Detroit: Become Human

In Detroit, the year is 2038. Thanks to technological advances and a shift in manufacturing demand, the Motor City has turned into Android City. Detroit: Become Human is a story that focuses on three androids: a domestic servant model named Kara, who attends to a young girl and her drug-addict abusive father. Another servant named Markus who cares for a kind, elderly painter. And lastly, a prototype law enforcement model named Connor, who is investigating a rash of android “deviants” who have been violently turning on their masters.

The player’s perspective hops among the three as Kara goes on the run, Markus begins organizing an android uprising, and Connor attempts to get to the bottom of why so many of his kind are rebelling. Each narrative thread unspools on its own for the first few hours, as players make decisions that redirect the story and snip off alternate outcomes. Spare a character’s life, and he may turn up to help out at some point down the road. Make an enemy, and you’ll have to reckon with her later. Put it this way, I played as Conner for the first mission and ended up killing him. I reset the mission because my teenage daughter flipped out, telling me I "f*cked up" but not necessarily that phrase. In other words, yes, it's possible for the main characters to die at various points of the story.

Detroit: Become Human is an adventure game played from third person perspective. Also apart from a couple of climactic convergence points, each sequence in Detroit plays like a standalone vignette. You’re put in control of one of the characters as he or she attempts to navigate a difficult situation.

I love this game but I do have some complaints. First off, this is a science fiction story and as interesting as the society it imagines, Detroit’s theoretical future is unfortunately...shitty. In this vision of 2038, people still use personal computers and play MMOs, magazines still reside on touchscreen tablets, and cars are basically just futured-up versions of the self-driving prototypes we see on the tech blogs of today. The sole fantastical element is the fact that there are advanced androids everywhere.

And then there's the controlling functions. Turning a doorknob isn’t accomplished by pressing a button, it’s accomplished by rotating the right thumbstick in a semicircle. Turning the page on a touchscreen device requires sliding your finger down the PS4 controller’s touchpad. Dodging to the side sometimes requires moving a thumbstick, and sometimes requires physically swinging your controller to the side, something what began almost a decade ago in Heavy Rain.

Overall, this game does keep you on your toes, just like games from Telltale. At some points you have to react quickly. Circle! Triangle! X! Right trigger! Left trigger! Square! Circle! Circle! To sum it up, don't miss the sequence order or take to long to respond because there will be consequences.

But there is a few things Detroit: Become Human is doing right. Like for starters, they rocked the shit out of the game's visual presentation. It all looks absolutely gorgeous, with facial animations and detail as good as anything we've ever seen in gaming before. That technical wizardry could be powerful in a narrative game, and could help Detroit stand out compared to other narrative-focused games, most of which don't come close to this level of visual polish. It's dope AF! 🔥

All in all, I would give Detroit 4/5 🖕 🖕🖕🖕 f*cks yeahs. I love it...but I do have a few complaints as I did mention. Pick it up for yourself, and fight off a few lesbian androids while your at it. Yeah, you heard me. Lesbian androids, it's kind of HOT!

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Quantic Dream
Title: Detroit: Become Human
Release: May 25, 2018
Platform: PlayStation 4