That said, in terms of choice and consequence, the game can sometimes be a bit all over the place. It’s definitely more varied than, say Beyond, but not quite as varied as Heavy Rain. You can definitely have very different playthroughs in Detroit, for sure, and sub-stories for each character can vary massively depending on what choices you make, but the long-term effects generally for the most part don’t tend to change. Your decisions do have an impact on the main story, but unlike Heavy Rain it seems that’s there’s only really two major narrative threads and variations of those based on the outcome of your choices. It wouldn’t be a Quantic Dream game without choice and consequence, and Detroit is no different.
It can get a little uncanny valley with the characters, their lip-syncing and animations at times, but that’s a testament to Quantic Dream and its work on making some of the most gorgeous characters and facial movements in video games, period.
DETROIT BECOME HUMAN JAPANESE CAST MOVIE
In fact, the presentation throughout the entire game is second to none, from the visuals and the cinematic score, to the voice acting and cinematography, it’s very much a stylised narrative-driven affair that's more akin to a movie than a video game. They're well-written characters, each perfectly acted and supported by some great talent. Each character has their own perspective on the events that unfold – events that you drive – and each has their part to play, but in wholly different circumstances. "You were great as the evil Highlander fella."ĭetroit throws you into the shoes of three androids: Kara, Connor and Markus, as they navigate a technologically advanced world coming to terms with the rise of androids. But for me, Detroit: Become Human is the dev's best work in recent years. Sure, it hasn’t always been this way: Beyond: Two Souls split the critics, and Heavy Rain was lauded at first but later ridiculed down the line (we loved it, mind).
It’s a game that uses everyday tensions – that we experience today, even – and wraps them up in a compelling narrative that has you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. It’s a game that explores the fragility of life, the relationship between life and death, the oppression of minorities, the rise of technology, while posing questions like 'can sentient-AI have a soul that constitutes life?'. Say what you want about Cage’s history of video games, but they certainly do pose some pertinent questions, and in Quantic Dream's latest title, Detroit, does just that.
DETROIT BECOME HUMAN JAPANESE CAST ANDROID
It does get you thinking though: is that vision of an android in every home, a country with an unemployment rate of 37.4% because androids have taken a vast majority of their jobs, is it an accurate prediction? Obviously we don’t know what the future holds, but is David Cage’s vision that hard to believe? The short and narrow of it is: no, it's not, which is what makes the French studio’s latest choice and consequence driven narrative such a thought-provoking affair. It’s an important question that I believe needs answering. The first thing I thought about when I heard about Detroit: Become Human and Quantic Dream’s vision of an android-populated future was whether in their version of 2017/2018, they too were laughing at memes and YouTube videos of androids and robots falling over doing menial tasks.