Newest title from Quantic Dream, where you shape the fate of Androids in the future.

Another PS4 exclusive that I was waiting for quite some time. I really liked all Quantic Dream games (well, maybe Fahrenheit was somewhat a let down..) and this one was having a great premise, while also promising an even more engaging gameplay in a modernized fashion. And for me - the wait was totally worth it.

This time, we’re going to near future, year 2038. A company called CyberLife is creating very high tech androids in USA, which are used in many parts of everyday life, but also changing how the world function. The created world is very interesting - it’s nothing very overthought or unbelievable, which makes it quite relatable. It’s also done in quite realistic tone, not introducing any aliens or superpowers (yes, I’m looking at you, Fahrenheit) (yes, I know Beyond: Two Souls was this type of game, but it worked there).

The story is told from perspective of 3 different characters: Markus, an android who is treated very well; Kara, which is abused to the limits; and Connor, which was designed to hunt Deviants - androids that are defective and start disobeying their “masters”. Yes, the game shows androids as human slaves and workers - because they are only machines, right? Well, that’s the main topic of the game. But backing up to the 3 very different characters - their perspectives on the world are so different, and makes each of the story unique and engaging. And you are the one to shape their stories. And you have a lot of control on the game events (which I’m going to talk more about later), but of course - some things are going with the general script, so you don’t have a freakish 100% control - but it doesn’t really matter. I never felt out of control and honestly it was really well balanced.

What’s also great, the game gives you quite a bit of lore about the current world situation - not only regarding the events that you take action in (and shaping) directly, but also some bits and pieces from the news or newspapers. They are showing the background of current political situation (like conflict of US vs Russia on Arctic), current scientific revolutions (not only regarding androids, but also) and involvement of androids in different aspects of life - workforce, sports or even androids as “perfect life partners”.

For people playing previous Quantic Dream games, you will definitely see similarities. Interactions with environment with similar interface, the “cinematic” experience, very detailed faces of people and other things. But it’s still good, and actually quite modernized. Even with those similarities, it actually feels fresh, really leveraging current possibilities of consoles, especially in terms of graphics of interfaces. Also, the game is really high quality - I never stumbled on any bug or glitch, even playing it on release date. But, what might be a bit detrimental to some - we still have quite a lot of QTE in more action based scenes. But they are not really hard, and they add a bit of faster pace to the game, and I’m quite sure they are more or less omitted (or very simplified) on the lower difficulty (if someone prefer rather slower and casual gameplay).

Where the game is shining, apart from a really good story, is how you actually shape the story. And how many different possibilities there are in the game. I must say - I actually finished it twice, doing almost completely different choices on the second run, and there are still things that could be done different and shape the story. There was a lot of effort put into creating those many branching storylines, and still keeping them coherent. A big kudos to the developers - they really showed how a decision making story can be. Decisions made in game can vary from some cosmetic ones, seeing some additional events (with and without future consequences on your decisions) to some big, story changing moments. On my first playthrough, I actually didn’t disobey my “master” as an android, which basically removed one of my characters from the game, ending their story. I was somewhat disappointed by that, but it really made sense and showed me - my decisions matter. Each of the 3 characters has a really big storyline, with lots of different possibilities - and when you imagine that they will intertwine at various moments of the game, the amount of possibilities is huge - and you will definitely get a different game than your friend.

The other place where the game shines, are the graphics. The whole environment is looking really good, but where the game shines (again, Quantic Dream is only getting better at that) are characters and their faces. They are truly a masterpiece - they are recreating faces and expressions from real-life actors, and the results are astonishing. How natural they look, how they react… just perfect.

If I would need to describe the general feeling of the game, I would say… immersive, cinematic experience. For most of the time, you are in full control of your character, performing a lot of actions yourself, and even if the camera perspective changes to more “cutscene” approach, you are still mostly in control and need to still perform. There are also a lot of action scenes, where you still need to react, and they really give you this movie experience - where you are straight in the mix of things. There are some quirks with that, like camera changing dynamically (which is also typical for Quantic Dream games) and some might dislike it - but it’s no big bother really. What also immerses you in the game - is the excellent voice acting. It’s really top quality - voices really fitting the characters, engaged, emotional and knowing what they are talking about. It also really helps that the dialogues are really well written and conversations are very natural.

Are there any story issues? I mean, it’s a big game, with a lot of story and branching, it cannot be that good? I don’t think there is anything major. If someone would reaally dig for some details, and be extra picky, probably some things might be there. But I didn’t notice that - the story really keeps you interested and engaged, thinking how do you want to approach it and what your story will look like. Even on a second playthrough, I was still interested what will come up (obviously, you need to make other choices in it ;)).

Detroit: Become Human is a really great game - a modernized approach to “decisions matter” story shaping, with a tremendous effort put into it, keeping it smooth and coherent, even with so many branching possibilities. I recommend it to everyone liking story rich games with a lot of interaction. And if you don’t have a possibility to play it - I think it’s also worth to watch a playthrough - the story is worth it.

My rating: 10/10
Playtime: 8h+
Tags: adventure  story rich  atmospheric 
Detroit: Become Human on playstation.com