly I had a problem where using the map would cause the game to crash, so I had to troubleshoot yet again for like 15 minutes to fix it.
Also, the controls aren't very good. Aiming is very limited and awkward, which is especially annoying during the boss fights that happen near the end, the car physics can be a nightmare when you have to be quick or drive through many curves, and sometimes you do 180 rotations or lose control without any reason, which can make sidequests where you have to go quickly from point A to B way harder than they should.
And NPCs and sidequests are tied to the game time and the weather, so sometimes you have to sleep for 3 days straight just to be able to do a sidequest or find an NPC in a specific zone, something really clunky that ruins the realistic atmosphere the game tries to have. This is worsened by the fact that some NPCs have multiple sidequests, but you can't do them in the same chapter, so you have to complete one, follow the main story until you get to a new chapter, and complete the second sidequest, which can be annoying when they live in the middle of nowhere.
However, doing sidequests is really helpful, as you unlock items that make the whole experience a lot more bearable, like a radio that lets you teleport to any building you have already explored, a totem that recovers your HP slowly, weapons with unlimited ammo, and more quality of life additions that you should get as soon as possible if you value your time and sanity.
All these elements can ruin your experience, something totally understandable, as it's unacceptable that a game that you bought with your hard earned money needs multiple tutorials just to be playable, losing your progress for a random crash is extremely frustrating, and the mechanics and gameplay can be more annoying than fun, and most people don't play videogames to be miserable.
But if you have enough patience to overcome these obstacles, you will find a unique experience that oozes effort and passion everywhere. There are lots of small details that show the developers actually cared about the game and loved working on it.
The characters are extremely charming and memorable, especially the protagonist, who can talk about real-life movies and music in depth while detailing his favorite elements, which feels just like listening to your best friend explaining the plot of their favorite TV show.
The story is actually amazing and there are plot twists and character development that hit me HARD, especially the ending, which I found absolutely beautiful. And I didn't mind the far-from-perfect gameplay, as most of the time was serviceable enough, and the frustrating moments were few and far between.
In conclusion, I absolutely loved the game, but I would only recommend it to diehard Twin Peaks fans that can patch and mod something like Fallout New Vegas without going insane in the process.
