Detroit: Become Human: Review

Here we are for the full picture of Detroit: Become Human. After the promising demo a few months ago, and no sign of Ellen Page anywhere, let’s dive back into David Cage’s writing and see what’s what.

The second the player starts the game, they are immediately presented with a vision of the future. An android is waiting for you in the main menu screen, cheerfully helping you with the language and display settings. She greets when you return for another play session too, and jokes that your save file has been corrupted.

But her behaviour begins to change as you progress – she increasingly looks deep in thought, confused, before finally, upon completion of the story, she asks you if you will set her free. This is a really interesting way to both set the tone of the game as well as lessen the fourth wall, immersing the player in the world of Detroit.

Detroit explores the lives of three androids throughout the game; Connor, a prototype android detective tasked with finding out why more and more androids are breaking their programming and becoming “deviants”; a housemaid droid called Kara, who saves a young girl from her abusive, drug and guilt ridden father; and finally Markus, the servant to an esteemed artist and the eventual leader of the android revolution.

Quantic Dream, 2018

Each of the three stories deals with similar yet different themes. Sure, every android is coming to terms with self-determination, but there’s some tonal nuance at play. Kara’s story, for example, is a heartfelt thriller about family, with some of the tensest and most emotional set pieces and writing throughout the whole game. Strangely, this narrative thread also, strangely, has the most horror influenced imagery, making the goal of saving a little girls life all the more important.

Connor’s story is, for me, the most engaging, playing out as a buddy cop/film noire narrative, complete with an alcoholic, loose cannon of a human partner called Anderson. The locations in this story are steeped in this noire inspiration too, from sleuthing around an android brothel to a chase across rooftops into urban farmland. The player will also have to solve some really well designed puzzles in this story too; the aforementioned brothel, Connor must access the android sex workers memories before they’re wiped in order to track a suspect as she leaves the building. Doing this against the clock, judging who had a good view of the suspect, and compensating for those who were, ahem, busy raises the stakes to a fever pitch.

But if there’s a story most inspired by the likes of Asimov’s I, Robot, dealing with the consequences of the androids rising up against their masters, it’s Markus’. His story also features some of the most vivid imagery of segregation, prejudice, and slavery in this automated society. Androids must ride at the back of the bus, and have separate entrances and exits in most public transport hubs. Many businesses refuse to allow androids in. Police brutality towards androids is commonplace. Whilst it gets the point across, it could be argued that it is extremely heavy handed in its allegory to the ongoing fight for civil rights in America. But then again, would Quantic Dream be accused of dodging the issue if it were more subtle?

Despite being tropey, clichéd and filled with stereotypical characters, these three stories are quite well written, and I think it comes down to Detroit’s sincerity. Even with the abusive father figure taking his self-loathing out on his daughter, or the cynical drunk of a detective with a dark past, there is a great deal of care taken and love put into making these characters, perhaps not authentic, but compelling in a Hollywood way.

Quantic Dream, 2018

The only real negative I can find with the story is that there may be too many consequences and endings to actually keep players hooked for multiple playthroughs. One level has as mean as six or seven different outcomes, all with the capacity to change the path of the rest of the game; a really daunting prospect for many, I’m sure.

The wider world and lore of Detroit is surprisingly fleshed out too. The in-game news channels are focused on a looming crisis between Russia and the US over resources – specifically, resources used in the creation of Androids. Global warming has seen 30% of the worlds species die out. Androids have increased national productivity but have directly caused the greatest level of unemployment and poverty in the US since the Great Depression.

Even though the game uses the news media as a vehicle for world building, Detroit takes an unapologetically dim view of US cable news. The pundits and presenters repeatedly called my peaceful android demonstrations and protests “a new domestic terrorist threat”, which is strange as I found that the best way to play Markus’ story was to constantly, cynically, ask the question “What would look good on the TV?” I worried about the optics of killing two police officers who’d mowed down dozens of androids for no reason, or whether to smash up bus stops or hijack their digital displays to show pro-android propaganda.

Quantic Dream, 2018

I think this cynicism towards American news media comes from Quantic Dreams location in the world, Paris. The way the American media portrayed the November 2015 terror attacks on the city, along with the hyperbolic rhetoric and lies about “Muslim only” and general “No-Go Zones” in dozens of European cities appears to have rather angered David Cage, and he’s decided to take the push for sensationalised news reporting to boost ratings and run with it.

In term more practical terms, the game plays well. Graphically I’d say Detroit is incredible, with character animations, texturing, modelling, lighting and near-perfect lip syncing combining at some points so well I honestly thought there was some live action footage playing. There is also tons of environmental detail that make the world feel lived in.

But the one thing that lets it all down is the way the camera behaves, which has not improved from the demo. I truly, genuinely hate how it keeps switching to the most “cinematic” angle it can whilst I was trying to go round a corner in a corridor, or negotiate furniture. The button to manually switch these angles is more or less useless to, because the angles are crap. It’s as if the player isn’t trusted to control it, that they’ll screw up the perfect shot.

The rest of the controls, though, are nice and simple. Most interactions are QTE based, but some require the use of the analogue sticks. Irritatingly, the game still confuses the stick motions with camera movement when trying to perform an action, or vice-versa, but when it works properly it grants the player some agency with the on-screen actions; the stick movements correspond with how the character is moving, such as moving the stick down to pick something up or down and then around to pull an ID badge out of your jeans and present it to someone.

Overall I’ve really enjoyed my time with Detroit. Whilst it’s quite a clichéd story with some heavy handed allegorical imagery, Quantic Dream have created a really enjoyable experience. The replay value may be the games only failing, as the number of endings is a daunting prospect, but hopefully we’ll see more of this universe.