Detroit: Become Human Review

Detroit: Become Human (PS4)

Viva La Robo-Revolución -

Score: 8.5/10

I feel like I’m in the minority of people who like choice-based adventure games. Games revolving around choice have been on the rise in recent years, and they have a bit of a stigma attached to them. More and more, I hear people call them, “movies with buttons” and I don’t understand the distaste. I find this genre fun and engaging. As long as the story is entertaining, its worth the time investment. This latest installment, Detroit: Become Human, comes from the company who set the standard for modern adventure games, Quantic Dream. The end result is tons of fun, if not a little flawed.

        Quantic Dream made its mark on the adventure game genre with games such as Heavy Rain, and Beyond: Two Souls. For those who don’t know the basic mechanics of these games, each center around multiple playable characters all weaving a story separately until the narrative (molded by the player) brings them together. These games aren’t known for being action-packed, they are more focused on player choice. Some choices cause a character to die, others change their personality completely over time. Since these games don't feature revolutionary mechanics outside of the branching story, most companies who make them will give the graphics stylized looks in order to stand out.
         As much as I love them,  Quantic Dream is the Coldplay of the gaming industry. Their chosen art form is extremely well made, I enjoy them whenever they come back around, but they are relentlessly fun to diss on the Internet. Heavy Rain, in particular, was torn to shreds by Internet forums, ultimately turning some of the more cringy moments into memes. Despite the brutal honesty, I still love Quantic Dreams games.

                                                                                    -Heavy Rain (2010)

         Detroit: Become Human is set in the city of Detroit in the year 2038. Synthetic humans or “Androids” have been introduced into society and have begun to take over certain jobs. This has led to much controversy and hatred towards Androids, leading to riots and political unrest. The player takes control of three different Androids: Connor, Kara, and Markus. These three have their own stories to tell and eventually come together to bring about an Android revolution for equal rights as they start to become self-aware. Or they might not. It all depends on what you make them do, and how human you want these three Androids to become. 

         There are many different endings for Detroit. Around forty-five total from what I could find. While I did not see them all by any means, the endings I found were compelling and filled with variety. Very few of the endings were the same ending with one tiny detail changed. The choices a player can make to achive these endings range from game-changing to minuscule. They even go as far as to change the main menu. The main menu is overseen by a Scarlett Johansson look-a-like android, and she tries to tell you what to do when you click certain options. Her mannerisms are so lifelike it's scary. Certain aspects of her personality are changed depending on what you do in the game. Once, when I first logged in for the day, she thoroughly convinced me that I had lost my save data as a joke. Her delivery was so human I became legitimately distressed before she told me she was joking. That is just the tip of the iceberg with what this game lets you manipulate, too.

           Choices surrounding the main characters are often deep and meaningful. Markus can turn into a pacifist or a tyrant, Conner can be complacent or become a revolutionary, and Kara into a borderline abuser or loving mother. These are pretty large leaps, but every character has their moment to shine in order to make these changes happen. Kara was by far the most compelling. Her journey from maid to mother of an abused child is unique in almost every way. Connor and Markus are fine characters, but I got serious Blade Runner and I, Robot feels from them respectively. 

           A new mechanic included in this game is something Quantic’s games could have benefited from years ago. The game features a flowchart connected to each chapter. This is an overview of how the level went for you and shows exactly what choices. Other choices you missed are grayed out, but simply knowing that the choice is there often times led me to want to go back and try again. A replay feature is also available from the main menu, allowing you to replay a chapter to experiment as much as you like. You can also choose to overwrite the progress of the current game if you got an outcome you didn’t want. However, as Scarjo-bot will tell you, this is not the preferred play style.

Where the game falls the flattest is in control. The quick-time based controls return from other Quantic Dream games, with the added bonus of middling motion controls. The quick-time events require players to mash or hold down certain buttons and are easy enough to handle. However, the use of motion controls connected to simple actions like pouring a glass of water or opening a heavy door really bogged the experience down. This became more frustrating when they were attached to a critical moment in the story. One or two of my choices were made for me because I failed the motion controls, despite very clearly moving the controller up and down. This turned from minor annoyance to a severe issue when it led to my character being killed.
      On top of that, each character, despite the fact they are meant to be as human-like as possible, still move like robots. Each of Quantic Dreams games has had weird character movement like this, and its starting to show its age. Seeing a character walk like a Morrowind NPC in a 2018 game just isn’t doing it for me anymore.
Detroit has a lot to say, and it achieves that goal well. The use of choice has always been something Quantic Dream has built into their games, and despite the control hiccups, I still find myself enjoying each run through the story. The characters are compelling, the way you can change their personality rivals any other type of adventure game on the market, and I feel that every gamer would benefit from listening to what David Cage and his team have to say about our impending future. Just don’t listen to anything ScarJo-bot has to say. She cannot be trusted.