Detroit: Become Human
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
This was my first time playing Detroit: Become Human, so I don’t have any nostalgic feelings for it. I’ve always been a fan of Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, which were made by the same people who made this game, so giving Detroit a shot was a no-brainer for me.
Story:
Detroit: Become Human takes place in the near future. Life-like androids are being used by humanity to do their dirty work. You’ve got housekeeping androids, security androids, personal assistant androids, construction androids, sex androids, you name it, you’ve got an android for it. As a result, people are losing their jobs and sinking into poverty, making them resentful of their android replacements.
The game follows three different androids whose paths eventually converge towards the end of the game. Conner is a detective who tracks down androids who behave abnormally. Kara is a housekeeper who goes rogue when her owner starts beating and abusing his young daughter. Markus is a personal assistant who also goes rogue when he witnesses his owner being abused by his drug addicted loser son.
This is a choice-based game, so what happens with the story changes depending on the choices you make. For example, on my first playthrough, I stood by as Kara while her owner beat and abused his daughter. He eventually killed her and when he was done, he killed Kara too. Game over for Kara. If I would have continued playing, it would have been without one of the game’s three main characters. This was still relatively early in the game, so I decided to reload the chapter rather than play the rest of the game and miss out on so much content.
My story ended up with Markus leading a violent android revolution, with Conner attempting to put an end to it, as I never helped him find consciousness. Kara and the little girl escaped to Canada, where they lived happily ever after, or so I’d like to think. Apparently there are hundreds, maybe thousands of different ways the game can go depending on your choices. Two people can play this game and have completely different experiences from one another. I am very curious to play this again someday and see just how different things can get.
Gameplay:
If you are coming here for a rich, rewarding gameplay experience, you may be disappointed. This game is all about its story and the choices you make. Think of it more like an interactive movie than something like Assassin’s Creed or Uncharted. You’re not going to be doing much running, climbing stuff, jumping, or shooting. Typical gameplay consists of walking around, talking to people, looking at things, and making decisions. There are occasional QTE action sequences that require you to react and push buttons quickly, but that’s about it as far as action goes.
Everything handles relatively well, however I did find that the characters feel very stiff when you are controlling them. Try to walk around a desk and you’ll get hung up on the edge of the desk rather than just sliding around it. Try to step over something, and you’ll get stuck. You just have to walk around obstacles. It takes a little getting used to, but you do get used to it. Another complaint is that the characters move sooooo slowly. Occasionally they will run depending on the circumstance, but most of the time they don’t. It is quite aggravating sometimes.
Graphics:
This game is gorgeous. There is simply no way around it. Characters are lifelike and well-detailed. I was stunned when I saw some of the actors doing interviews about the game, and how closely they resembled their artificial counterparts. Outside environments are immaculate. It is the future and things look shiny and futuristic, but at the same time they don’t look too outlandish or unbelievable. Interiors look great as well. There are small personal touches everywhere you look. Houses look like people actually live there. Offices are designed practically and look like they could function in real life. To top it off, everything is rendered in near photo-realistic graphics. I could just wander around and look at stuff all day long.
It is one of the best looking games I have played in recent memory.
Sound:
If you are going to have a video game based on cinematics and storyline, you better have good voice acting to go with it. Thankfully, this game does. The voice actors behind Connor, Markus, and Kara do an excellent job bringing their characters to life. Some of the performances in this game are better than you would see in big budget Hollywood movies, and that is not an exaggeration. Supporting actors like Clancy Brown, Minka Kelly, and Lance Henriksen also lend their talents to the game.
As far as music goes, nothing really stood out to me as particularly catchy. But I never had a single complaint about the music either. It fit the tone and the atmosphere of the game 100%
Overall:
The key to enjoying this game is knowing what to expect before you fire it up. If you are expecting something like The Last of Us or God of War, you are going to be sorely disappointed. If you enjoyed Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, or basically any Telltale game, you are going to love this. In fact, comparing Detroit to a Telltale game is almost an insult to it. Its graphics are a bajillion times better, everything is much more interactive, and the choices you make actually impact the entire course of the game.
The length of the game is pretty short, however. I don’t remember my exact hours total, but I think it was somewhere in the area of ten hours. There is a ton of replay value to be had here though. You can play through this game a countless number of times and see things that you never would have seen or noticed before. I did not do that, however, because I had only rented this from GameFly and I wanted to send it back as soon as I was done with it so I could get Red Dead Redemption II (which just arrived at my house a day or two ago, BTW). I guarantee you, though, if I had actually bought this game I would have played through it a couple of times by now.
As far as Quantic Dream games go, I would rank this ahead of Beyond: Two Souls and behind Heavy Rain. Perhaps it is better than Heavy Rain, but it has been a long time since I’ve played that and I need to play it again to see if it has aged as well as I remember. Still though, this is a really good game. If you are into the whole interactive movie thing, I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t like this. If you’ve played Heavy Rain and the others before and did not like them, chances are you won’t like this either.
But hey this is my review, and I liked the game. I thought it was very good, and I barely even scratched the surface of exploring branching paths and seeing where the story takes you. If I did, it might have gotten an even better score.
Final Score:
B+
If you liked this review, please check out some of my other game reviews:
Went through a couple of photos of the Video Game Detroit Become Human Connor Jacket but can't figure out whether or not the real jacket will look same as the one in the picture? To be specific, do makers maintain perfection and quality at the same time?
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