Development on Deadly Premonition's setting was guided by an intention to imbue the game with a sense of realism: the non-player characters follow an individualized 24-hour schedule, and the scale of Greenvale is intended to replicate that of a rural American town.

Deadly Premonition is a survival horror game set in an open world environment and played from an over-the shoulder third-person perspective.

The game's objective is to guide the player character, FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan, as he investigates the identity of the Raincoat Killer, who is responsible for a murder in the rural town of Greenvale.

[1] York receives in-game money for numerous actions—both for finishing levels and for minor events, such as shaving his beard or changing suits; he can also be fined for poor performance, such as wearing a filthy outfit, which attracts flies.

[2] York often has a specific time frame for investigating sites and interviewing non-player characters; however, if he misses the timeslot, the player may simply try again during the next day without a penalty.

[6] Francis York Morgan investigates the murder of 18-year-old Anna Graham (Melissa Hutchison) in the rural town of Greenvale, Washington, in the United States.

[8] York generates considerable friction with his dismissive attitude toward the locals, bizarre demeanor, and tendency to interrupt conversations to deliver asides to an unseen person referred to as "Zach".

The original one, who inspired the folklore, went on a killing spree after the United States military released gas made from the red seeds into the town in 1956, causing the residents to temporarily experience an uncontrollable, murderous rage.

[16] George confesses to being the murderer and has gained shape-shifting powers as the result of eating the red seeds; in the ensuing fight, York kills him.

In the closing scene, the spirits of York, Emily, Thomas, and the Greenvale murder victims are seen happily residing in a parallel plane of existence.

[6] Several video game journalists noted that the title shared strong similarities with the American supernatural television series Twin Peaks.

[6][22][24] Rainy Woods was cancelled soon after its debut,[6] due to considerable "technological difficulties" with the two platforms' hardware, including memory allocation and lighting.

[23] The developers traveled to the United States and noted the width measurements of the various billboards, railroad crossings, and roads to create a sense of realism for the town; the angles of the sun and weather patterns were also calculated.

[23] The team also had to cut back on the number of objects run in the PhysX engine, which initially included hair, clothing, and fishing rods among others, to preserve the frame rate.

[28] In his retrospective on Deadly Premonition, the lead planner Keiji Teranishi considered its soundtrack a strength, helping to add depth to the game's world and characters.

"Miss Stilletto Heels", the second theme of the game, and "Red Tree", a song meant to symbolize madness, proved more difficult to create, particularly its improvisation section.

[23] Teranishi was particularly pleased with Kramer's performance as York, remarking that he "brought even greater depth and style to the lead role than Access Games had envisioned".

[33] The director's cut of Deadly Premonition was developed by ToyBox Inc.[34] In 2013, Rising Star published it for the PlayStation 3 in Europe and North America on April 30,[35] and in Australia on May 16.

[36] The same year, Rising Star published it for Microsoft Windows on October 29,[37] and its non-configurable resolution for the PC edition was fixed by a fan-made patch.

[38] Deadly Premonition: Red Seeds Profile: Complete Edition, a Japanese version of the director's cut, was released for the PlayStation 3 in March 2015.

[39] Also that year, NIS America published a limited collector's edition for the PlayStation 3 on November 24; it includes a hardcover artbook, soundtrack CD, a 54-card deck inspired by the game, and a voucher for the downloadable content.

[44] An interactive guide, Deadly Premonition The Director's Cut: The Official Visual Companion was released by Rising Star Games exclusively for iPad in October 2013.

[7][52] A reviewer for Edge wrote: "The beauty of Deadly Premonition is that it's a straightforward whodunnit viewed through the cracked prism of an unreliable narrator, conjuring an atmosphere of suspicion and confusion throughout".

[46] Destructoid's James Stephanie Sterling appreciated the game's pop culture references, humor, and the dialogue, which they found to be hilarious and befuddling.

[54][65][3][52] According to IGN UK, the interaction with characters and uncovering the details of their fictional lives helped to create a sense of emotional engagement with them that lasted after the game ended.

[4][50][54][65] According to 1UP's Frank Cifaldi, Deadly Premonition's combination of similar gameplay to Shenmue, The Last Express, Resident Evil 4, and the Grand Theft Auto series, proved to be "a 'jack of all trades, master of none' scenario",[50] a sentiment that Erik Brudvig of IGN US agreed with.

[62][69] This cult success was attributed to how the game's "wildly mixed critical reception and headline-making strangeness got people talking" by Will Herring of GamePro.

[59] Critics have noted multiple allusions to Twin Peaks; among them are "its well dressed FBI agent, rural Pacific Northwest setting, and a healthy dose of woodsy supernatural mythos".

[73] The character Emily has also been noted to visually resemble actress Naomi Watts, who starred in a film directed by David Lynch, Mulholland Drive, and later appeared in Twin Peaks: The Return.

[80] Set in 2019 in Boston, the plot focuses on Aaliyah Davis, an FBI agent who reopens an old investigation; her story intertwines with that of Francis York Morgan, fourteen years prior in the city of Le Carré, which is based on New Orleans.