The game was well received on its release but what did I think of it myself? Well, let's do the usual and find out!
So before I move on, here is the usual warning...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD BUT NOT TOO MANY!
STORY
So, I won't say too much about the story but I will give a brief summary and it is set in the future in the year 2038 in the city of Detroit, where humans now have created androids to carry out general labour tasks as well for even personal pleasure (yep that too!). However there are reports of androids becoming unstable and have developed their emotions, which has them branded as "deviants" by the law enforcement and the technological industry Cyberlife, who created them, which has lead to many crimes throughout the city.
So, as a countermeasure, Cyberlife has one of the design models, Connor (Bryan Dechart) programmed as a deviant hunter to take them down and along the way, Connor works with a cynical veteran Detroit police officer, Lt Hank Anderson (Clancy Brown). And together they try and get to the bottom of where the deviants are coming from and how to stop them.
The story also has two other story lines include one about an android named Markus (Jesse Williams) who cares for a wealthy, elderly artist named Carl (Lance Henriksen) who is disabled. However, one night they have an intruder, which turns out to be Carl's bitter son and after a confrontation, Markus is shot by the police when they arrive on scene (after Markus called them no less!). Markus sometime after awakens in the middle of a junkyard filled with the remains of androids and he scavenges the remains of their bodies to replace the parts his body needs to function. Markus soon after this sets himself on a trail to find a ship named "Jericho" which is said to be a safe haven for deviant androids and meets with others like him that include a beautiful but cynical female android called North (Minkah Kelly) and two other androids Josh and Simon. Together from here, Markus announces himself as their leader and makes their plans towards the freedom of androids.
And the third storyline covers a female android housekeeper named Kara (Valorie Curry, who's character Kara is pictured above) who serves Todd and his daughter Alice. Todd however is an abusive alcoholic and on attacking Alice, Kara turns into a deviant and protects Alice and together they escape Todd and travel across Detroit to try and find a way into Canada where androids laws are less strict. Along they met up with another android, Luther as they make their dangerous journey towards their destination.
THOUGHTS
Detroit Become Human as far as story driven video games go is a pretty good and entertaining one, which packs quite an emotional punch in delivering its ambitious story line involving the liberation of androids in a fear driven society of cruel, unforgiving humans who fail to understand that androids are sentient beings. And the narrative of the story works pretty well as it is split between the three different androids and eventually their fates ultimately will intertwine with one another and the three main lead characters of Markus, Kara and Connor are all likeable in different ways although you do of course have the choice to have them make good and evil decisions throughout.
GAMEPLAY
And this brings me onto the gameplay, which is largely decision based as the storylines are affected by what decisions you make for the characters as you can choose good and bad options that will ultimately lead toward different endings, which can be good, bad or worse. These decisions are also time based, so you need to choose before the timer runs out and the same goes for aspects of the game's combat as you will have to press and mash buttons in the right sequence to avoid your character getting killed or making the wrong choices.
You can also scan for clues and things throughout the game as well as the androids can look for ways to resolve problems and even calculate strategies for fighting enemies or reaching certain areas or taking down objects such as drones. This is a very similar game mechanic to the one that featured in the Batman Arkham series video games where he uses his detective mode to simulate a crime scene and look for clues.
The game also adopts a folder system where it categorises your progress as the game is split into chapters and you get awarded so many points for completing each one whether it be 100% or not. You can also revisit previous chapters, which is a good thing as it allows you to revisit one if you want to make a different choice.
I also should mention that the game's menu even has its on android (and a hot one too!) that later features in the actual game but asks you to fill in a survey at times (for the game) but also gives moments of self commentary on the actions of how you played the game.
GRAPHICS
As for the game's graphics, well they are frankly superb as the game environments look great and there is plenty of detail and texture in the surroundings as well as variety in the visuals. But where the visuals really score are the character models, which at times look virtually lifelike and the models are indeed based on the real life actors who are doing the voice acting. And there were indeed some moments in the game where I had to stop myself and check if I was watching real people or not?! So, yep the game's graphics are definitely a highlight.
VOICE ACTING
As for the voice actors the cast is excellent and the three leads in particular all give really good performances.
Starting with Bryan Dechart as Connor, who does a great job as the android deviant hunter, who works with Lt Hank Anderson to uncover what is going on with the deviants but again the choices you make in the game can greatly affect the outcome of things. Dechart himself does a great job at finding the fine line between playing Connor as an unfeeling machine and potentially becoming a deviant himself.
Jesse Williams is also excellent in his role as Markus, an android who was once a caretaker but on becoming deviant and discovering Jericho and other androids like him, he wants to fight for androids rights to be free. Again its remarkable just how good the graphics are for Williams in the game as it can be hard to tell apart his CGI counterpart from himself!
Valorie Curry is also great in her role as Kara, an android housekeeper (and a rather lovely one at that!) who turns deviant as she helps a young girl, Alice, escape her abusive dad, Todd an out of work drug addict, who's wife walked out on him. And Curry maybe provides the most emotional performance of the game as Kara really is a prime example of the concept of an android having an innate goodness and the desire to want to protect someone as well as be a mother figure to Alice.
Clancy Brown is also great in his role as Lt Hank Anderson, a cynical Detroit cop, who holds a grudge against androids and has an uneasy relationship with Connor, whom he was assigned to help him with the deviant investigation. Clancy also provides much comic relief in the story and for me his storyline of Hank and Connor working together was the main highlight of the game.
Minka Kelly does very well in her role as North, a beautiful albeit cynical female android, who is a deviant but has a lot of contempt for humans and is even in favour of destroying them if necessary but she also develops a close bond with Markus.
David Coburn is also very good in his role as the loathsome FBI agent, Richard Perkins, who is without a doubt one of THE most hateful bad guys in the history of video gaming. And if you were ever looking for a modern day candidate to replace Hitler, then this guy would be it as he has the same attitude to androids as did the Nazis to the Jews. In short this guy is a real scumbag.
And last of all is Lance Henriksen as Carl, who is also very good in his role as the elderly disabled artist, Carl, who Markus takes care of at the start of the game and is sympathetic towards Markus and his plight.
MUSIC
As for the music score its for the most part pretty good as three composers worked on the three different storylines Philip Sheppard, Nima Fakhara and John Paesano individually. The scores all have their moments of danger, excitement and sadness and they are perfectly suit the grim tone of the game and the characters. The score itself isn't a world beater by any means but it certainly complements the game well enough and it still has plenty of emotional weight to it.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for flaws... yeah OK the game does have some worth mentioning.
For starters one of the things that bugged me about the game is the control scheme, which is a bit of a pain in the ass as the controls feel really awkward as you there are many moments where you control your character from a distant perspective that can be pretty distracting at first. You do get used to it after a while but it is annoying and there are even times where you struggle to actually move the character in a direction you want them to. Its certainly one of the limitations the game inflicts on the player as it wants you to walk the pre-determined path its set for you at times rather than let you freely roam about.
Another few issues are to do with plot inconsistencies here and there such as one scene where Kara is reluctant help save Luther at one point in the game where he is under threat of being executed by human soldiers but at this point are they not a family?! I mean by now Kara shouldn't need to feel the need to be hesitant and just find a way to save Luther rather than express any doubt about it and leave him to his fate.
Then there is the whole concept of Markus's ability to convert androids automatically at will and it all begs the question: how the hell does he manage it?! I mean its never really explained in the game at any given moment that I have seen as this guy just seems to have the God like being to convert any android he wants at any time! And at the start of his ability to do it he needs to use physical contact but near the end of the game all he needs to do is point his finger at androids from afar and he can convert them! I mean what the hell?!! How did he suddenly get this ridiculous power??! If there is a moment hidden in the game somewhere that explains Markus's godly powers then that might be something but from what I have seen there isn't one, so this did bug me quite a bit.
SPOILER WARNING IN NEXT PARAGRAPH!
I also thought the story leaves some things unexplained such as when in the moment where Markus chooses to sacrifice himself for his cause and he is shot in the chest by SWAT police he is rescued at the cost of another android. Now that's OK I guess but what they did leave out is just how did Markus manage to get himself repaired so that he was able to function again?! So, for me that was another plothole that was left unexplained and the next scene involving him we see his back on his feet again! So, yep there are definitely some sizeable holes in the game's plot going on.
Another issue I had with the story also was with the character of Alice, as she comes across as being an annoying, whiny kid at times (well for me anyway!) as Kara is determined to protect her at all costs. Now, I don't have a problem with that in itself and its not that Alice isn't sympathetic, its just at times she does come across as being pretty whiny with Kara in the story. Such an example is when Kara at one point is about to tell Alice a bedtime story and one about a princess but she interrupts and says "Not one like that! I want you want to make up one". And as Kara is trying to be positive and reassuring here and even later on to Alice, you feel Alice just isn't taken in by Kara's attempts to do so. To be fair the kid has had a tough life up to this point having had an abusive father, but at times you also feel like Kara must be thinking "Acch shut up, kid! I'm trying my best here, so stop your whinging!".
I also think its safe to say that Markus's characters is a bit one dimensional who barely has more than one expression throughout the entire game! Connor on the other hand despite arguably being the least human does have a more engaging relationship with Hank (depending on how you play of course!) and Kara fairs much better in this department because at least she does show a range of emotions (and does actually smile!) and Alice is her source of happiness. Markus however is basically limited to an intense scowl all the time as he remains resolute in his quest to free his people and he doesn't really show much more emotion than a constant look of determination.
WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!
In fact I think it would be safe to say that Markus's storyline is the weakest even if it is the most pivotal to the overall game and there are some pretty tedious moments in his playthrough. These include the scene where Markus awakens in an android scrapyard and he tries to find the vital components he needs to put himself back together and then he has to climb out of the yard, which is a struggle in itself! Another tedious moment from Markus is when he is trying to find the android safe haven called Jericho and he follows a sequence of symbols around the city to locate it and its a pretty boring drawn-out sequence overall that the game could have done without.
WARNING: ANOTHER SPOILER IN THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS!
Then there is of course the character of Kamski, the creator of the androids, who was formerly the director at Cyberlife (the organisation that created the androids) and what a dick this guy is! I mean his one scene in the game really kind of annoyed me as Hank and Connor decide to pay him a visit (well more Hank than Connor) to see if he knows anything that could help their case.
So, when they finally meet him, Hank politely asks if he knows anything of help but Kamski basically just ignores Hank and turns his attentions to Connor instead! Not only that but he forces Connor to choose between shooting one of his androids and sparing it (or her) which would constitute murder of sorts but if you shoot the android nothing is really done about it! Of course this backs up that the humans just see the androids as a machine and nothing more, so if you shoot one, it hardly constitutes a crime. However, Kamski here appoints himself as a sort of judge, jury and executioner without any penalty, which again kind of bugged me, well that and he's an egotistical a-hole!
I also felt that the social commentary in the game was far from subtle as the writer/director, David Cage is insistent in showing the androids civil rights war to be on a similar basis as say apartheid in South Africa. And there are plenty of sequences of news reels on TV showing the reporters all yak on about the significance of the android uprising etc and its pretty much thrown right in your face with little in the way of subtlety. Its a criticism that plenty of reviewers and even Youtube gamers have raised with the game, so I figured its worth raising here.
And lastly I felt at times the game sets you back quite a bit when you reload in a checkpoint again in the story line, especially if you make a mistake in your choices and you want to go over your steps again to put things right. So, this means you will find yourself having to go through the tedium of watching certain cut scenes again just when you'd rather spin through them instead. I guess its good the game let's you replay chapters and make different choices but its just a pain in the ass that you have to at times sit through a lot to do it.
And that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up Detroit Become Human is an enjoyable, engrossing story driven game that tells a story that has plenty of emotional weight attached to it and features an excellent cast who all give fine performances especially the three leads and Clancy Brown too, who provides some much needed moments of comic relief here and there. The game also does a pretty good job at racking up the tension and suspense as it forces to make some pretty big, dramatic decisions that can drastically affect the outcome of the story.
And yeah OK there are some issues with the game of course such as some annoying control movement and plenty of plot inconsistencies and yes the grim tone of the game can make it a pretty heavy going experience at times. However if you can overlook that then there is still a pretty good game here that is worth checking out.
Right, that's it for now and I'll be back fairly soon with hopefully another couple of posts before the end of the month.
So, till the next un, its bye for now.
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