Detroit: Become Human

 

It took a while, but Quantic Dream has developed a fine new addition to their portfolio, and this one might be my favorite.

Detroit: Become Human is a third person interactive game, or as I like to call these, a movie game, where you play as 3 different characters with a premise that is very interesting to think about; artificial intelligence taking over on many levels, if not all.

As Kara, you will take care of a neglected child, escape, hide and attempt to cross the border. As Connor, you will partner up with a veteran detective and investigate, interrogate and question allegiance.

As Markus, whom I first found to be dull, you will fall into loss and defeat, until you revive and re-invent yourself, finding a revolutionary new movement, lead it, define what it means to survive, and become a savior by any means necessary.

Connor's relationship with Hank is the most interesting to follow and see develop, as the android and human both have the simplest and deepest conversations throughout the story. Kara and Alice's is rather standard, while Markus gets to cope and deal with the biggest questions, topics and problems.

The game's flowchart and thus it's narrating nature lets you change the outcome of important decisions during dialogue trees for many events, meaning that you can review this structure and then decide if it's worthy to replay.

Quick time events will occupy mainly the action sequences, which got better the farther you got with the 32 chapters available, and with some of the playable androids, through augmented reality, they can analyze physical decisions to make and reconstruct crime scenes.

It was nice to switch between the 3, as it kept playing more binge worthy, and because the arcs overlap, you get to see the outcome of previous decisions. Upon beating the game, I managed to get the good ending, as all 3 of them survived in the end.

The graphics and especially the motion capturing need no clarification, as they speak for themselves, what a technical achievement. While the gameplay for these kind of games is "low", the story, setting and characters more than make up for that.

While I really enjoy Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain as well, Detroit: Become Human's dialogue options and levels of emotion, as well as asking what it means to be free, to be alive, and to be aware, is what raised the quality in overall for me.

Rating: 8.2