Detroit: Become Human Review
Played on PlayStation 4 (base)
Developed by Quantic Dream
Released 24th April 2018
Initially under the name of 'Kara' as a tech demo for the PlayStation 3, writer and director David Cage wanted to make it into a full game, expanding its story possibilities, despite not originally having planned to. Preproduction started in 2013, soon after their latest game, Beyond Two Souls, and consisted of between 2000 and 3000 pages of script, 35,000 camera shots, 74,000 unique animations, 5.1 million lines of code and over 250 actors portraying 513 roles. With such a production that rivals the scale of big blockbuster films, it's not hard to imagine why this game was the biggest success Quantic Dream has had since Heavy Rain.
Story
Detroit: Become Human is fantastic. I've never experienced a game that has such high ambitions and yet manages to simulate them perfectly. The game is set in the near-future 2038 Detroit, where humanity has manufactured and sold human-like, obedient machines. Your journey follows the paths of 3 playable characters: Connor the detective, Markus the freedom fighter and Kara the maternal figure. These three are androids. With androids actively and progressively becoming rogue, you are presented with the multiple layers of this society that exist - the systematic (and a little bit on the nose) parallels to racism, rebellions, refugees and more. These parallels are explored to an even greater depth through the characters you play as, and so I was so easily immersed into this intricate world that dealt with realistic sci-fi dilemmas. Would humans prefer to be romantically interested in a flawless robot than an actual human? What would happen if the AI went rogue? Would they evolve their sentience into near humanity? Director David Cage has done an amazing job answering these questions with this game, and while I'm not familiar with his other piece of works like Heavy Rain or Beyond Two Souls, I must say this has turned me into a fan.
Gameplay
The brilliance of the narrative doesn’t stop there, as not only is the story captivating, but the choices have a real impact too. This is something I've been looking forward to for ages, so while the game does have some small point'n'click sections like many choice-based games, it thrives on its high versatility of choices, relationships, and dialogue. If the story was macaroni, the dialogue and the choices that dictate the flow and events of the narrative would be the cheese. Every dialogue option, intense choice and even small action in the point'n'click sections can have lingering consequences. This ranges from inter-character relationships to plot-altering moments, and so every aspect of the gameplay is tailored to how you play (take notes Telltale). For example, if I were to miss one picture and not analyse it, I could've lost the opportunity to follow the path that leads to a different ending for a character.
These countless and monumental decisions are made more thrilling by the fact that they exist within three separate characters. The choices you made as Kara only affect her path, while Markus tackles conclusions that could affect the other characters, and Connor can potentially influence both. I say potentially because depending on your choices, your characters’ journeys may never overlap. The game also consists of fantastic QTEs (Quick Time Events) - and these also directly contribute to the story. With this in mind, every click, swipe, and controller movement became significant to me as a player, and if a game can this heavily immerse me beyond its world-building, then it's earned my massive respect. However, while this game offers incredible versatility between everyone's playthroughs, once you've experienced the two extremes of the games, you have mostly experienced it all. This goes double for the chapters that are quite neutral regarding the aftermath of previous choices. The extra details in choices and world-building allow for differentiation between every player, but everyone will overall encounter one of two endings or their quite similar variants. Much as I love this game, I do wish there was another ending that was more unique or divergent than the near-polar endings we get.
Characters
In a game with a fantastic story with an incredible "choose your story" gameplay, characters were no doubt going to be what fuelled the two. Protagonists Kara, Markus and Connor do a great job at presenting their character and their emotional problems (like losing a loved one, conflicts with identity, etc) which allow for the player to empathise with and make choices while carrying the characters' baggage. This phenomenal way of creating immersion is partially due to the brilliant acting and delivery of the actors playing their roles like Bryan Dechart, Jesse Williams and Valorie Curry. Hank, North, Luther, Alice, Simon, and Kaminski are just some of the characters whose performances I also loved. Throughout my whole journey, I did not once dislike a character based on their performance or dialogue, but I didn't love one to eternity either. Essentially the characters all had phenomenal attributes and qualities that amplified the initial experience, however, these attributes never expanded any further past the game - it boils down to me not reminiscing or questioning their actions, etc, post-game.
Atmosphere
While I initially missed out on a large portion of it, the soundtrack is just so goddamn beautiful. Forget the visually realistic graphics and the awesome sound effects that elevate the fantastic designs of this near-future sci-fi world. This soundtrack alone is what does it for me. It evokes the right emotions; tension, sadness, joy, fear: all so amazingly constructed into unforgettable melodies. This game simply doesn't stop to amaze me. Forget reading more of this review, just listen to these 4 hours of beauty.
Story- 9.5/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Characters- 9/10
Atmosphere- 10/10
Near Perfect
Simply a breathtaking, impactful adventure.
