Detroit: Become Human Review - Create your very own experience in the eyes of Androids

Detroit: Become Human, the action-adventure game developed by Quantic Dream is exclusively launching for PlayStation 4 on 25 May 2018. We are lucky to be able to enjoy the game ahead of its launch, so here is our Detroit: Become Human review where we will discuss the gameplay without any critical spoilers.

The Settings of Detroit

The game set its background in the near-future metropolis of Detroit during the year 2038, where the city has been rejuvenated by the invention and introduction of androids into everyday life. You will be able to experience the story of 3 Android characters – Conner, Kara and Markus, each with their unique perspectives in viewing their lives.

As you may have already know, Androids are specialized to do different tasks. Taking the playable Androids as the examples, Kara is specialized to take care of houses or children, Conner is a police that hunts down deviant Androids, while Markus is tasked to assist a disabled man in his daily life.

The Gameplay of Detroit

Detroit: Become Human relies on narrative-driven experiences with a very branching story, every choice you make leads to a very unique consequence that sometimes it is totally unexpected. Certain choices also affect your relationships with the other characters and can significantly affect the story afterwards.

Some of the choices come with conflicting moral values too, as you progress through the game, you will probably start to question yourself: will I do the same if I encountered the same situation in my real life or will I still make the same choice if I knew what will be the consequences? However, there is no right or wrong way to explore the story, so you can just pick any choice you prefer and bear the consequences of your choices all by yourself.

Although you can replay any scene at any time (to take on another route of the story or see all the things you missed), I highly recommend you to complete your first playthrough without looking back. You should ask someone else to play the game at the same time, and see how different you and their stories are!

Talking about the controls, the game limits you in a certain area according to the story (there is no open world), but you can choose to perform any action available as you want. There will be QTEs in certain scenes and special actions like investigating evidence or calculating a safe route before you jump to a place that is difficult to reach.

There will be difficulty settings as well – the EXPERIENCED mode is designed for those who want to experience the most immersive experience with harder controls while the CASUAL mode is more accessible to those who are less familiar with the controller (easier controls). A flowchart will be displayed after every chapter, where it will showcase all the possible routes, you can view the worldwide statistics from it to see how the majority players make their choices.

The Verdict

The concept of Detroit: Become Human – viewing a new world in the eyes of Android itself is already interesting, and yet its story impressed me more. The best parts of the game are the choices making and relationship building, where it makes you rethink your moral values, questioning yourself about what is the right thing to do in the situation. It is a pleasure to discover the story of Detroit: Become Human while creating your own version of it, you will definitely playing it more than once. Btw, can I get myself an Android too?