Detroit: Become Human

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

When I first watch this trailer I thought it said "Hitman". So the entire time I watched it, I kept thinking he was going to kill that guy and then start murdering a bunch of people. The concept looks interesting, but I wonder if the game is being presented as a 'pick your own story' kind of game where every action you choose will result in a change in the plot for the rest of the game like a telltale game, or if the game is all about a few scenes like this one where the android replays the same scene over and over again in their head until the optimal solution is reached.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I'm pretty sure its make your own story where scenes only resets on you "dying" or a pivotal part of the story dies like the kid. The differences will be in successful solutions. I'll probably get this game when it goes on the cheap, it looks cool, but not $60 cool for my tastes.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

 

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

First thoughts:

The Good: The story is outstanding, the voice acting is S-Tier, and the graphics are beautiful. I guess not being a free movement intensive game they can cut corners on what has to be processed, because even on regular PS4 it looks like a high end PC max settings game. Just playing half way through this so far, I'm already sold for future Quantic Dream games. The end of each mission has a flow chart that shows you everyone's choices compared to yours, and even a narrower friends choices which I find to be most interesting. I believe Strider and one other person are the only people that have played on my friends list. I've seemed to line up with them for the most part until recently when I realized being "good" or "understanding" doesn't always help you with the karma system the game has... it's very shades of grey, so it better not to stress to much in being nice or trying to cater to NPCs.

Spoiler

Yeah, I totally made Conner shoot the sex android, fuck them for making me fight.   But I'm also surprised I was in the minority with Markus in stealing the key for the truck load of android spare parts. The reputation pay off was massive for that one. 

The Bad: The controls are pretty wonky. Unless its a certain mission segment, and very few of them, there is no free roam camera. Its purely PS1 Resident Evil style camera that is slightly more modern. There is a way to free roam, but its slow and not optimal. The investigation button allows you to pan the camera for clues, but time is frozen while you do it. Outside of that you can flip the camera with R1 and it generally doesn't do a good job. Often it will flip into some useless angle, and hitting it again will most of the time never send you back to the view you just had. This is irritating when there is a viewable item/area you walk pass. You'll have to go into the investigate button to pan to it as these often pop only when you're super close. This is pretty much the only negative I have about this game. The style presented makes it forgivable, but it would have been nice to have a more free flowing camera system.

Thing to know: This is no Telltale game. If you fuck up, there is no going back. The show goes on leaving you wondering what could have been. This def adds to the replay factor if you have that kind of time. Decisions are forced up on you to decide uncomfortably quickly. While it sucks at times, it really adds to the emotion it provokes out of you. I have several regrets already.  I selected casual controls for this go around because it made it clear in the opening menu, if a character dies, the story doesn't stop. I didn't really want to miss out on 3rd of the flow chart.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Yea, the controls are wonky as all hell and that's really my only complaint about the game (and sadly its a mainstay of QD games, none of them have had good camera or movement controls). Hopefully you don't run into the game freezing bugs I did while playing because it sucks to have your progress reset because you need to restart the game because it froze (they only happened to me during massive QTE events (like the one you go through toward the end of the game) but they were fucking annoying).

Pretty much I've placed into two categories for play through. You have android MLK or you have android Malcolm X with varying degrees in between. I went pure MLK path so I got what would be considered the best ending overall (though I pissed off quite a few people doing so). My co-worker went Malcolm X and I hear that's actually a pretty fun play through (I'll be doing that next when I find the time, this game is a heavy time investment).

I'd like to see a sequel to this game in the future (you'll understand this when you get to the end) as I'd really like to see what QD can do with this story though since neither ending is canon it might be really hard to do so.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I went full shitbag at the end and got one hell of a grim ending.

Spoiler

By the time I got the dirty bomb, I already decided I was going to use it if I got the chance. On Markus' story line I turned violent after the big march, This made North my lover, and propelled me to leader status with Jericho. Simon was the only one I lost favor with on this route. The public hated me, but Carl basically told me it was the only way when I visited him one last time. I think Carl and Hank are the only two humans I liked. Thanks to the shitty controls I couldn't quite figure out what was going on rushing the android recycle camp until my success rate fell way to low. I failed to reach the facility by the time I got to the mini gun. I blew up the dirty bomb and declared all androids free. News feeds stated how Detroit had fallen to the androids and would be uninhabitable for decades. But President Warren ensured that the fight would go on to eradicate the deviant androids. I got 2% world score on that flow chart.

Kara's story I enjoyed the most, but I shat all over it at the end and felt bad. After a while I stopped caring about my decisions as much because there were things I chose that just didn't go the way I thought they would. I screwed up at Rose's house and got Luther killed. What didn't make any sense to me in the end was that Alice was an android the whole time, after being "cold" and having a fever. Eh. I guess I missed some type of book somewhere that explained the child model have these features. I knew they existed because he dad had a magazine about it in the house at the start. BTW Rose was unintentionally savage AF serving the same meal that was Alice's last with her dad. I mean how could Kara not know after touching Alice so much, when it seems androids interacted with each other through touch? I dunno. It threw me off when she asked Kara why humans "hated us", I guess that was a clue. The bond was kinda ruined for me at Jericho. But I still tried to protect her. I got caught after I had Markus blow up the ship. We got sent to the camp, and when I had a chance to abandon Alice to save Kara I did. Holy shit I felt like an ass watching Alice die. And that was the end of that story with Kara waking up in the junk yard after faking being dead and regretting what she did. Literally 0% world score on that flow chart branch.

For Connor, I went deviant upon meeting Markus, I infiltrated the Cyberlife tower, and sacrificed Hank to accomplish the mission and awake all the androids in the facility. It kinda sucked since I built up to friendship status with him. Even tho the score plummeted he wasn't bitter when he died in my arms. Maybe it was the path I took, but I feel like Connor was the best character, but Markus' story got the most love. A lot of things felt rushed like the sessions with Amanda, and the sequence with Kamski. Plus I worked hard to build a relationship with Hank, but at times it felt unnecessarily hindered by score docking for things I had no control over. While it didn't really hurt overall... watching there red down arrow pop really irritated me regardless.