4.5/5 ★ – Endless_backlog's review of Detroit: Become Human.

17hrs Detroit: Become Human is an interactive game from developers Quantic Dream, written and directed by David Cage. The heart of the game is in the control the player has in the outcome of each characters story, wether this be in dialogue choice, action choice or successfully executing QTEs. Many games have attempted this before, but ultimately suffer from illusion of choice as you wind up at the end of a predetermined path. What makes Detroit: Become Human so impressive is the plethora of consequences that your actions will take. This is evidenced by the flowchart that displays at the end of each chapter, showing you the different branches that you could have took based on your decisions. With 85 endings and 3 thousand pages of script the possibilities are huge. This is a game that you should absolutely go in blind if you are interested, but there are so many interesting topics for discussion that I will be going into full details in this review. Without reading any further, my recommendation is to buy this game and see for yourself what a unique experience it is. The game begins in a not-so-distant future where Androids have become a huge part in society. Unemployment has skyrocketed to highs of 35%, and tensions are rising between humans and the machines that are replacing them. What makes this world so believable, is that is doesn’t seem so far-fetched, there’s no flying cars and the acceleration of using machines to make operations more efficient is something that feels very believable as soon as 2038, particularly with how fast AI has progressed lately. The game is broken into three main controllable protagonists, Connor, Kara and Markus, of who are all androids. Their acting, as well as the supporting characters, use motion capture to mimic the facial expressions and lip syncing of the actors. The performances were great and I believe that when you use things such as motion capture and green screens to physically perform the role, they can no longer be deemed voice actors and should be credited purely as actors. Connor, is partnered with human detective Hank (Clancy Brown) and will spend most of his time hunting down deviants, androids that have rebelled against their programming and became self-aware. Much of the time you will investigate crime scenes, using your technology to scan for clues which I thought was one of the most interesting gameplay mechanics. I really liked the dynamic between the pair, with the disgruntled Hank showing clear distain at being paired with an android. It was really interesting to see the character arc of Connor as he goes from the enthusiastic detective to questioning the beliefs built into him about the rebellious androids and his growing doubts over the company that created him. I think the development of the pair's relationship over the course of the game was arguably the best part due to the fantastic acting performances from them both. Kara is a home helper android who is brought into a family to assist an abusive alcoholic father with his daughter Alice. What’s interesting is that initially you cannot take any action to protect Alice and your story can be cut short with the father destroying you before you even leave the house. However, what is most likely to happen is that you break your programming and defend her from the father, with a sequence of QTEs determining just how far you will go. From here the maternal instincts of Kara become the main theme as you will continuously evade trouble from one location to the next. The most terrifying of these is when you find yourself believing to be in a safe haven for androids with a man called Zlatko, only to be a red herring and actually be a horrific place where he captures, experiments on and mutilates androids. Despite having less action elements and mainly being a paternal figure throughout, I actually felt more connection to Kara and cared more for the outcome of her and Alices journey. Markus begins his story as a carer for a retired artist who is in poor health, although his character arc leads him into the most monumental of the three in the existence of androids. Finding his new self consciousness, Markus is able to turn other androids deviant to join his fight for freedom. In this revolution you can either choose to lead a peaceful protest or a violent rebellion. I did find Markus story the least engrossing of the three, however, he does have one of the most iconic scenes in the whole game. After being scrapped and sent to landfill, Markus will regain consciousness and crawl his dismembered body around this bleak mass grave of androids, searching for parts to rebuild himself and finding many terrified facing their own death. There are so many themes to explore, with the most notable being the question of what defines humanity. At what point does something without organic matter but with emotional intelligence gain the same civil rights that humans should receive. This also drives the question of free will and with the intelligence of these life forms where is the line drawn between workers and slavery. There are some major historical events that are incorporated here that have split opinion on how respectfully they are treated as they can be quite on the nose. In an attempt to control the evolving rebellion of deviant androids, humans will send them to death camps which aren’t subtle in mirroring the genocide of the holocaust. In one branch your character will be sent there and there’s some pretty upsetting scenes involving piles of shoes before facing a firing squad. There are also huge implications of racism such as segregation of androids and humans on public transport. There were some eye roll moments with the writing, most notably when Markus breaks into song when making his final stand. The voice acting is fantastic for the most part but the Clinton-esque president is voiced by an Irish actor and you can clearly hear her strong accent break through the American. Some of the button prompts were also over engineered particularly when swiveling two joysticks which did drag the pace at times. I did also find a couple of plot holes, such as the fact that the whole point of the Androids thinking for themselves is counterintuitive as they are steered that way by Markus. I also think the fact that the Androids can just peel the light off of their temple to be pretty weak, which seems like a design choice in the game just to make the stealth sections more practical. Detroit: Become Human is such an interesting game to me and one that i'm glad I returned to after a parked attempt many years ago. The story is full of shocking twists and turns and I plan to return to it later with the goal of steering the storylines into a different direction. The gameplay elements don't really amount to much aside from Connors crime scene reenactments, but the excellent graphics, varied environments and cinematic sequences make the story heavy game just as engrossing without them. If ever there was an argument for a game that had great replay ability I would suggest it would be this.