Detroit: Become Human — Review
Detroit 2038, technology has advanced and the complex nature of “humanity” has evolved. Robotic beings, who take the form of humans and occupy day to day jobs; androids are a commodity as common as a smart phone. With a peaceful master and servant society, life couldn’t be simpler. Under the surface life isn’t as idyllic, increasing hate towards androids and the perplexity of human nature, your story is here. Peace or violence? Right or wrong? Make your choices and shape your own story.
Detroit: Become Human is a decision-based action adventure directed by David Cage and developed by Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls creators, Quantic Dream. Set in the not so distant future in the year 2038, Detroit: Become Human throws us into a technologically advanced society where androids are the norm for everyday function. With this future a distinct possibility I find this world fascinating and enthralling. The sci-fi world of fact and fiction has always been exciting to me but has also presented androids in a polarising light, with an array of film, tv and literature. Androids can be our next step to evolution or the downfall of humanity.
2038 has allowed the rise of this advanced technology but with this development comes the rise of disparity, people are losing their jobs to androids and in result becoming restless and aggressive towards them. Detroit: Become Human follows the narrative of three android characters: Connor, Kara and Markus. Your story starts with Connor who is a police prototype android who has been programmed to track down ‘deviants’; androids who have defied their programming. Deviants have been popping up in small numbers and have begun to establish a sense of human emotions and have become self-aware. These androids are no longer mindless machines that follow every order. To demonstrate this scenario, Connor’s first mission is to negotiate with a deviant who has killed people and taken a small child hostage and is a risk of killing himself and the girl.
To throw you into this complex and intricate game, you play as Connor and you are tasked to deal with this deviant. How you attempt this is up to you. You can go in head first with little information and attempt to talk the deviant down, or you can gather information and explore different options. If you choose the latter you can scan the environment for clues, which can allow you to reconstruct crime scenes, find valuable information or even a possible weapon for use against the deviant. Finding clues allows for more dialogue or action possibilities that can lead to different outcomes. This scene has six possible endings, with varying moral outcomes.
Detroit: Become Human intertwines the storytelling with all 3 characters. After playing a chapter as Conner you might swap to Kara; a housekeeper who cares for a child named Alice, or Markus who is a personal care android. Each of these unique characters begin to explore their own paths and must deal with conflicting situations. Even though all these characters were different, I felt a real connection with them and making decisions that affected them felt so much more challenging as I wanted to make the choices that I felt right for them. Decisions that you make can have affects for later in the game and can also affect your relationship with other characters, which in turn can create new outcomes. Once you complete a chapter, a flow chart will appear and show you what pathways you took and how many other pathways can be taken. Each playthrough takes about 10 hours to play and you can attempt several playthroughs and discover new choices and outcomes.
As well as this main gameplay, there are collectable magazines with articles that give you a glimpse into the wider world and what is happening in 2038. Completing chapters earns you points and these points can be used to buy music tracks, photo gallery images, video clips and characters. These extras are great to explore the in-depth detail behind this beautiful game and the effort Quantic Dream have put into it.
With two difficulty settings it adds a bit more of a challenge. The casual difficulty is more forgiving with quick time events (QTE’s). The use of the touchpad and motion control of the controller helped keep my mind alert instead of just pressing buttons to progress, it was really refreshing and would keep me alert.
I really felt connected to these characters and the decisions I made were not easy. I was always worried that I choice I made would not go how I planned. This story is very captivating and intense. Replaying this game is so rewarding and exciting because you get to try new things and essentially tell a completely different story.
Aside from a great captivating story, Detroit: Become Human is visually astounding, it has some of the best motion capture I have seen. The range of emotions that can be captured in these characters faces is staggering and realistic. I have never been to Detroit physically, but the way Quantic Dream seized the city makes me feel like I have been there, even with all the futuristic components. It’s a beautiful game to look at. Each character has the own soundtrack which are beautifully crafted and add to the overall sensory experience of this game. Quantic Dream have put a tremendous amount of work into this game and have improved on their “Kara Tech Demo” video from 2012. The six years waiting for this game was definitely worth it.
DBH has captured the sci-fi loving heart and has fueled my desire for this technological future. It has me captivated and questioning my own ideas and beliefs on how I would progress in this situation. I was forced to stop and consider my choices because it would drastically affect the characters and the story’s outcome. I was emotionally invested in this game and was driven to get the best results for my characters. To allow me to tell my own version of this story made me feel so in control. It is truly a wonderful piece of work and would highly recommend it to anyone. Being human is making decisions and decisions aren’t always easy.
9/10
