Detroit: I, Demo

Last week, Quantic Dream released the demo for David “I know Ellen Paige” Cage’s latest adventure game called Detroit: Become Human. The game is set in the near future where domestic, human like Androids are not only a reality but are also beginning to question their place in society.

The demo is just one level from the full game entitled “The Hostage”, where the player controls Connor, an Android hostage negotiator working for the Detroit Police Department and one of the central protagonists. Together with the player, Connor must secure the release of a young girl who is being held at gunpoint by her family’s malfunctioning Android.

We don’t get off to a great start; the player must pass a speech check with the on-site police captain to gain some initial information. This mostly gets the player nowhere, making the odds of Connor successfully negotiating the little girl’s release from the get-go either middling or poor. Thankfully, there’s plenty of evidence to peruse in order to improve your chances – hooray!

Quantic Dream, 2018

You have all the time in the world to collect clues and recreate the timeline of events prior to the hostage situation on the roof. However, I was hoping that there would be an element of tension during this phase, such as a time constraint, to make the scene more challenging. Most of the player’s findings will improve your chances of resolving the situation peacefully, but some player choices here will give them more options. Picking up a discarded gun will open up a lethal takedown option to the player for example, and it is implied this choice will have consequences for the overarching narrative of the game – a warning comes up on screen stating that Android’s cannot legally possess firearms.

Even though this demo is about 5-15 minutes long for a single run (dependent on how many clues you skip), the characterisation and world building are a promising glimpse into Detroit’s universe. Many NPC’s display an innate distrust and even fear of Connor and Android’s in general, constantly referring to them as “that thing” and “it”. A pair of SWAT officers can be overheard questioning why Connor is even there, and that they’d rather shoot the suspect Android down than let the player negotiate.

Quantic Dream, 2018

Interestingly, the demo includes two levels of difficulty. Casual is a more story focused mode that highlights reconstruction nodes and other clues, as well as simplifying the controls a little. Experienced, on the other hand, can be seen as the purists setting, with more intricate controls and less hand-holding. These settings also appear to alter how the third person camera works, with Casual utilising pinned angles and minimal player control over the direction. This is both a throwback to adventure games of old but also makes the gameplay feel more, ugh, “cinematic”. Experienced grants the player more control over the camera, but it is still a bit slow and unresponsive, and sometimes can get confused with the interaction movements for the analogue stick, which is irritating.

Once the player has completed the level, they are presented with a flowchart showing all their decisions and what options and choices they’ve missed, and a chance to go back and explore the rest. This is quite interesting and demonstrates how much work has gone into the gameplay choices, and certainly had me going back to find out what else I could do. However, I will say that there are perhaps too many endings to the level, as finding all six of them started to become a chore.

Overall, I think Quantic Dream have put out a pretty promising vertical slice from Detroit. The gameplay is solid, the story is engaging, and doesn’t yet feel too David Cage-y. it certainly feels that even this section has more coming in the final game, as some areas of the level and even some dialogue seen a bit cut off and redundant at present. The concepts are both intriguing and relevant, and is a promising start to Detroit’s full release at the end of this month. Definitely one to check out.