Detroit: Become Human (2018)

Detroit: Become Human — это игра Дэвида Кейджа. На этом, в принципе, можно и закончить.

Но Кейдж не делает игры. Он делает «интерактивное кино». Поэтому пара достоинств тут всё-таки найдётся: графон и актёрская игра. Андроид Конор и полицейский Хэнк Андерсон отыграны на отлично.

Ещё в игре действительно отличная нелинейность: после каждого эпизода показывают красивую, понятную и практически всегда очень разветвленную схему с выборами игрока.

И на этом всё хорошее заканчивается — начинается сценарий и режиссура!

Внезапно выясняется, что Detroit: Become Human это не научная фантастика, а мелодрама в фантастическом антураже. В игре 3 сюжетных линии: детектива-андроида Конора, андроида-революционера Маркуса и андроида-домработницы Кары. И каждая из них скатывается в невыносимо слащавую мелодраму.

Кейджу не важны андроиды, фантастика и проблемы ИИ, он опять хочет поговорить о людях. Поэтому андроиды «пробудившись», сразу и бесповоротно, начинают вести себя как люди. И всё равно игра до ужаса уныла. Потому что любимый (или единственно доступный?) Кейджу приём — давить на эмоции.

Линия Конора и Хэнка лучшее, что есть в игре. Но это не значит, что она хорошая. Хэнк — коп, который не любит андроидов и у которого есть тёмная тайна в прошлом и... всё. Весь характер. Всю игру он будет ворчать и бухать. А ещё он слушает джаз и метал. В конце Конор и Хэнк у меня подружились, Конор стал девиантом, и всё это так слащаво и позитивно и тоже не имеет отношения к андроидам и фантастике.

Маркус — унылейший революционер, который у меня пошел по пути мирного протеста. Хуй знает, как оно если устраивать дестрой, но и тут вкорячили любовную линию, пресную и вялую.

Кара — это прям совсем сопли. Домашний андроид, который сбегает с маленькой девочкой от её отца — вспыльчивого наркомана и алкоголика. Тут КАЖДАЯ сцена давит слезу. Причем линию Кары при желании можно слить в самом начале. Да и вообще, я посмотрел на ютюбе, у Кары 23(!) концовки, но по большей части они различаются тем как, кто и в какой момент умрёт. В моём случае Кара с девочкой добрались до Канады, но умерли от переохлаждения. Обидно, наверное, должно быть. А, ну и твист о том, что девочка на самом деле андроид тянут неприлично долго.

Больше всего в этой концепции поражает то, что у Кейджа андроиды боятся смерти. С точки зрения Дэвида наверняка всё логично: люди боятся смерти, андроиды стали как люди, значит они тоже боятся смерти. Вот только андроиды не забывают, что они андроиды! Маркус буквально собирает себя по кускам на свалке. Конора несколько раз за игру убивают и ему норм. Как только начинаешь задумываться над происходящим, понимая, что сценарий какая-то дырявая хуета, Кейдж херачит очередную эмоциональную сцену, какбэ говоря «не пытайся понять, почувствуй!».

Например, вся ветка Кары это СТРАДАНИЯ. Все вокруг сволочи, а хороший человек — толстая чёрная женщина, которая помогает андроидам, потому что «мой народ тоже угнетали». Вот это уровень всей местной драматургии. Вот так сложно и глубоко.

Про геймплей сказать практически нечего — это же интерактивное кино. Экшена в игре мало. За Коннора хотя бы дают поиграть в квест для умственно отсталых: ищи улики, используй режим детектива как в Бэтмане. У Кары экшена меньше всех и он совсем скучный и не зрелищный: убегания и QTE-стелс(!) Коннору выдали одну запоминающися погоню. Маркусу — клевый экшон ближе к концу, когда надо убегать с корабля.

В общем, Detroit: Become Human не то чтобы говно. Она делает больно иначе: ужасно разочаровывает, особенно, если ждал умной фантастики. Кейдж собирает историю исключительно из штампов и клише, виденных тысячи раз, и не пытается их как-то переосмыслить. Маркус идёт по центру города, собирая толпу последователей — играет торжественный хор. Конора вызывает начальник полиции — типичная сцена «разноса» из полицейских боевиков. Это даже не плохо — настолько пресно и банально. Иногда только поражаешься с каким восторгом Кейдж воспроизводит любимые банальности — будто подросток впервые прочитавший умную книгу и пихающий к месту и не к месту подчерпнутые оттуда мысли.

Detroit is a game that explores a content that I like and want to study more: Artificial Intelligence. I was a Middle/High School teacher, for around 8 years, however, after this horrible (and life changer) Pandemic crisis, I changed my career, being now on the field of Data Science.

Well, however, it is not only AI that caught my attention in this game, but some aspects of its plot. Let me bring a review for this game using a bit of my worldview (Reformed Christianity), or, like in my native tongue we say, taking from Ancient Greek: "kosmos vision" (= worldview).

My sinful creator

So, there are amazing machines in the world of the game! They have passed the Turing test, they are the best samples of Machine Learning models, etc. The biggest point, however, is that machines and such thematic are one of the best examples of the T, from TULIP, namely, Total Depravity. We got worried about Ultron trying to destroy humans; we fear the Revolution of the Machines... In most sci-fi themes guided by androids, robots, AI, etc., one thing is almost sure: humans are evil.

Detroit does not change the formula, and it is a point that I like. We are really bad and evil and sometimes we forget about it, because we always enjoy to find excuses and to think about ourselves more than what really we are. ;)

If there is something forgotten in some "Christian" circles around there, it probably is the teaching of sin. We are sinners and the events in Detroit shows how terrible humans are. Okay, you may be tempted to say: "Oh, but it is just to make us more empathetic for the machines", yeah, however, you probably will not deny that it is a piece of fiction that translates a little bit of our evil reality, right?

In Detroit, we see the humans through machine's eyes: their sinful creator. While humans have a Perfect and Good creator, we are per nature sinful, although - and it is a little interesting - always the machines seems to be very righteous and more noble than their weak creators, because the largest part of fictional movies, books, games, etc., about machines and robots, they tend to conclude: "If we want peace and a better world, the simple solution is to destroy all humans!".

I would like to set off fireworks for these machines! Yes! This is the problem of evil solved! How many times have I heard from friends: "If God is good, why does not He put an end to evil?". I would try to be more soft, but sometimes we can't... Anyway, if this is the question, let Him judge us and pay us back what we deserve, that is: eternal damnation. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

The love for the next and the danger of minorities

I am not a leftist, I mean, I do not (and I will never) agree with Marxist ideas, Communist/Socialist countries, etc., because such philosophy is immoral, full of envy, materialist and bringer of the most disastrous genocides of the world. Anyway, people tend to think that when we worry about our next, about the poor, the ones in need, etc., that it is part of a social program. The main problem is that when we transfer such things to the Government, we do two things:

1 - We want to do it to be freed from our responsibilities as a citizen (the problem belongs to the State, it has to solve it, its "problem");

2 - We forget that before the State think about it, at least in West, the Ancient Church and the Medieval Church did a lot for the poor, as it still does. Furthermore, I would prefer to engage myself with a serious institution (Médecins sans frontières, Open Doors, etc.) helping those in need, than with a institution taking my taxes for these things.

I am Brazilian, if you don't know a bit about my country, we have free healthcare, we have free education, etc. The result? Most riches families (and the poor too) pay for their children's education; basically any Brazilian works a lot to have a private healthcare plan (I got one recently and it is not cheap; I was without it for some years and now with my little son, it was terrible, I went two times to the clinic and only was received by nurses and never was received by a pediatrician). So, I am not willing to believe much in State, I believe that it should be smaller and interfering less in my daily life. But our biggest issue surely is corruption.

Okay, now that you know why most Christians don't enjoy a All-Powerful State and why we don't agree with Marxist ideas (not only for its perverse philosophy, but because our brothers and sisters paid with their lives the price for these 1984's States around there). However, now you also know that Christians love to think about social issues, because this is a question of love for the next.

So, this is another thing very interesting in Detroit. We see empathy (e.g.: Rose), and betrayal too (e.g.: Zlatko Andronikov). I will not explain the details for the sake of spoilers, but those who played it probably could see the drama with the decision of these two characters and how their response was totally different.

The game also reminds me about some terrible period of our history, that was the Holocaust! The manner the minorities of AI androids are treated shows us that one pacific group (considering you are playing it with a good heart, hehe) can be hated for no motive, just for fear. When we arrive in Rose's house, we discover this similar relation between this sad moment of history (the Holocaust) and the androids, as we remember that many people were also real life heroes for hiding Jews. There is also a possible reference with the ship Jericho and the gueto way of living for those who were persecuted.

I question my Creator, but I cannot question myself

It is funny how we see that machines become like humans when they think about themselves, about their identity. We can see how interesting was Carl encouraging Markus to develop himself using the beauty of the arts (although their paintings were terrible, hehe).

It is a bit issue nowadays... We don't understand who we are. For me, as a Christian, this is no mystery, however, depending how inside the chaotic materialistic philosophy some people may be, they panic and don't know who and what they are. In Detroit there was a scene that I was wondering about.... Hank was with Connor during a meeting with Kamsky, the creator of the androids. Hank asked Connor if it was nervous to meet its creator; what caught my attention was the comment of Hank, saying that if he could meet His Creator, he would blame Him (I don't know if this is the proper meaning in English, since I played it in my native tongue and the dub used a slang during this scene that I don't know in English, hehe).

This part goes closer to what I have written above, namely, that we want to blame God about our problems and about the evil in the world, but we don't stop and reflect that the problems and the evil in the world is our own fault. ¯_(ツ)_/¯²

It is easier to act as a crying baby and blame everyone, than stop and think about what we have been doing or what should we being doing. Perhaps it is a complex issue of Post-Modern Age, namely, most people, because the popular thought of materialism, can't understand their place in this universe (sure, how could they, since they think there is nothing special about it and that the life of a chicken is equal to a human one ¯_(ツ)_/¯³).

Righteousness and Death

Another point that caught my attention was to see how some androids became divergent. Markus, for example, thinks that the way Leo was treating him was 'unfair'. Others, had the huge feeling of fear of death (shutting down). We worry to what we are going to face... If our soul would be demanded back today, what could we give for it? 0.0

In this, these androids became the imago hominis. We fear death, since death is a huge consequence of sin. Furthermore, androids start to think about right x wrong. They understand that a human beating them for nothing and just for cruelty is really something evil and bad.

Moral is not some kind of social contract like Kant and others tried to teach us. Moral is external to humans, although we have the means to identify it. Why? Because if Moral did not exist, we should not be demanding it in universal scale. If I can use materialism to deny God and also argue that if there was a God, the world would not be unfair, how can I keep my materialism that teaches me that right x wrong don't exist?

Breaking our code

Maybe someone reading this review may think I am some crazy one. Well, I usually play games thinking about the plot and try to enjoy them, but as anything that I consume, I try to do it and find in these things aspects that may help me glorify Jesus' Name. For this is my way and worldview, surely, I am not saying anyone with any view should do it.

However, in my worldview, such game brought these reflections and I think it would be interesting for some people out there to read a Christian perspective, because materialism is so popular, so why more of the same?

Finally, those androids could break their codes. Unfortunately, we were coded with a perfect code, that was devastated by our sin; differently from those androids in the game, we can't just break our programming. The Good News is that - although our bad news are because the sad result in our programming - the Kind Engineer can solve the problem, by His Grace alone. ^^

Lastly, thank you if you had any patience reading this different review. =P Sorry for my English, since it is not my native tongue and I only use it for reading mostly.

Thank you~ Obrigado~

Everything I love about David Cage’s unsubtle, dumb but weirdly compelling storytelling is on show here. I loved the characters and the player choices available are genuinely really interesting and engaging. Of course the game is filled with unsubtle, over-the-top and completely unrealistic dialogue as well as tropy narrative bullshit between character moments as well...and I loved that too.

In the end what really hampered the experience for me is that I had tried to set up an interesting tragic arc for the characters but ultimately got an ending which felt more punitive than thoughtful. Instead of setting up an interesting ending, with shades of grey, I just kind of created a bitter tasting bad ending where everything turned sour for everyone. I should’nt have expected better...

Very nice plot, graphics and characters in general. The important matters that are present make you think and consider a lot of things. Very bad controls. The buttons don't respond sometimes when you push them and in this kind of games, that can be fatal.

In general I had a good time playing this although I struggled with some decisions and mechanics. A "Wow!" for the ending.

Gameplay: 4/5 Story: 4.5/5 Presentation: 4.5 /5

Though I have only played through the game once. Having looked at all the possible alternative routes the story can take, this game has a ton of replay value. It looks and sounds amazing. The score is by far one of the best in a game in 2018 and I would go so far as to put it in my top 10 of all time. This game does an amazing job at making you feel for the characters. You feel so much happiness for them when there is a success and so much fear for them when there is danger. What I would consider the first and second acts of the game are super solid. Once it gets to the third act there seemed to be minor holes in the story. Mainly moments where you stop and think, "wait how did you get here?" or " How did you know I would be here?". I feel like the studio may have had a rough time bring all the complexities of the story together at the end. Never the less they only have a minor impact on enjoying the overall experience. Also, take this review with some caution as it may have been my playthrough that created some confusing holes in the story. Maybe different choices would have had more consistency

Anybody who loves narrative-based gaming and not so distant sci-fi themes should definitely give this game a go.

Basis:

Story= plot progression, intrigue, characters, world

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

I wasn't sure I'd like this game at first, but I tried the demo and got hooked right away.

One fear I had even as I started the full game was that the outcomes of your actions would be pretty obvious--that it would be too easy to shape the story into something you specifically wanted. I was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case. The decisions you are offered are not always indicative of their outcomes, and often times reaching a goal that you personally set comes at the cost of other objectives within the story. The game is challenging in that respect, and I think that made it a lot more enjoyable.

The story is also pretty gripping, which was another surprise for me. I think that the android/ sentient machine genre has become a little stale, and while this game honors the conventions and cliches, there are plenty of surprises as well. Not only did I feel attached to characters who are arguably not truly sentient, but I found myself wondering for the first time while interacting with this genre what exactly makes us human, and what side I would be on in this situation. What's more, the story has obvious tie-ins to real life social problems, another thought-provoking facet I didn't expect.

That said, I've read some of the criticisms of David Cage's writing--namely, that his writing often stumbles into tropes that continue to stereotype minorities and to limit minority representation. I had the same thoughts at a few spots throughout the game, and I think that it's fair to point that this has become a pattern in his other games as well as media produced by other people. I think that did take away from the story some, but on the whole I think the game was enjoyable and got across the points it meant to.

EDIT: Then again, the story you get is based on your choices, so maybe I just got lucky in getting a good story? As I've been working on my replay, I've become less impressed.

With that disclaimer out of the way, my main criticism of the game is that it is not as replayable as I first thought. Once I beat game and saw the flowcharts, I felt that it was much easier to manipulate the game into doing what you want it do. On the one hand, this is necessary to complete the game, but on the other hand, it takes away from the game's surprises. The other problem is that while the beginning chapters have some impact on the later ones, the outcomes really just don't matter as much, so they're not as fun to replay. Since this is a game that you're supposed to replay a few times, I didn't think I'd get tired of it so fast.

EDIT: Apparently, as you replay the game, any changes you make in a previous chapter only save if you then play every chapter onward... Found out the hard way as I played a few early chapters, made some major changes, skipped just ONE chapter because I already had 100%, and then played 2 more chapters before realizing the changes didn't save. Now if I want to carry them forward I need to replay them all again... Which would be boring to do unless I make changes that I don't want to explore yet...

Replaying this game is so frustrating... But part of the point of the game is to replay it. I don't understand why they'd make it so difficult. Honestly brings the rating down for me, but I'm keeping 4 stars because I'd only bring it down to a 3.5...