"Remember, this is not just a story, this is our future."
You can't be serious I haven't even started the game...
There's a lot of adjectives you can throw at David Cage's Detroit: Become Human. On-the-nose, vain, and uninspired are some that come to mind; but incompetent is what best describes this game. From gameplay to storyline, themes to executions, characters to references, every single aspect of this game is a mess. There's not one thing it has going for it except graphics, but come on. A triple-A game made in 2018 is supposed to have good graphics. What kinda positive is that…
I'll start from the beginning. The loading screen girl is kinda creepy and just said some pretentious stuff out of nowhere. You then start the game as Connor. His first mission is awesome. The pacing, buildup, atmosphere and every other detail works harmoniously to create one of the strongest impressions of a video game you could ask for. Even the shitty gameplay made total sense for what I assumed would be a detective game of an android busting other Androids with a few twists here and there to keep things interesting. A faux blade runner type game. Unfortunately, that never really turned out to be the case. At least not the entirety of it. Connor's storyline is also the only half-decent one here. His relationship with Hank and their interactions are super fun to play through, and throughout the game it's the only thing that stays interesting through the very end. Although it's obviously not nearly good enough to sustain the whole game and justify anything it does.
Soon after completing the first mission successfully, you wake up as Kara, a household maid that works in a disjointed household, rebels against her abusive owner, and runs with the daughter. This is where the game starts to feel ridiculous. Every. Little. Movement. Forces you to interact with the game in a cyclic manner. Point. Click. Move. Cutscene. It becomes old really quick. You have to move a certain way? Do a rotation thingy with your mouse. You want to pick something up? Do a rotation thingy with your mouse. You have to fight someone? Do a rotation thingy with your mouse, but this time press D. What in the fuck is the right click mechanic WHO FUCKING IMPLEMENTED THIS (I was playing on mouse and keyboard, which is probably why I hate this mechanic so much). I genuinely feel like this game set the medium back at least 20 years in terms of game design. It is barely functional and does absolutely wonders at making you want to quit playing this piece of shit game.
Next comes Markus. And his storyline is the reason why this game goes from barely passable to horseshit. He's a caretaker taking care of an old, dying artist who loves painting (he's an idiot). I have no idea why 2038 would have a single painter alive that does painting by brush. It'd be more interesting if it was treated like a dead art form, but we get no indication of that. Just "people don't appreciate art boo hoo." Anyway, there is this one great scene, on paper at least, that serves as an example of how this already crumbling story is completely butchered in this medium. Markus is told to paint something, anything. Markus, being a machine, just replicates his surroundings on canvas. A perfect copy. But the old greaseball insists that he draw something only he can imagine and asks him to close his eyes (btw, why would closing his eyes do shit he's a fucking android he can just imagine the scenery once more or google some other scenery). Anyway after doing a little dance with your mouse to get the goddamn brush moving the music steadily builds up as Marcus, an android, lifts his brush, marks it with paint, goes against his programming and...
You get a prompt asking to pick one of the two topics to combine, one of which quite literally says "android/pain.” What?
How do you even manage to mess up a key moment like this? The game is so terrified of the player disengaging with the game that it quite literally turns everything into a quick-time event and in the process manages to undermine crucial moments such as this and many more. It is borderline comical how naive the game thinks you are. Almost insulting, but that would mean that there is something to feel insulted about. When Kara has to tell a story, you have to pick the options. When Markus has to give a speech, you have to pick the options. The characters don't feel like characters anymore, just cardboard, cookie cutter puppets that exist to shove themes up your face. This isn't a detective game; these are key moments that are supposed to define the psychology of your characters WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO TO GIVE YOUR PLAYERS A CHOICE IN THIS. Of course, I don't want the whole game to be a gigantic cutscene, but if you're going to do one then what's the point in half-assing it?
“Cinematic Video Games” always feel like you’re playing in a movie. You don’t need groundbreaking gameplay mechanics to make it stick. It’s the immersion that counts. If you’re going to break it every 2 minutes then what’s the point?
I had a strong feeling during the early parts of the game that this story would really benefit in a TV format. But now, after completing it, I think it needs a complete rewrite. Outside the game my saved files crashed one time halfway through, so I had to replay it all again. I really have nothing good to say about this.
The branching pathways/endings are a gimmick, designed to hide a weak story behind. Many games have a choice system during crucial moments that defines what trajectory their story takes. Encouraging replays and increasing the tension/stakes. The way Detroit does this is every action becomes a choice, where most choices don't mean anything. It’s copious and treats serious and heavy topics with as much finesse as an 80s sitcom would.
Markus also feels like a disingenuous leader. He climbs the ranks too fast, becomes trusted too quickly for it to be believable. While marching you can have him chant “WE HAVE A DREAM” which genuinely brings tears to my eyes dear god this game is so baffling 💀.
The writing is really bad. The story itself is intriguing and exciting, but lacks a crucial novelty factor. We've all seen the matrix, blade runner, lain, ghost in the shell and countless other IPs that delve into the topic of AI and what have you. What does Detroit: Become Human have anything new to say about that? Very little. It's basically your typical dystopian sci-fi written by a 10 year old who failed history. It's just stupid. Of course, when I see a kid smiling, I'm going to feel happy, when I see a person gain freedom, I'm going to be proud of them. Good writing isn't when you sandwich scenes of obvious emotional resonance in a sad attempt to sway the audience by pulling on their heartstrings. Most writers fail to grasp the idea of what buildup means or how the journey matters more than the climaxes in the grand scheme of things. Of course, the average audience is going to praise an emotionally charged scene, but that doesn't mean they're oblivious to how a good writer GETS to that scene. It requires finesse and skill which unfortunately David Cage lacks horribly.
I think two of the most hilarious writing choices they made is including actual nazi concentration camps for androids and that one scene where Markus kisses North and a whole SWAT team surrounding them goes "aight my bad" and just backs off 😭😭😭. I'm not even making this up, that's an actual scene in the game.
My BIGGEST problem with this is how the androids are treated and written like actual humans. No, not like machines that have gained sentience, but rather a whole race of "people," a clear allusion to racial minorities. That's another thing that makes this story boring and offensive to the ACTUAL HISTORY of black people. You can find a bunch of articles online that properly address this issue. The game doesn't ever treat these androids as a "new form of intelligent life" but rather as a substitute for minorities living in some futuristic "racist" city. Which doesn’t even feel believable because worldbuilding sucks in this. Why isn't there a proper explanation or theory for how these androids achieve sentience? Why are androids not doing super smart shit like idk the sky's the limit you can make them do anything. Why do these robots feel like boring old humans? Why is there a lack of any philosophical discourse?
Detroit has zero grasp on history and a naive understanding of storytelling. It's a fun game sometimes. I can't even deny that. But it's a massive trainwreck that deserves zero amount of praise that it got and every bit of criticism (that it also got) but what makes it so fun is how seriously it takes itself despite being so utterly out of touch. Like you almost feel genuinely moved by some of the moments in the game until you realise how fucking cheesy and just downright hilarious those moments are. The good ending is really sweet though.
If Detroit is an allegory for the civil rights movement, then after playing this my life has become an allegory to Van Gogh because I wanna shoot myself now.
3/10 I wanna bang Chloe so bad though.
You can't be serious I haven't even started the game...
There's a lot of adjectives you can throw at David Cage's Detroit: Become Human. On-the-nose, vain, and uninspired are some that come to mind; but incompetent is what best describes this game. From gameplay to storyline, themes to executions, characters to references, every single aspect of this game is a mess. There's not one thing it has going for it except graphics, but come on. A triple-A game made in 2018 is supposed to have good graphics. What kinda positive is that…
I'll start from the beginning. The loading screen girl is kinda creepy and just said some pretentious stuff out of nowhere. You then start the game as Connor. His first mission is awesome. The pacing, buildup, atmosphere and every other detail works harmoniously to create one of the strongest impressions of a video game you could ask for. Even the shitty gameplay made total sense for what I assumed would be a detective game of an android busting other Androids with a few twists here and there to keep things interesting. A faux blade runner type game. Unfortunately, that never really turned out to be the case. At least not the entirety of it. Connor's storyline is also the only half-decent one here. His relationship with Hank and their interactions are super fun to play through, and throughout the game it's the only thing that stays interesting through the very end. Although it's obviously not nearly good enough to sustain the whole game and justify anything it does.
Soon after completing the first mission successfully, you wake up as Kara, a household maid that works in a disjointed household, rebels against her abusive owner, and runs with the daughter. This is where the game starts to feel ridiculous. Every. Little. Movement. Forces you to interact with the game in a cyclic manner. Point. Click. Move. Cutscene. It becomes old really quick. You have to move a certain way? Do a rotation thingy with your mouse. You want to pick something up? Do a rotation thingy with your mouse. You have to fight someone? Do a rotation thingy with your mouse, but this time press D. What in the fuck is the right click mechanic WHO FUCKING IMPLEMENTED THIS (I was playing on mouse and keyboard, which is probably why I hate this mechanic so much). I genuinely feel like this game set the medium back at least 20 years in terms of game design. It is barely functional and does absolutely wonders at making you want to quit playing this piece of shit game.
Next comes Markus. And his storyline is the reason why this game goes from barely passable to horseshit. He's a caretaker taking care of an old, dying artist who loves painting (he's an idiot). I have no idea why 2038 would have a single painter alive that does painting by brush. It'd be more interesting if it was treated like a dead art form, but we get no indication of that. Just "people don't appreciate art boo hoo." Anyway, there is this one great scene, on paper at least, that serves as an example of how this already crumbling story is completely butchered in this medium. Markus is told to paint something, anything. Markus, being a machine, just replicates his surroundings on canvas. A perfect copy. But the old greaseball insists that he draw something only he can imagine and asks him to close his eyes (btw, why would closing his eyes do shit he's a fucking android he can just imagine the scenery once more or google some other scenery). Anyway after doing a little dance with your mouse to get the goddamn brush moving the music steadily builds up as Marcus, an android, lifts his brush, marks it with paint, goes against his programming and...
You get a prompt asking to pick one of the two topics to combine, one of which quite literally says "android/pain.” What?
How do you even manage to mess up a key moment like this? The game is so terrified of the player disengaging with the game that it quite literally turns everything into a quick-time event and in the process manages to undermine crucial moments such as this and many more. It is borderline comical how naive the game thinks you are. Almost insulting, but that would mean that there is something to feel insulted about. When Kara has to tell a story, you have to pick the options. When Markus has to give a speech, you have to pick the options. The characters don't feel like characters anymore, just cardboard, cookie cutter puppets that exist to shove themes up your face. This isn't a detective game; these are key moments that are supposed to define the psychology of your characters WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO TO GIVE YOUR PLAYERS A CHOICE IN THIS. Of course, I don't want the whole game to be a gigantic cutscene, but if you're going to do one then what's the point in half-assing it?
“Cinematic Video Games” always feel like you’re playing in a movie. You don’t need groundbreaking gameplay mechanics to make it stick. It’s the immersion that counts. If you’re going to break it every 2 minutes then what’s the point?
I had a strong feeling during the early parts of the game that this story would really benefit in a TV format. But now, after completing it, I think it needs a complete rewrite. Outside the game my saved files crashed one time halfway through, so I had to replay it all again. I really have nothing good to say about this.
The branching pathways/endings are a gimmick, designed to hide a weak story behind. Many games have a choice system during crucial moments that defines what trajectory their story takes. Encouraging replays and increasing the tension/stakes. The way Detroit does this is every action becomes a choice, where most choices don't mean anything. It’s copious and treats serious and heavy topics with as much finesse as an 80s sitcom would.
Markus also feels like a disingenuous leader. He climbs the ranks too fast, becomes trusted too quickly for it to be believable. While marching you can have him chant “WE HAVE A DREAM” which genuinely brings tears to my eyes dear god this game is so baffling 💀.
The writing is really bad. The story itself is intriguing and exciting, but lacks a crucial novelty factor. We've all seen the matrix, blade runner, lain, ghost in the shell and countless other IPs that delve into the topic of AI and what have you. What does Detroit: Become Human have anything new to say about that? Very little. It's basically your typical dystopian sci-fi written by a 10 year old who failed history. It's just stupid. Of course, when I see a kid smiling, I'm going to feel happy, when I see a person gain freedom, I'm going to be proud of them. Good writing isn't when you sandwich scenes of obvious emotional resonance in a sad attempt to sway the audience by pulling on their heartstrings. Most writers fail to grasp the idea of what buildup means or how the journey matters more than the climaxes in the grand scheme of things. Of course, the average audience is going to praise an emotionally charged scene, but that doesn't mean they're oblivious to how a good writer GETS to that scene. It requires finesse and skill which unfortunately David Cage lacks horribly.
I think two of the most hilarious writing choices they made is including actual nazi concentration camps for androids and that one scene where Markus kisses North and a whole SWAT team surrounding them goes "aight my bad" and just backs off 😭😭😭. I'm not even making this up, that's an actual scene in the game.
My BIGGEST problem with this is how the androids are treated and written like actual humans. No, not like machines that have gained sentience, but rather a whole race of "people," a clear allusion to racial minorities. That's another thing that makes this story boring and offensive to the ACTUAL HISTORY of black people. You can find a bunch of articles online that properly address this issue. The game doesn't ever treat these androids as a "new form of intelligent life" but rather as a substitute for minorities living in some futuristic "racist" city. Which doesn’t even feel believable because worldbuilding sucks in this. Why isn't there a proper explanation or theory for how these androids achieve sentience? Why are androids not doing super smart shit like idk the sky's the limit you can make them do anything. Why do these robots feel like boring old humans? Why is there a lack of any philosophical discourse?
Detroit has zero grasp on history and a naive understanding of storytelling. It's a fun game sometimes. I can't even deny that. But it's a massive trainwreck that deserves zero amount of praise that it got and every bit of criticism (that it also got) but what makes it so fun is how seriously it takes itself despite being so utterly out of touch. Like you almost feel genuinely moved by some of the moments in the game until you realise how fucking cheesy and just downright hilarious those moments are. The good ending is really sweet though.
If Detroit is an allegory for the civil rights movement, then after playing this my life has become an allegory to Van Gogh because I wanna shoot myself now.
3/10 I wanna bang Chloe so bad though.