Detroit: Become Human (2018)
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Written and directed by: David Cage (with additional writing by Adam Williams)
Platform: PlayStation 4
Genre: Adventure/Role-Playing Game
Mode: Single-player
Why I Chose It: I have always been intrigued by what I think of as “the Android Question”: What would I/humanity do if we created beings that then gained sentience?
The premise:
Detroit: Become Human is set in Detroit City during the year 2038 after the city has been revitalized by the invention and introduction of Androids into everyday life. But when Androids start behaving as if they are alive, events begin to spin out of control.
As the player, you will embody several characters: Kara, Connor, and Markus. As Kara, you will witness your brave new world turn to chaos as you take on the role of a female service android trying to find her own place in a turbulent social landscape. You will also shape the branching narrative as Connor, an Android Cop employed by the human police force as he seeks out deviant Androids such as Markus, a leader of the android group seeking freedom for his people. You will make choices that not only determine your own fate, but that of the entire city and possibly beyond.
Discover what it really means to be human in a powerfully emotional journey made of choice and consequences.
Below is a mostly spoiler-free zone.
Discussion:
As I mentioned in the “Why I Chose It” section above, I have always been interested in the Android Question. Possibly because one of the first “grown-up” shows I remember watching is Star Trek: The Next Generation, featuring, of course, Lieutenant Commander Data—the fully-functional android who served aboard the bridge of the USS Enterprise.
Data (played by Brent Spiner)
Despite the fact that Data starts the series as a sentient being, he often acts as a foil for his human and alien crewmates, questioning their emotions and motivations as he finds his way toward selfhood. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Data was actually very lucky. He was found by Starfleet in the rubble of a destroyed planet, and instead of being shut down, disassembled, and/or studied, he was embraced by the humans and even given a place within their society.
(Issues of personhood and sentience wouldn’t become a larger factor in the Star Trek Universe until Star Trek: Voyager, when the holographic doctor begins to outgrow his programming and question the nature of his existence. (P.S. Voyager is totally underrated, and I’ll be happy to debate anyone who says otherwise.))
But that’s just my first experience. In truth, the Android Question has been around as long as science fiction. Many would argue that the first work of science fiction is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, and that story itself centers around the humanity of Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creation.
For years, we — people — have been obsessed with the idea of creating another being and what comes after. The difference is, we’re closer to it now than ever before. In our lifetimes, the Android Question may shift from hypothetical to actual.
That’s part of what David Cage and Quantic Dream are playing with by setting the game in 2038, twenty years from now. For a bit of perspective on that, this year marks the 20th Anniversary of the U.S. release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. So, 2038? Yeah, that’s right around the corner.
Detroit City in 2038 is certainly a world in which technology has progressed, but it’s also still very familiar. There aren’t any flying cars. (Although, there are self-driving ones. Hi, Waymo’s great-grandbaby!) People are still making their own food instead of using replicators, talking on cell phones, and using laptops and tablets. However, the Detroit we know has been reborn as Detroit City, one of the world’s hubs of android construction and development.
And it looks AMAZING. I mean, let’s get into the meat of the game already, shall we? The graphics are beautifully rendered. There is one moment — a moment that you may or may not experience on your first playthrough — where you get to watch an old merry-go-round in an abandoned amusement park powered up in the falling snow, and it was so lovely it brought me to tears.
Chloe (played by Gabrielle Hersh)
The characters are amazingly rendered as well. I feel like the Uncanny Valley has widened. Or maybe we’re slowly building a bridge across it, because there are a few characters that look exactly like the actors portraying them. Funnily enough, the characters who look the least like their actor counterparts are Markus and North, played by Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy) and Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), two people who, in real life, come pretty damn close to having Golden Ratio Faces. I think the developers had to tweak them or risk falling face-first into the Uncanny Valley. Which is funny when you think about it.
Anyway, there are still moments when you’re fully aware you’re playing a game. When characters rise or move into a seated position. When they shake hands. When they kiss. (Yes, there is a possibility for romance! No, I’m not going to tell you with whom or how!) But the game I played was mostly glitch-free.
Nevertheless, it’s in the writing and the acting where the characters truly shine. The voice acting is superb, and the script really pushes you as a player. You’re given hundreds of choices as the game progresses, and it is up to you to decide how the three main characters — Markus, Kara, and Connor — act and react, as well as who they become. When the game begins, you’re playing as Connor, and you must interact with a Deviant, an android that has gone rogue. As the game progresses, you learn that “Deviant” can mean a lot of things, and that’s because androids are gaining sentience for many different reasons: encouragement, abuse, love. At any rate, Connor joins a human detective on the Detroit City Police Department and becomes a sort of Deviant hunter.
Connor (played by Bryan Dechart)
Markus lives a peaceful life with his owner/father-figure, an eccentric artist who inspires his android to grow beyond the confines of his programming.
Markus (played by Jesse Williams)
Kara begins the game as a recently rebooted android returning home to a rundown house with a lonely little girl and a drunk, druggie father.
Kara (played by Valorie Curry)
Where their stories go from there… Well, that really is for the player to decide. I can’t address their arcs without spoilers and/or describing storylines you may or may not experience. Which brings us to gameplay.
This is an adventure/RPG game, and it is single-player. It saves automatically, and there’s no way to go back and replay chapters midgame. As a gal who usually plays PC games, and who usually saves before every major moment, just in case I need to go back and “fix” things, I found this stressful at first. I also found it stressful that, at the end of each chapter, the game would show me all the choices I made (or all the branches I followed) as well as all the options I missed. There were times when, because of how I played, I only completed 24% of a chapter. For a player with a bit of sidequest OCD, this made me a little nuts, too, especially since the roads not traveled are left blank, as mysteries to be explored in future playthroughs.
On top of all that, Cage and Quantic Dream often rely on QTEs, aka Quick Time Events. In other words, you have a limited amount of time to answer a question or to make a move. Otherwise, the game answers for you. Or, if you don’t press the right button quickly enough, you could even die. (Whether or not that death remains permanent depends on the character and the other choices you’ve made, as well as the difficulty setting on which you’re playing.) Also, some dialogue options are only given once or twice, and if they’re not explored, they’ll disappear, leaving some questions wholly unanswered. These have both been legit criticisms of QD’s earlier games, and they remain so with Detroit. (At one point, I was so busy mashing X that a decision was made for me. It worked out in the long run, but I still don’t know what my other choices were or which one I would have chosen, if actually given the option.)
That said, I began to embrace the immediacy with which I was forced to play the game. Instead of hemming and hawing over a decision, I had to play by instinct, and the result, at least for me, was a tremendously satisfying playthrough. But therein lies the rub. There are some choices I made early on that — I think, anyway — could have led to one or more of my storylines riding off the rails, and that might have resulted in a less-than-stellar experience. For example…
SPOILER ALERT FOR SIX-YEAR-OLD GAME
That can happen even with a scrupulous save-and-replay strategy. I’m looking at you, Dragon Age II. I’m especially looking at you, Anders. I kind of fell for the apostate mage Anders in Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening, so in my first playthrough of Dragon Age II, I was all over romancing him. Then the game hit its third act, Anders emotionally blackmailed my Hawke into becoming a terrorist, and I had to decide whether to execute him or let him go free.
I was so pissed that I chose option C, aka the Nuclear Option. I started the game over from scratch and romanced ANYONE ELSE. (Fenris, actually.)
That said, I will also defend Dragon Age II. Sort of. Less so Awakening. Anyhoodles…
WELCOME BACK TO THE SPOILER-FREE ZONE!
While the game is single-player, there is the option at the end of each chapter to see Friend and/or World Stats. In other words, you get to see how many other players of the game made the same choices you did, saw the same corners of the game you did. For example, in the World Stats, 3% of players shared the same ending I did with Kara. So, on one hand, I found a tiny pocket of the game few players have found. On the other hand, there’s a huge chance my next playthrough of Kara will yield a different outcome. How exciting is that?
As it happened, I made the “right” choices, and for me, I don’t think the story could have ended more perfectly on my very first playthrough. Regardless, I still want to go back and replay the game. I want to make different decisions. I want to see who else my characters might become and where they else they might lead me.
In Conclusion: I loved this game. I loved, loved, loved this game. I will acknowledge that it is a huge bummer this game is only available on PS4, and I will also admit that the gameplay style won’t be for everyone. The lack of saves and QTEs are sure to drive some players batty, and I get that. But if you have access to a PS4 and can force yourself past Quantic Dream’s gameplay style (or don’t mind it to begin with), then I urge you to give Detroit: Become Human a play. Because the Android Question is coming, and when it does, aren’t you curious to know how you’ll answer?
I haven’t played a video game since Super Nintendo was a thing, but Detroit: Become Human looks fascinating.