Quantic Dream's newest game has finally arrived. It's called Detroit: Become Human, a narrative action-adventure by David Cage, who's known for games heavily centered in mature story themes, not to mention excellent cinematography, and Detroit: Become Human falls perfectly in this category.
Detroit: Become Human Storyline
Detroit: Become Human, set in a near-future dystopian society where androids are treated as second-class citizens, puts players in the roles of three androids: Kara, Connor, and Markus, as they influence the forthcoming revolution. It's a combination of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with its inherent complex existentialist questions amped up. It's essentially a Black Mirror episode made into a game.
The initial critic reviews for Detroit: Become Human have now come out, and they're mostly positive except that some reviewers think the game appropriates real-life events, such as the Civil Rights movement, with fraught execution. Read other excerpted reviews for Detroit: Become Human below:
Detroit: Become Human Review Roundup
Polygon: "Detroit: Become Human fails to either challenge or reflect upon the ramifications of abuse or the history of the civil rights movement, around which its three storylines cohere. Instead, we're given surface-level storytelling with serious, historically complex topics thrown in as set dressing."
IGN: "One playthrough really isn't enough to see what it has to offer, and characters and world-building are interesting enough that it was a pleasure to go back to see what I'd missed in scenarios that are deceptively complex."
Empire: "Detroit: Become Human may effectively be a customisable drama more than a game, but it's one of the best examples of the form."
The Telegraph: "It is exceptional in its brightest moments, with tense, thrilling flashpoints and affecting moments of beauty and empathy. And its branching narrative ensures you are always an active participant. I have replayed scenes to different effect and have had conversations with fellow players whose path and endings were wildly different to my own.
"But its quality can vary as much as its storylines. Detroit's main issue is that it is a game that is desperate to have something to say, but doesn't know how to say it. Detroit is too heavy-handed and maladroit to get much past 'discrimination and genocide is bad.'"
The Verge: "The problems begin when Detroit tries to be more than the simple sci-fi crime drama it is. Like a well-meaning but woefully ignorant would-be activist, it wants to tackle serious issues, but doesn't quite know how."
Kotaku: "This game is serious business, it will have you know, as evidenced by the aggressively emotional soundtrack, melodramatic audio cues, and the fact that every character spends most of their time staring into the middle distance while looking constipated. At first it appears to have something to say about slavery, oppression, domestic abuse, and several of the other challenging topics passed on its cannonball run to the grand finale."
Detroit: Become Human is now out on the PlayStation 4. Have you played the game? Do you agree with what the critics are saying? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
