Detroit: Become Human (2018)

Gorgeous and consistent visuals, realistic character designs, impressive mo-cap animation and facial expressions.

The characters are all solid, though they vary in quality. Connor's story is widely regarded as the best part of the game, while Kara's and Markus' are more divisive. Side characters are endearing when meant to be, infuriating when meant to be, and a broad range between. My personal favourites were Connor and Hank and their found family buddy cop dynamic, Simon and his quiet support, and Ralph and his zany unpredictability.

I think the writing is overhated. Sure, the racism allegories are clumsy and obvious, but I'll take well-meaning in-your-face anti-racism sentiments over none at all. The branching paths are incredible, and the flowcharts after each chapter make it clear to see how much work has gone into diverging playthroughs and choices. I do think some things that were cut are a shame, though, such as the Markus/Simon relationship, especially as they left certain scenes leading up to it in which can be jarring. In the same vein, the fact that meeting North on the rooftop and being vaguely friendly to her (as in, literally any response that isn't straight-up leaving before the conversation begins) immediately shoots you to "Lovers" status even if you were rivals or mere acquaintances before was bizarre at best.

If you're not a fan of QTE sequences and Telltale-esque gameplay loops, you probably won't be a fan of it here, but fortunately I am so I enjoyed it. The beginning of Kara's story can be quite slow (though oddly doing chores in-game is way more therapeutic than doing them in real life), but frankly the beginning of most games are slow on replays, so that's not all that surprising. Some of the QTE sequences are genuinely fast-paced and exciting -- a favourite that sticks out in my mind is a chase scene over the rooftops with Connor which was so fun to play I actually reloaded to do it again.

I will say, though, that the plot twist with Alice was extremely stupid and completely ruined the entire point of her and Kara's story arc up to that point. No clue who thought that was a good idea.

As far as "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" games go, Detroit: Become Human does a lot to make your choices truly matter. I think it's probably the best of it's kind in that regard. I especially like the flow chart and checkpoint system you can see at the end of each chapter. Kara's story stands out to me especially, there's a lot of little choices you can make whereas the other two's storylines boil down to one major choice.

I really like how you often get more agency in the action sequences as compared to something like Until Dawn where controls beyond QTEs is usually wrenched away from you as soon as the action picks up.

The soundtrack is amazing, particularly Kara's theme. The violins in that piece are some of the most beautiful and heart wrenching I've ever heard. The choice to have three separate composers is a nice touch as well. The realistic graphics are amazing, the overall aesthetic is very pleasing and well-executed.

Now for the story (spoiler warning). I feel like there are a lot of writing issues that stem from the main theme. Androids are a blatant allegory for American slavery (and also Jews?) and I feel like this premise is inherently flawed. It requires any opposition to androids be framed as villainous and wrong, as they are being equated with slave owners. "Robots are stealing our jobs" is a valid point, and there's even a scene showing that androids have to stand in the back of busses while the humans sit in the front. This isn't oppressive, it's just practical. They're machines that don't get tired. The story even states that androids aren't inherently sentient, they only become deviant when treated poorly (or when ol' Markus Luther King gives them the magic touch). This kind of implies some weird things considering the allegory.

Markus' storyline suffers the most, as he is meant to be the civil right's hero or Moses figure. The scene where he's turning androids deviant is borderline comical.

Kara's storyline suffers a lot as well, as her storyline is an allegory for the underground railroad, and includes an honestly kind of upsetting allusion to the Holocaust. I find the problematic allegory overall easier to ignore here. The more prominent issue is the Alice twist, which I have somewhat mixed feelings about. I think that the human-android relationships are the most interesting part about this game, and the realization that Alice is also an android removes that component. It also makes earlier efforts to keep her fed, warm, and comfortable feel hollow. I can however appreciate what they're going for, with the player's feelings about androids being called into question. I just feel it was sloppily executed.

Connor's storyline is the standout here, as he isn't really a direct allegory for anything. His inner conflict about becoming a deviant himself while he tracks them down is extremely compelling, as is his relationship with Hank. He doesn't completely escape bad writing, though. The game has a clear agenda about which side you should choose. Hank will always become sympathetic to androids no matter what you do. I dislike how his narrative boils down to one choice, become deviant or don't, and almost no one is going to naturally choose not to deviate. The fact that 'messing up' in the cases makes deviation more difficult proves this point.

Overall, I think the game has so much potential that it's painful for me to admit its issues. It's upsetting that the most mechanically successful "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" game fails where most others succeed: story.

When something like the Witcher three or Mass Effect tells a great story, it’s an epic about the destruction of the universe and one hero who stands between existence in the void. This game is an equally touching story about the personal tragedies that a series of androids experience under an abusive human regime. It includes a number of moments that are exciting or touching or funny; all of the elements you want in any story. Additionally, it does a very good job of making your choices matter, up to having the main characters die during the story while forcing the narrative to continue.

But it steps on itself first and foremost with some annoying and awkward controls. The game is at least forgiving of your mistakes but some actions require a little annoying finger yoga. I should say that this mild criticism is offset by a very cool system for planning out moves that let you predict which move will be the most effective. It adds to the analytical 'androidness' of the protagonist characters. Unfortunately, other parts of the game detract from this.

The strained allegory of race is handled with the subtlety of a sledgehammer strapped to a subwoofer. Funny enough, I feel like, in combination with class and gender, someone so inclined could write an academic paper about this game. I've never played a game where the sort of literary critique I got used to doing in college seemed appropriate. Nevertheless, this choice by the devs hurts the sense of immersion. The idea that android design would imitate human race-based social structure makes no sense, even within the universe the game creates for itself. Especially since the game clearly shows that the outward appearance of androids is itself a choice on their part.

Then the androids start behaving very much in an unandroid manner. I assume that’s the developers intent; it is titled Become Human after all. But for someone raised on the positronic brain and Star Trek’s Data, it messed with my suspension of disbelief to have human emotions, human failings, and human suffering so universally present in these machines. For instance, why would a group of revolutionaries not choose to forgo their 'skin' altogether and appear as who they are? As the game progresses, the clear references to events in human history, up to the use of concentration camps, really drove home that this was an allegory about humans and not a story about androids.

And that was my biggest problem with the game. It felt like I was playing a story, not immersing myself. The parallels to humanity made it more of a moral lesson and less of its own thing. Which is a shame because it has plenty of elements that could add up to a great game. The way the devs used choices and a relationship mechanic to alter the story was really well done. My playthrough, at least, ended with horrible tragedies on both the personal as well as the social level with the story set for either a sequel or (more likely) the player simply imagining where the story could go from there.

It worked perfectly on the Steam Deck. I never messed with the graphics settings or controls once and it ran fine out of the box. It felt a bit short for 60 gigs of space but the visuals were pretty awesome so I can’t complain too much. Especially the Cyberlife Tower at the end. What a cool building!!

Never before has a game truly pissed me off like Detroit Become Human. I dont even know where to start. Is it the absolutely braindead analogy that is so blisteringly obvious that even a child born without a brain could realise? Is it the smug, condescending attitude that 'Talentless Hack' David cage has in all of his games that permeates this one also like a shit-covered corpse's stink cloud? Is it the borderline racist ideology to the analogy the entire game is built around? Is it the shockingly poor lack of any subtetly, like The World's Smartest Retard David Cage thinks you have the brain of a child? Thinking of this game makes me too angry to write a proper review but trust me when i say this is a game written by a complete failure of a human being, a game whose sole purpose is for white people to jack themselves off at how not racist they are, a game with A POINT! The point being 'racism is bad' and literally nothing else. Good job David Cage you did it again, digging your hole of embarassing ineptitude even deeper. How much longer will braindead idiots froth at the mouth playing your horrible video games until they realise you couldnt tell a coherent story to save the life of the entire universe from heat death of the sun exploding. This man has probably done more damage to the critical standards of the entire medium of video games as a whole then anyone else. The fact we let this pathetic loser of a writer continue to be criticalyl and commercialy succesfull should be embarassing

The graphics are nice. At least. Connor (who adlibbed most his lines to free himself from the oppresive regime of Mental Retard David Cage) has a nice arc. But everything else- and i mean everything- is bad at best and maddeningly awful at worst

sigh...

I always admired what David Cage wanted to do with video games, the cinematic, multi-layered storytelling with choices, consequences, and ekhm... emotions... Unfortunately the self-indulgent writing and lack of self awareness and subtlety is in full force in this game. Just like in Beyond, every character is either the worst fucking asshole on the planet, or the sweetest, innocent soul and David Cage manipulates you from the first moments, with the over the top abusive father, to very blatant and heavy handed takes on discrimination and what it takes to 'be a human', it's all very rudimentary, and i never cared about any of the characters for a second.

Quantic Dream always impressed with it's tech, and this game is no different it looks great, even though I really don't like the vision behind this game, it just looks like a generic sci-fi drama for teenagers, like 'the host' or 'divergent' or some shit, there's a lack of imagination and fun with this concept of the future, no risks with the designs of androids, it's just a really glossy and boring world... I'm sure people that worked on this game are insanely talented artists, i just wish they had someone with more out there approach to lead them. Also the music in this game is all over the place, sometimes it's absolutely great and fits the tone well, and sometimes it's waay too distracting and overly dramatic.

The gameplay is standard Cage: shake your controller to wash hands, swirl a knob to open doors, press x to stop racism, etc. etc. you all know it...

All and all, it's just another disappointment, it's interesting to see how many people enjoy this game (nothing wrong with that), i'm really fascinated with David Cage and how he keeps making the same mistakes and doesn't evolve as a writer at all... but i will keep playing his games out of morbid curiosity, and as long as Sony keeps throwing money at him...

LIKE

• Incredible story range based on player choice; flowsheet was awesome addition
• Each character/story has it's own feel; no weak link and incredible performances
• Oftentimes approaches photorealism with it's incredible visuals

DON'T LIKE

• Needs more involved gameplay; QTE's aren't enough
• Some awkward animations occasionally pop up
• Trite overall story; feels done before
• Didn't feel that compelled to jump back in to see other paths