Androids and their journey of self-discovery is one of my favorite topics covered in sci-fi, so right from the premise I was intrigued by this story. By introducing three playable protagonists, the player has more freedom and agency to explore certain perspectives that wouldn't be possible if they were restricted to one POV, and that's something that really makes this game stand head and shoulders above many other sci-fi narrative-driven games.

For example, in this game one could play Kara as the sweet and nurturing mother figure, Connor as the efficient and cold machine, and Markus as the ruthless terrorist - or something completely different for all of them. Each approach would give the player a different insight on how their decisions would affect the story, and by mixing and matching those approaches - and with the ability to fail certain actions, resulting in occasionally drastic consequences - there are endless possibilities in which the player can shape their adventure.

Its worth noting how I played each character - I played Kara as the deviant who became so in order to protect and care for Alice, Markus as the reluctant "chosen one", and Connor as the eventual deviant, the machine who tried his hardest to remain true to his programming without being cruel or inhumane. I chose nonviolence whenever I could for all three, except for Revolution at the end of Markus' journey. This was very much how I wanted the story to go, and its a major factor in why I enjoyed this story so much. In my playthrough, Connor only died twice - once sacrificing himself for the girl at the beginning, and the other protecting Hank in the media tower - while Kara and Markus didn't die at all.

This game starts off very strong with Connor in his role as a hostage negotiator, and the sense of urgency and high stakes is felt right off the bat. But then the game becomes an absolute dud for the next hour or so. It essentially is Chore Simulator as you play through Kara and Markus' opening sections. I get that these sections were intended to give the player a sense of everyday life for the androids, but in my opinion, the same message could've been communicated through well-written dialogue and cutscenes instead of lengthy, tedious and repetitive button/stick combos. And because of this, I bounced off of this game about three times before I fully committed to finishing Markus' intro.

However, once it got to Kara's second part, in which she has the opportunity to become deviant is when the game really kicked off for me. I was instantly drawn into the relationship between an android and the human girl she cared for, and the writing for their story was absolutely amazing and had me fully invested in their story until the very end. Luther was also an amazing addition as another deviant. Connor had a gripping story that was only sometimes marred by Hank's behavior (which didn't become much of an issue after Reveal #2, as I understand why he acted the way he did). Markus' story was the weakest for me, as his side characters weren't exactly intriguing or interesting, and the whole "chosen one" theme feels very overdone at this point - but that's still to say, I very much enjoyed his parts. Markus and his story felt much like the overarching plot beats as a whole that kept the other two main characters involved in one form or another.

There were many highlights throughout the story that I believe even eclipse some acts from games I enjoyed more than this one.

1. Reveal #1 - Alice is an android!? I've seen so many TV shows and movies and played so many games that I can usually see the twist coming, or at least anticipate one. This was one of the rare few that completely blindsided me, and it was possibly the five greatest minutes of the game for me.

2. Escape from Jericho - one of the most stressful parts of any game I've ever played that wasn't horror.

3. Reveal #2 - Hank didn't hate androids because they let his son die, he hates the human responsible for that. He hates androids because they can revive, while Hank's son cannot. I didn't expect this and thought it was a really new and interesting approach to a confrontation that has already been explored in other stories.

4. The endings. Nailing a great ending is a sign of a truly competent video game, and D:BH not only does that once, but three times! Kara at the border (RIP Jerry), Connor vs other Connor, and Markus' revolution had my blood pressure at a constant high.

5. Reveal #3 - Connor's Zen Garden was all in his mind (and Amanda was an AI). In retrospect, this may have been stated beforehand (especially since Kamski refers to the "backdoor" he built), but I completely missed that and saw all of the Zen Garden scenes as Connor returning to CyberLife to speak with his boss in person. I did have a slight intuition that it was all in his head when he was standing outside of Markus' and Co's gathering on Jericho before their confrontation, and he was suddenly in the Zen Garden speaking with Amanda, but while wearing the concealing clothes he had on, rather than his usual uniform. It wasn't until the very end when Amanda took over Connor to kill Markus that it really hit me, and it hit me even harder than usual since I thought the game was pretty much over at that point.

The soundtrack was phenomenal and greatly accentuated the emotional beats throughout the story. Kara's theme is one of my favorites in any game, and I constantly hum it to myself.

However, this game does have its faults. For one, its gameplay is 25% exploration, 75% quick time events, and I don't care for the latter. Dialogue choices were sometimes not accurately portrayed in the options given to you - for example, I chose the "Doubt" option as Connor in response to Hank asking whether or not they were the good guys after being pulled off the case, thinking this meant agreeing with Hank's doubts. Instead, it meant that Connor had no doubts that they were on the right side of the war, and that was not at all what I had intended to say. This happened more than a few times throughout the game.

All in all, this was one of the best narrative-driven games I have ever played, and because of how much this particularly specific playthrough resonated with me, this will probably be the only time I play Detroit: Become Human.