SteemGC Game Review - Detroit: Become Human

Hey @steemgc, @holoz0r here with some new content after a brief hiatus. I've been completely absorbed by Detroit Become Human, and have put many hours into preparing this review! I hope you enjoy!

David Cage, writer and director of Detroit: Become Human has seen broad criticism for his titles, as well as praise. People either enjoy his cinematic methodology of story telling, where plot is a busy spider, building her web. Strong characters, intriguing stories, and challenging content has always been a feature of his work, from Farenheit to Beyond: Two Souls, and everything inbetween, there's been a wide gamut of content.

Detroit: Become Human is Cage's strongest execution of a vision yet. Set in a future Detroit, where everyone (who can afford one) is able to obtain an Android companion from Cyberlife, a massive corporation which produces Androids for industrial, housekeeping, companionship, and other purposes.

The setting is a painting of a future where human unemployment is high, and undertones of machine versus human specie-ism (as opposed to racism) teeters on the edge.

Detroit: Become Human is a tale told from the perspective of three seperate Androids. We open with Connor, who is a cyberlife android tasked with aiding the Detroit Police Department. We soon thereafter meet Kara, who is a housekeeper for a troubled single parent. Finally, there's Markus, who is a companion for an elderly artist.

The game plays out in the course of many scenes, with the perspective of the story changing with each. There's choices to make, like every David Cage game, and a little bit more freedom than prior titles. The camera will still guide you toward the ultimate goal, but there's more branching paths than ever.

It's impossible to give away nothing of the story when talking about Detroit: Become Human. This is a good thing, because your story, and thus, the changing reality of Detroit has so many different outcomes. Based on your choices, you're unlikely to have the same experience as others.

At the end of each scene, you get to see a flow chart of what could have happened. This is a nice fourth wall shattering -turned world building element, as playing from the perspective of an AI powered Android, there's no reason that every possible decision and choice available, could be evaluated.

You can bring up this flowchart at any time, which helps to see what path you are on, and where, if you can, branch away from a certain direction. Sometimes, it is too late for any of this to happen.

Detroit: Become Human feels like three different games, all at once. In my first play through; Connor's story was a high intensity cop-drama, with an ever-growing tension between Connor and his partner Hank.

Kara's story was a legitimate nightmare, with survival horror undertones painted throughout, scarce on resources, and desperate to survive using whatever means available. At the same time, the morals of justice, and an impressionable young companion, Alice are constantly at conflict to what you need to do to survive.

Finally, following around Markus played out like the title of the game suggested Become Human.

Every choice you make in the game impacts your ability in the future to make other choices, or have other options become available to you. It is a game that encourages replays, and teaches you about how you would react in certain circumstances.

There's ethical dilemmas on a regular basis, and often these decisions are timed in order to obtain an organic, emotional response. You'll find yourself growing emotionally attached to some characters, perplexed by the motives of others, but remain ever intrigued.

There are many ways to approach a game like Detroit Become Human, but there's little else that I can do but heap it with praise. It's heavily inspired by Asimov's I, Robot and the novel Blade Runner is based on the excellent Phillip K Dick piece, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

It is a visual delight on the PlayStation 4, with incredible visuals throughout, and on the PS4 Pro, on my HDR 4K TV, I was often left gobsmacked by the beauty on display, ranging from the character models, to the environment; to mundane props like couches.

The cost of admission for Detroit: Become Human is thoroughly worth it, even more so if you're interested in the topics of post-humanism, technology; and artificial intelligence. It definitely isn't a typical game, but it tackles its themes well. It could be lighter on the exposition in parts; and let the player link the dots, but this isn't usually a popular genre for storytelling.

Now, we await the next great cyberpunk game. Your move, CD Projekt Red. We'll be waiting for Cyberpunk: 2077.