"Detroit: Become Human" Another Great Addition to the Genre

 

    Look, I know in recent years, at least online Detroit: Become Human has a bit of a reputation as a game that's a little too on the nose with its commentary. Look, I get it, it does kind of give off some 2016 liberalish vibe, not to say it's necessarily bad, but I would not call it a little nuanced. All of this to say that I did indeed come into this game with a little bit of a bias, I did chuckle when the first mission you go on with Markus has him wear a sash like a Jewish person in Nazi Germany and then ride the back of the bus like Rosa Parks. Honestly, it does feel like perhaps this society should have been more woke and did need some diversity hires to tell them how bad the optics are. Jokes aside, they quickly faded, because even in spite of the hamfisted themes the game is good and I managed to suspend my disbelief very quickly. I can also gladly say that I finished the game with everyone, sadly I didn't really believe in violence. So how was it all?

    Let's start with the good. Compared to other story-based games, particularly the ones by Telltale that I started writing these reviews about, the story has better impact. It doesn't mean much because obviously you can just go back in certain chapters, but there is a decent chance that if you make the wrong decision you can actually kill your characters. The fact that a main character like Kara can die at so many different points of the story immediately provides these games a level of stakes I appreciate. Especially once you reach the end, it really does feel like your choices in the past matter, and that's something that a lot of these "story games" really struggle with, that balance between ambition and practicality in terms of how many endings the developers have to make. In a similar vein, sticking to the topic of mechanics, I really enjoyed the pacing of the story. Never did it feel like it focused on one character too much, and having the chapters be really short made sure that the pacing was excellent, and very consumable.

    In terms of which stories I enjoyed the most I would probably rank it Connor, Kara, Markus. The reason for this is that I just think the "android" detective storyline fits the mechanics of the game the best, especially in terms of Connor being able to fight and also magically finding the smallest of details. Plus he is supposed to be this prototype unit so you'd expect him to maybe have special abilities. Plus his storyline deals with investigating how and where deviancy came from, not to mention I do enjoy Hank's voice actor quite a bit so he's handily my favourite. My only real complaint with his story is that Kamski is basically non-existent, even though if you read in-between the lines he clearly has a larger role than stated. Which makes the supposed "Kamski" ending even more confusing, because it's clearly implied that he purposely gave Markus a virus to turn androids deviant, yet he seems almost unsympathetic to the android cause? I suppose in that sense he could be the rich person that views everything as beneath him or as his playthings, considering how many Chloe's he just has around his house, and him trying to see if Connor would kill Chloe for information.

    Generally, I'd say I have similar issues with how Cyberlife was handled as well. I know it's funny talking about how this game needs to be less subtle, but it was quite unclear who was in charge there, and how. So is Amanda an android? The real person? Is Cyberlife ran by an android? Also why do they hardly acknowledge the fact that Markus is rA9, like he literally asks why everyone automatically obeys him, but the rest of the group just sort of shrugs it off, even though supposedly most of the deviants in Jericho dream about this "android messiah." Not to mention him mostly becoming leader almost unanimously? That's probably why Markus' storyline is my least favourite. The whole violent vs peaceful protest thing does sort of make you question if the allegory needed to be so direct, and everyone basically follows your command no matter what. It does not feel as earned as it should feel in my opinion, you are thrust into leadership and are basically never questioned much of the time.

Final Score: 78/100

    Do I think this game is better than Telltale's The Walking Dead game series? I'm not sure, I'd say it's decently comparable. I do think that Life is Strange is probably my favourite of this genre of game to be honest. With the first couple seasons of The Walking Dead also being up there for me. A lot of that is probably nostalgia though to be honest. Even still, I can safely say that I enjoyed this game and that it is definitely a must play for people into this genre. All I will say is that if you do try a blind run-through be prepared to live with your mistakes, or be prepared to re-do chapters because you don't want everyone to die super early. I oddly enough had a lot of trouble with the trigger and bumper quick time events. I'm not sure why I just guess I'm not used to pressing them. All in all, the mechanics were good, but I do think the story needed some tinkering to it.