Become Human is a great prediction of our nearest future, where the rise of the unemployment among humans will be caused by an ever-increasing automation. But most importantly, it’s an emotional story about the cruelty of our world, about fighting for freedom — and a price you have to pay to gain it. And the best Quantic Dream game to date.">
Once upon a time, David Cage made unique projects. Fahrenheit, even if the ending was cut short, was memorable for its unusual gameplay for those times, and Heavy Rain, for all its inconsistencies, hit hard on the senses. Later, Telltale Games and others picked up the banner and put interactive cinema on stream, greatly reducing the value and quality of such games with endless crap consumer goods. And Quantic Dream itself stumbled with an unsuccessful one. A worthy replacement for the work of the French never appeared (at least in the high-budget segment) - well, except that the guys from Supermassive Games unexpectedly shot with, but this was an isolated case.
The streaming “movie” has driven the concept so hard that Detroit: Become Human, by inertia, can be counted among the general mass. But this would be a mistake, because the story about androids turned out to be not only a good interactive film, but also best job"quants".
⇡ System status: running
Detroit, 2038. Humanity has taken a serious step forward technologically and created for itself new toy— androids. It’s convenient when cars can hump 24/7. Just the thing for a servant or worker. Out of order - repaired. If it broke, we bought a new one. Like a smartphone, computer, any other household appliances. You can treat them however you like, they still don’t feel anything! It doesn’t matter that if you remove the LED from your head, your assistants will no longer be distinguishable from people.
Discussions about the danger of AI for humanity have reached a new level. Some do not see anything bad in artificial intelligence, while others, on the contrary, consider it a serious threat. What if the android, at whom you lash out every evening because of your own problems, suddenly fights back, and does not silently watch as it is dismantled into pieces? Does he have the right to do this, or will the first law of robotics hold him back? And what will the machine itself experience when, unexpectedly, it disobeys an order and, being inanimate, kills its living owner?
Detroit: Become Human is about just that. About androids who are faced with a completely incomprehensible phenomenon - to be independent. Not slaves, obediently carrying out any orders, but individuals, with their own views and opinions. We, people, will once again fail to understand this. We are used to destroying what seems strange or inconvenient to us. Just as the Spanish colonialists slaughtered the Mayan civilization, just as other Europeans mercilessly destroyed the Native Americans, so the machines, if anything happened, would face the same fate. The only question is how angry and numerous they will be and whether they will start an open war against us in response to the genocide of tens of thousands of brothers.
On the other hand, by 2038, humanity has fallen even deeper into crisis. With the development of technology, many lost their jobs - androids simply performed difficult tasks better, remembered better, and cared for the sick better. But is it worth blaming harmless machines for the fact that society has not been able to adapt to the changed reality? Become Human shows the near future, surprisingly scary and believable. Already, the shadow of automation hangs over many familiar professions, and when computers become humanoid, who knows what this will lead to.
⇡ Am I alive?
A blow, another blow, a girl's scream. The program stored in the memory fails due to conflicting data: the machine has already become friends with the child and wants to protect her, but the owner ordered him to stand still. The order is important... important... but what's inside? The desire to help, having disobeyed? But it’s impossible, it’s impossible! Or still... Android takes a step towards freedom, takes a second one. Now he himself is responsible for his actions.
Perhaps the first deviants (those who decided to live independently) appeared among machines precisely because of our cruelty towards them. Or someone specially included a workaround in the program. However, the three main characters in Become Human are not human because it is not the story of our species. Connor, Marcus and Kara are androids down to the last screw. But what they will become depends on you. It's a shame, but despite awesome short film, the girl’s storyline turned out to be the most boring and straightforward. But the other two paths are filled to capacity with various events.
Marcus is destined to lead the liberation movement, but even here you can act in different ways. Threaten, frighten, destroy, showing the superiority of AI over people. Or try to resolve the situation through peaceful demonstrations. How will people react to the march of a thousand cars and what will it lead to? Sometimes it is very difficult to resist and not grab the weapon.
Detective Connor, on the contrary, is an overly correct android who received the task: to find and destroy deviants by any means. However, even such a stubborn one can be convinced and “humanized,” especially when a seasoned investigator with an addiction to alcohol and a desire to shoot himself in the temple is chosen as a partner. True, I never managed to make friends with the sarcastic type. My android remained an ordinary soulless machine that puts a goal above all else, but this does not mean that yours will be the same.
In general, the beauty of Detroit: Become Human is that, due to the forks, it allows you to mold the characters into what you see fit. Information and objects that you discover in locations open up new branches in dialogues, and in dynamic scenes the game quite often uses a simple but effective technique, allowing you damn little time to make important decisions. You have to act impulsively.
Therefore, the first playthrough turns out to be the most vivid and memorable. And although you can roll back to any point and replay scenes (thanks to the detailed diagram after each chapter), I would not recommend doing this. The feeling that the past cannot be returned will go away. If you made a mistake, then move on, the more interesting it will be to see what it will ultimately lead to. My Detroit became a drama about unfulfilled dreams and the loss of those closest to me. I didn’t notice something, I was stupid somewhere, I didn’t think of it, but that’s what made interactive cinema very lively and emotional. After the final credits, I really want to see other options for the development of events, but the sensations are somewhat different - the story is imprinted in the mind, it has become its own, close.
Although David Cage would not be himself if the game had not included a couple of blunders and controversial episodes created purely for the sake of emotions. If you played the demo, you probably noticed that the android, who is not allowed to use weapons, takes the gun right in front of the operative. Or, say, the blood from clothes suddenly disappears between chapters, although there was no place to change clothes and wash off. It doesn’t spoil the overall picture, but such moments sometimes still catch your eye. The endings turned out to be too open, with hints of a continuation. Still, after going through fire and water with the heroes, I want to see a little more details of their future lives, and not sudden credits.
In addition, the control scheme from Heavy Rain has returned to the game, where you need to draw a pretzel with a stick in the manner of Street Fighter, and at the same time periodically jerk the controller from side to side. It’s not very convenient when camera movement and interaction with objects are tied to one key - try to hit the right thing, especially tight spaces. And a couple of game mechanics raise questions. Androids can scan areas for evidence and calculate their actions in advance if they need to move in parkour style. When you do this for the first time, due to the novelty of what is happening, everything looks great, but then the same thing is repeated. Even if not often, it still gets a little boring.
Detroit: Become Human, due to the dominance of low-quality games of this genre, can no longer surprise with the mere fact that it is an “interactive movie.” The new creation of Quantic Dream takes on others. It's a bleak vision of the near future, where several characters, faced with unexpected freedom, try to figure out what to do next. They try to find their way in a cruel world where no one understands them. Perhaps there will be death at the end. Perhaps a triumphant victory. Hopes come true or dreams dashed against the harsh reality. Tears. Joy. Whatever the outcome, Detroit is worth playing through at least once. A dozen hours in the amazing year 2038 will be memorable, believe me.
Detroit has a very interesting main menu design. Essentially, this is your personal android that will greet you, explain the meaning of each of the points... and ask various questions. It turned out to be extremely unusual, but as you progress, the car will also react to events in the game itself! I wish I had more ideas like this.
Developer: Quantic Dreams
Release date: May 25, 2018
Platforms: PS4
What do you know about interactive cinema? But meanwhile, for more than 15 years, the proud French studio Quantic Dreams has been adhering to this genre and almost single-handedly moving it forward. With the release of Fahreinheit in 2005, director David Cage established the fundamental elements of his signature style - multiple characters whose destinies are intricately intertwined, dynamic episodic storytelling and complex choices that determine the further development of events. 5 years later, Heavy Rain went on sale - a thriller about a maniac who kills in the rain, in which all these components were embodied in an incredibly exciting story, where any of the four key characters could have died. In October 2013, “Beyond: Two Souls” boasted the participation of Hollywood actors William Dafoe and Ellen Page, but everything else was rather disappointing. The ragged structure of the narrative, simplified gameplay and not the most exciting story left a mediocre impression and gave rise to the idea that Cage had written himself out. Released at the end of May a new game from Quantic Dreams, which was supposed to show that the game director was still capable of something. Let's see what happened in the end.
The year is 2038 and the main achievement of humanity is a new fashionable device called android. Cheap labor that doesn't eat, doesn't drink, doesn't sleep and never disobeys. Outwardly, they were made indistinguishable from people in order to “humanize” the human-robot interaction interface. The scope of application is wide and varied, and its usefulness is visible to the naked eye - androids sweep the streets, carry things, advise in stores and answer calls to call centers. IN household Androids are also used - nurses, cleaners, nannies, security guards - advanced models are able to combine these functions. Almost every American resident considers it his duty to acquire a fashionable device that greatly facilitates everyday reality. But the problem is that the androids began to behave strangely and unpredictably. Moreover, they have begun to experience emotions and this threatens to turn into a serious problem.
Androids experiencing emotions begin to be called deviants, and from the company CyberLife, which creates androids, an advanced RX800 model named Connor is allocated to help the police, who must figure out what is really happening to the androids. Connor is hired as a partner to the middle-aged Lieutenant Hank Anderson, who hates androids. In parallel with this, the android Kara (in the Russian localization for some reason she was translated as Kara) returns home to Todd Williams after repairs, where he lives with his daughter Alice. The head of the family rarely stays dry and regularly descends into domestic violence. Seeing such injustice, Kara breaks program restrictions, becomes a deviant, and tries to save Alice. The third hero of the story is the android nurse Marcus, who takes care of the elderly artist Karl Manfred. For him, the turning point is the night visit of the artist’s son Leo, and after that Marcus decides that something needs to be changed in this world.
The script is both the main advantage and the main disadvantage of the game. Here, for a moment, we have a complex multi-hour walkthrough with a non-linear plot. As a result, each player has his own story and the further development of events depends only on his own choice. In fact, everything is somewhat more prosaic - the game offers one entry point, but with an extensive branching structure. Conventionally, the action is divided into chapters, in each of which all three heroes advance through their own story arc. Within the framework of the chapter, we are asked to make a choice - to whom to say what and what to do. But the trouble is that not every chapter can boast of such non-linearity - because of this, some chapters turned out to be extremely corridor-like and this is a little frustrating. On the other hand, the authors allow you to take a break from tense situations and moral choices and simply enjoy the movie. In addition, the order and content of the chapters practically does not change, so as a result, the heroes get to the same situations, but with different background details - dramatic changes manifest themselves towards the end, when one choice leads to a whole chain of changes. One of the characters may die and this will lead to certain consequences. 
Conceptually, we have a familiar story about humanoid robots - androids who have come to know themselves and are trying to survive in an unfriendly world among people and prove their worth. However, the plot is presented with different accents - the central issues are the segregation of society, slavery and social inequality. Quantic Dreams studio approached the issue with care and built the local world around the basic idea of transforming a “household appliance” into an independent personality. In fact, a new race is rising to the pedestal, which is ready and willing to fight for its rights. And it’s not a fact that the fight will happen without bloodshed, however, this moment is left to the player. At first, local androids are perceived precisely as a device - a fashionable device, like another iPhone, which is sold in a store and broadcasts a certain status - they say, look - I have an android that cleans my house, buys groceries and prepares food for me. At the same time, the titular city of Detroit is designed in such a way as to fit androids into everyday life. David Cage imagines a society in which androids are seen as things, but things that threaten humanity itself. The social subtext is expressed extremely clearly - being cheap labor, they occupy low-paid professions, depriving ordinary citizens of work. And the more multifunctional they become, the more complex their professions become. This is what creates the very split in society that is so necessary to incite conflict.
And this conflict is presented from different points of view to complete the picture. Nanny Kara, who saves a girl from an aggressive dad, makes her way through the city in search of shelter and peace. Nurse Marcus experiences a rebirth and becomes a messiah, leading his tribe to a new life. Agent Connor spends the longest time in a hug job descriptions, but thanks to him the situation is revealed from the point of view of the authorities and those in power. Each has its own story, but they can intersect - David Cage is not the first time to use this approach - it happened in both Fahreinheit and Heavy Rain, but in Detroit the concept is taken to a new level thanks to excellent directing.
Cage's previous games, for all their scenic splendor, faltered on the implementation of gameplay. Here is a cutscene in which the actors wave their arms emotionally and react to external influences. And here is a piece of location research in which the same character walks like a half-sawn Pinocchio and tries to fit into doorways. In Detroit, Cage and his team did a lot of work to correct mistakes and completely reworked the approach to production. Now even the scenes of exploring locations are made with careful use of motion capture animation, and the camera carefully concentrates on numerous details without taking control away from the player. Walking around shopping center, Marcus will take a closer look at the glass roof, and Connor, moving towards the deviant on the roof, will carefully move his chair out of the way. There are dozens of such small details and they do not immediately catch the eye - however, this is how believability and cinematography are created. During cutscenes, there are more close-ups and dynamic scenes - all this enhances the emotional response from the events taking place. This is due to increased detail and detailed capture of facial expressions. The play of light on the characters’ pupils is especially impressive. 
The downside of cinematography was the excessive overload of cliches. Almost every scene unfolds in a fairly predictable manner, and many lines of dialogue are guessed on the fly. If you communicate with the chief of police at the police station, then be sure to use a raised voice and threaten to put your badge on the table; if there is an interrogation, then certainly with a bunch of observers behind one-way glass; If the son of a rich artist suddenly appears on the doorstep, he will probably ask for money. But this also has its own positive side- plot moves do not require any lengthy explanations or chewing, and interactivity changes the perception of stamps for the better, because it depends on our actions which stamp will come out next.
Taking into account the experience of the previous game "Beyond: Two Souls", David Cage did not call famous actors to participate in the game. The main characters are played by little-known actors. The role of Connor was played by Brian Descartes, familiar to fans of the TV series "True Blood". His character remains captive of android instructions the longest and therefore rarely breaks into emotions. But even in such a wooden role, he manages to come across as an extremely curious hero, for whom you want to worry. And his communication with the policeman is the best thing in the game. 
Android nanny Kara, played by Valorie Curry, is the first to experience an emotional crisis, and the storyline with caring for a little girl is more detached from the main story arc. The heroine has her own little story with her defeats and victories. This is without a doubt the most emotional story of them all - and the story does not disappoint in the number of touching and intense scenes. 
The key character Marcus was played by Jesse Williams, and his story turned out to be the most intense. Of course, he is destined to become practically the leader of the entire android movement, and therefore many episodes with his participation evoke genuine admiration. Just look at the scene in the landfill - the diametric opposite of a well-kept city and a terribly creepy place that is physically difficult to be in. Another impressive moment is the parade scene where more and more androids side with Marcus. 
Of the more or less famous actors, we can only mention the elderly artist Carl Manfred, played by Lance Henriksen, known for his role as the android Bishop from Aliens (appreciate the irony of playing a human in a game about androids, while he himself was one of the most famous androids to the cinema!). True, his role is tiny, but still memorable. 
The gameplay is built according to familiar patterns. We are given a carefully designed location, in which the hero is given a specific task - to get to point A and perform action B, but there may be nuances along the route. The game encourages exploration of the environment, because any randomly discovered object can significantly influence events. The trick is that you never know whether what you discover will turn out to be good. Marcus's story begins early in the morning, where he went to the store to pick up a set of paints. The easiest option is to move forward and not be distracted by anything. However, if you stay for a while, you can discover a lot of interesting things and witness interesting scenes. Angry people are chanting “Down with androids” because they have lost their jobs, a preacher on the corner is preaching about the approaching end of the world, a out of breath runner is following the recommendations of an android trainer. If you look closely at the preacher, he will notice the android staring at him and scold him, and the people protesting may even attack Marcus. He will leave alive, but later in the mansion the elderly artist will notice the wrinkled and stained clothes. Or a more complicated option - when Kara returns home, her first task is cleaning, during which you can discover a hidden pistol. Later, when the head of the family gets mad, it’s up to us whether to use the weapon or not. And the options for the development of events are frighteningly extensive. Moreover, the same pistol can later serve both for good and for evil. 
There are several interesting mechanics related to constructing the events that took place based on the available evidence, and then the ability to program further actions, but there is very little practical use in them. The hero investigates the crime scene, analyzes the evidence and builds a chain of relationships. Almost all active points are carefully highlighted, and in order to miss something, you need to try very hard or simply ignore all the hints. Programming the development of events also involves searching for a single successful option and minimizing the likelihood of failure. The scene in the strip club is much more interesting (there is one, yeah) - there you have to track the suspect’s route using cameras in a limited period of time. The trick is that the cameras are androids standing in special booths. This is one of the best episodes in terms of plotting, directing and a high probability of failure. There would be more of these. 
During particularly tense moments, the camera becomes active and constantly changes angles, showing what is happening from different angles. At this moment, the notorious QTE elements pop up on the screen. Successfully and timely pressing of the correct button or combination of them allows you to avoid unpleasant consequences. Misses reduce the likelihood of a successful outcome, however, not everything is so simple here. One gets the feeling that some mistakes do not greatly affect the development of events, while some, on the contrary, are critically important. So one wrong move can ruin a successful series. However, especially for those who are especially worried, there is a simplified solution to the difficulties, where the timings are softer and the combinations are not so complicated. Compared to Beyond Two Souls, this is a significant step forward - there, in rare moments, you had to become a natural octopus in order to hold all the necessary buttons. In Detroit, all combinations are simple and rarely require an application special effort. Throughout the entire game there can be at most 5 scenes in which it is really hard to press the buttons, no matter how funny it may sound.
At the end of each chapter, we are shown a wealth of options to choose from, and this is almost the main gameplay element, which not only encourages us to continue playing, but can even convince us to press the “Start a new game” button. Previous Quantic Dreams games kept similar logic secret and all calculations were carried out somewhere deep in the bowels of the console. Now, all the wealth of possibilities lies on the surface and makes you literally drool over the sprawling tree of possible options and the number of endings for one specific chapter. The trick is that initially all options are closed and blocked, therefore, after completing the game once, we will be shown at most 40% of what is in principle in the game. Moreover, the diagram shows blocks that come from other “options”, which means that even two playthroughs are not enough to see everything - the inner perfectionist risks getting stuck in this interactive series for a long time. Another attention-grabbing element is the comparison of global statistics. Next to each choice you can display a number showing how many people made the same choice. Extremely entertaining, I must say!
Visually, the game captivates instantly. After all, the devils from Quantic Dream know how to carefully work out motion capture animation and lick the picture until it shines. Filled with detailed locations, carefully crafted characters and multi-layered filters create a cozy environment that is simply a pleasure to admire. A varied soundtrack emphasizes the drama of the scenes and creates dynamics where necessary. It’s simply impossible to blame the creators for falling short in visual or musical design. 
But the topic of androids is dealt with somewhat one-sidedly. This is David Cage's first statement on the topic of cyberpunk and, unfortunately, upon closer examination one can discern a lot of mistakes in it. Androids in history are practically indistinguishable from humans - you can understand that they are machines only by wearing workwear with LEDs and a special round light bulb on their temple. Later it turns out that you can get rid of it without any problems, which will not affect the functioning of the robot at all. Much of the functioning of androids remains behind the scenes and significant details of their structure are omitted. In some places it is enough to pull the central module out of the belly to disable the robot, but in others you can live without it for some time.
The moral dilemmas raised also lack depth. Androids are primarily described as victims of circumstances, forced slaves who are trying to survive in a world of aggressive people. When the scenario leans towards civil war with a heap of human victims, they don’t even briefly dwell on human grief.
Androids in Detroit are the same people, but with greater capabilities - they can control equipment from a distance, change spare parts like gloves, and can calculate events in advance. The story concentrates on emotions and, if the androids need to be sensitive and weak, they will be like that because the plot requires it, and they don’t care about the logic of the world. This behavior, of course, is frustrating and can spoil the impression of the game, but if you are not too indignant, no problems will arise.
There are not so many games in the genre of interactive cinema. Apart from Quantic Dream itself, only Telltale with its wooden series are able to produce something convincing. Is it true last years the quality of their games is falling lower and lower - after an unexpected hit Walking Dead and the beautiful in every respect The Wolf Among Us, the studio still can’t find a balance between quality and quantity, releasing more and more budget crafts on the same engine. Against their background, the new French game boasts an exorbitant level of quality that comes close to photorealism.
"Detroit: Become Human" can be considered David Cage's apology for the schlocky Beyond: Two Souls. He marked the location of the rake and this time carefully walked around it. A well-tailored plot about androids who have invaded (well, not the entire planet yet) Detroit and become self-aware, although it is tailored from cliches, it still creates a fascinating spectacle. Excellent graphics, sophisticated direction and detailed facial expressions blur the line between games and movies. The main advantage of this “movie” is that it is interactive, and also non-linear - it is this fact that encourages you to press the “Start a new game” button and try to reshape the story in a new way. And the fact that there are some problems with the logic and depth of disclosure of the topic - you can safely close your eyes to this.
Detroit: Become Human is an action-adventure game from the French gaming company Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit And Beyond: Two Souls. The game's plot revolves around three androids: Kara, who escaped the factory where she was produced to deal with her newfound consciousness; Connor, who works as a hunter of deviant androids; Marcus, who dedicated himself to freeing androids from slavery. They can survive or die depending on the player's dialogue decisions.
Detroit: Become Human comes from the technical demo game Kara (2012) by Quantic Dream. Valorie Curry returned to play the android. To study the setting, the developers visited Detroit. The team built a new engine to complement the game, brought in two hundred actors from Los Angeles, London, and Paris, and then moved on to the filming and animation process. Director David Cage wrote the script for more than 2 years.
Gameplay
Detroit: Become Human is an action-adventure game played from a 3rd person perspective, featuring several playable characters. Each playable character can die and the story will continue without them, so there is no "game over" upon death. The story branches based on the decisions the player makes. You can return to certain points in history to change old decisions. Sometimes the chance of successfully determining a course of action depends on the amount of information collected in the allotted time. Obtaining information allows the player to reconstruct and replay events that happened, or helps create procedures such as patrol routes. One way to obtain information is to analyze environment in augmented vision mode.
Game characters
Kara (played by Valorie Curry) is a newly created android with artificial consciousness. She learns what it is like to live among people, tries to find her place in a world where androids do not yet have consciousness and are used for official purposes. Curry returned to her role as Kara, which she portrayed in the tech demo. Connor (Brian Dechart) is an advanced android police officer who hunts down androids who, for some reason, deviate from their programmed behavior. Marcus (Jesse Williams) is an android who has taken on a mission to free the androids.
Development
The development budget for Detroit: Become Human is about 30 million euros. The game is based on the technical demo Kara (2012) for the PlayStation 3. The founder and head of the company, David Cage, wanted to turn the demo into full game, despite the fact that initially there were no such plans; he was curious what would happen next. He was inspired by Raymond Kurzweil's book " The Singularity is Near”, which explains that the speed of development of human intelligence pales against the background of the development of machines. Therefore, Cage suggested that one day machines might develop emotions. Androids were developed with reference to artificial organs, their energy generation, and the movement of the human eye. Androids' abilities were determined by their professions. Detroit was chosen as the setting to revitalize a city embroiled in economic decline after its historic contributions to American industry. The developers traveled to Detroit for field research: taking photos, visiting abandoned buildings and meeting people.
In late 2013, Cage was in pre-production on Detroit: Become Human, claiming that the game would be based on what he had done in the past with HeavyRain And Beyond: TwoSouls, « but in a very, very different manner" Cage's unfinished script, thousands of pages long, was first handed over to the design team while programmers created the graphics and a new engine with improvements in the areas of rendering, dynamic lighting, shadows and cameras. In October 2016, Cage completed the script, which took more than two years to write. He called it his most comprehensive work. Cage used charts and diagrams when writing the player's choices to see where the choices were leading. Two scenes were scrapped due to lack of clarity in the depiction of violence. The casting process expanded to Los Angeles, London and Paris; The developers found about 220 actors to play 300 roles. The actors were scanned in 3D and their models became characters. Filming and animation followed. Filming ended on September 8, 2017, having lasted 324 days.
Detroit: Become Human was nominated for the 2016 Game Critics Awards in the "Best Original Game" category, but lost HorizonZeroDawn. At E3 2017, the game won GameSpot's "Best of E3" award and was nominated for IGN's " Best game on PlayStation 4" and "Best Adventure Game", "Adventure Game" from Hardcore Gamer, "Best Original Game" and "Best Action/Adventure Game" at the Game Critics Awards.
“I can't be killed. I'm not alive."
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Detroit: Become Human- not a very outstanding game. Or, if you, on principle, refuse to see creativity Quantic Dream games, a rather mediocre interactive film.
On the one hand, Detroit: Become Human can be called a true successor Heavy Rain and an achievement for the gaming industry. On the other hand, by the end of the game I hated David Cage, the characters he wrote, the world and everything connected with them. Because this is not only the largest and most ambitious project of the French visionary - it is also the most pretentious, arrogant and naive point in his track record. Even worse than the Ellen Page simulator.
I believe that this game can only be touched with gloves, with your ears and nose tightly closed. I also think you should definitely take a look at Detroit, even if you've never been interested in the genre or specifically Cage's work.
These statements are somewhat contradictory, so let me explain.
Welcome to the bright future according to CyberLife Corporation
Turing is a genius
I finished Detroit: Become Human twice, and by the time the end credits rolled a second time, the editorial board was drowning in an ocean of my bile. Goodwill and optimism have evaporated to the last drop. I had neither strength nor words (at least literary ones). Only a burning desire to look David Cage in the eye and ask what he did. Again.
Functionally, Detroit is a compilation of all the ideas and practical solutions that Quantic Dream has worked with before. Both good and not so good. It would be hard to call it anything other than a typical studio product. In the long-term construction, which began in 2012 with a short graphic demo, one can discern (sometimes even too clearly) explicit quotes from all without exception of the studio’s projects, starting with Fahrenheit.
Therefore, if you haven’t spent the last thirteen years on a desert island, then you’ve already played Detroit: Become Human. Just piece by piece. All the traditional elements are in place: narration from the perspective of several characters, an episodic narrative, a cavalcade of the most boring cliches, QTE instead of gameplay and the opportunity to kill a particularly hated hero under the wheels of a truck. Everything is as usual.
The good news is that no matter how you feel about Quantic Dream, the French know their stuff when it comes to production and direction. This time the studio took the issue of presentation especially seriously. Hats off: Detroit looks great and sounds like a blockbuster - expensive and tasteful. Designers skillfully handle light, composition and the camera, which often imitates amateur photography and simulates the shortcomings of real optics. The ability to switch to fixed angles to see what's happening from a different angle is a nice touch.
The quality of character motion capture is seriously impressive. Here So we need to work with live actors. Unbearably long (filming took about two years) and painstaking, so that the efforts speak for themselves. Maybe, of course, it’s just me being so impressionable, but in real life the game looks much better than in the trailers. Despite the dangerous proximity to the “uncanny valley”, in pursuit of realistic graphics, Detroit: Become Human stops at the right place - neither closer nor further.
Considering the variety of situations in which the characters find themselves on the screen, it’s hard for me to even imagine what Herculean efforts all this took. Dialogues, working with props, stunts, action scenes... Perhaps this is one of the most (if not the most) games closest to traditional cinema in the history of the industry.
If Quantic Dream’s new graphics core was developed precisely for this purpose, then the studio’s mantra “new engine, new game” no longer sounds so absurd. Although there are some small but offensive flaws: “soapy” textures periodically catch your eye.
It was worth it in the end. The game has something to show.
Zeros and ones
In terms of interactivity and the consequences of decisions made, Become Human returned straight to the standards set by Heavy Rain. She even raised the bar a little. More tense situations, less useless content and fussing with the toilet, shower, etc. household utensils. There is interaction with the game only where it can really (one way or another) influence the development of events - and this is the right approach.
The course towards meaningful, meaningful interactivity is set right from the start of the plot. The hostage situation hyped in the trailers is Start games. No intrusive exposition, no backstory. Here's the problem, here are the potential solutions. Forward. The clock is ticking.
I was afraid that this would be an isolated incident. Exception. The best episode, made specifically to boast to the press about the variability, high stakes and depth of development of the game world. Have these fears come true? Yes and no. This improvised prologue is truly one of best moments Detroit (which is also completely free to try), but while later episodes can't match it, the margin is small. The quality of workmanship almost never sags.
To tell the truth, it was curiosity that haunted me, forcing me to go through the plot almost in one sitting. Thanks to such a spectacular start, I instantly wanted to know what would happen next. What other bind will the protagonists find themselves in, how will they be able to get out of it, and how will this turn out in the future? Detroit: Become Human has the courage to hide details from the player, encouraging attentiveness with information and additional options, and sometimes “secret” dialogues or incidents. The fact that you can go through the game the same way several times, but still discover something new in the process, is worth a lot.
Not all of your decisions will be matters of life and death. Not everyone will backfire. But those of them that still have weight will inevitably remind themselves. Moreover, it is often impossible to predict exactly how. The fates of the three heroes sometimes overlap in quite unexpected ways. Maybe a character who is grateful to the main character will come to the rescue in difficult times. Some will die before reaching the middle of the story, while others will make it to the finale with their last strength.
Perhaps you will see events that I didn’t even get to in two playthroughs: certain combinations of decisions not only affect the ending, but often open or close some plot branches, radically changing not only the course of the game, but also the tone of the story, its mood. Replay value doesn't often go well with a strong emphasis on story. It’s clear why - the first impression is blurred, and the turns are no longer shocking. Detroit: Become Human manages not to lose its freshness during repeated playthroughs.
How nice it would be to end the conversation right here, on a positive note and with good mood, but alas. When I talk about situations that occur during the game, that's exactly what I mean - situations. Specific segments, moving pictures. Completely detached from the plot.
Because with the plot itself... let's say, there are problems.
Palm branch of stupidity
In the near future, Detroit became the industrial and economic capital of the United States thanks to the CyberLife corporation, which established mass production ideal androids. Infinitely obedient, forever young and full of strength servants who replaced people in many industries - from education to culture and the defense sector. Along with prosperity and increasing life expectancy, unemployment is also growing, but O The majority of the population is satisfied. Life has never been so simple and convenient.
In Detroit, androids are powerless, inanimate things, and the game Very wants you to notice it. Separate seats in public transport, parking areas, as if for cattle, uniforms, a diode above the right eyebrow... I understand, Mister Cage, I understand
Troubling sentiments begin to emerge when it is discovered that some androids are developing self-awareness and becoming "deviants." They stop obeying their owners and often attack people, unable to control their newfound emotions. How this happens and why - no one knows. I don't think even David Cage himself knows. But that's not the point.
The story centers on three characters. Experimental android-criminalist Connor, who investigates cases of deviants, fembot housekeeper Kara, who takes care of the little girl Alice, and android-nurse Marcus, who cares for a seriously ill elderly artist. Everyone will be drawn into a series of incidents that threaten to result in a real uprising of the machines, and the culmination, of course, will decide the fate of not only the free androids of Detroit, but the whole world.
Illustration from teaching aid"Symbolism for Dummies." All that's missing is Will Smith, who would burst into the artist's studio and quote his monologue from "I am a robot", which became a meme
Three diametrically opposed perspectives, three extremely different characters, and a central conflict with compelling arguments on both sides. An excellent premise with a foundation for the future, the potential for developing dialogue on difficult, uncomfortably close to topical topics. It could have turned out amazing, but in the end it didn't work out at all. Because the script of Detroit: Become Human is not at all as smart as the developers thought.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how much David Cage is begging for topical social commentary. It would seem that all the tools are there - all that remains is to make an effort, but no. Cage tries to speak out on many topics, but seems to have no idea how to do it. It simply doesn't know how to do this: none of Quantic Dream's previous games even came close to being socially controversial.
That seems like a good detail. Small, almost unnoticeable, but catchy. On the other hand, it’s ridiculously naive. And this street musician sings, if my memory serves me right, about love. Got it? Because androids can't love!
Therefore, taking the path of least resistance, Detroit: Become Human only pretends to be a thoughtful and prophetic story, immediately equating exploitation potentially intelligent AI to historical slavery. With direct (and not very appropriate) allusions to the slave-owning south of the United States, apartheid and racial discrimination. Ghettos and concentration camps (with the burning of prisoners in a real oven, by the way) coupled with the execution of peaceful android demonstrators are a bonus.
This is, without exaggeration, the most clumsy attempt at social commentary since Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. And it wouldn’t be gut-wrenching if the game weren’t so confident in its own righteousness. For all its pseudo-nonlinearity and philosophical nature, the script simply will not allow you to draw your own conclusions.
The moral of this story is carved in stone. There is black and there is white. Android revolutionaries are good, “for some reason” people who don’t understand them are bad. Neither one nor the other tries to try on someone else's skin, to show even a drop of compassion. This is such an edifying, five-minute cartoonish primitive that, despite all the efforts of the game, it simply cannot be taken seriously. Detroit wants, without challenging the intelligence of its audience, to once again voice such unusual and insightful a message like “let’s live together.”
I'll spoil one scene. At some point, Kara can get to the house of a good Samaritan who is helping the androids escape from the United States. Of course, this Samaritan is a sultry black single mother. And when asked why she helps the intelligent tins, she replies in a voice full of sadness: “Because I know what it’s like to be hated for no reason. My people have experienced This[aspirated] on myself.”
It is not necessary to turn over the fate of the world and reach for the most hackneyed analogies in order to say something sincere and touching, but at the same time topical and uncomfortable. For example, a tiny indie novel The Red Strings Club explores the issue of free will and intelligent machines with about five characters and a couple of locations, but conveys much more. As you can see, scale is no guarantee of depth and significance. Diametrically opposed perspectives, characters unlike each other, but they speak not into your ear, but to each other. The difference is small but significant.
Ugh... What are you doing, David Cage! If you look at the farce into which the plot rapidly turns in the second act, turning on the brain, it simply catapults you out of the atmosphere.
Plastic people
But let’s say you didn’t care about what David Cage wanted or didn’t want to say. You can close your eyes to this and just follow the story arcs of the main characters, right?
This is exactly what I tried to do, but it didn’t turn out that well. Completely ignoring the social subtext of the game does not help to imbue the characters with the word “at all.” In addition, even at this basic level, as the reveal of the main characters, the script fails.
Due to the episodic structure of the plot, the game jumps from perspective to perspective, trying to give each of the trio equal attention, but there is clearly not enough time: after all, you still need to drag them by the ears to the deviant revolution. Therefore, the trio of protagonists is revealed indecently poorly. I can't even say they have story arcs that show the characters in a new light.
Because, in essence, there is nothing to exhibit: androids have no characters, only their rudiments. Almost all of them are blank sheets, your avatars. They are even connected only by “racial” affiliation, and not by the central conflict or the ideological core of the plot - the same Kara doesn’t care about the revolution, she already has her mouth full of troubles. The three narrative lines exist as if in a vacuum and seem too disconnected from each other.
At the same time, individually they also do not cause much interest due to predictability. For the sake of experimentation, I told a friend who is seriously interested in cinema (but does not play games) the plot, briefly described the main characters and asked him to guess what, in his opinion, would happen to each of them during the course of the story. He never made a mistake. And this is not because I am friends with Anton Dolin: it’s just that Detroit: Become Human borrows ideas so shamelessly and en masse that all the parallels float on the surface.
As planned, it is you who should “complete” the characters by making decisions for them, but... it doesn’t work. I stopped liking the main characters as soon as they were introduced into the story, and the nagging feeling of emptiness stayed with me until the very end.
There's something ironic about the fact that Kara and Alice's story is the worst of the three and seems outright unnecessary. It’s as if Quantic Dream definitely wanted to talk about family (once again), but still couldn’t find a reason. But it was Kara who was the main character of the tech demo of the same name. It was she who encouraged Cage to think “what if” and develop a small demonstration of the engine into a six-year long construction project.
Excellent game, the main idea is perfectly implemented and the characters are written.
I don’t understand when complaints about gameplay are made against such a genre because the genre immediately implies that this will happen.
I would like to see more interactions with the outside world that are not related to the plot.
A great game that you can play through more than once. The downside for me is that there are few interactive objects that tell about the world.
I believe that if a game evokes emotions in the player, then it is a success.
Despite some awkward, illogical and cliched moments in some episodes, I enjoyed Detroit. Behind the big picture, all these patterns and illogicalities are lost.
And because of this, I want to follow the game. Despite the fact that the plot is banal and the characters are formulaic (especially the detective), you still worry about them, you want to kill some and save others. From me the game gets 10 out of 10. Not every game can make me feel a storm of emotions, but Detroit did. But I decided to give the game two ratings) If you abstract from emotions, then the flaws will immediately appear in your eyes, and because of them, the rating can be safely reduced to 8.
I never wrote reviews of games, even after The Heavy Rain, which I considered a masterpiece. After completing it, I was filled with incredible emotions; every scene I immersed myself in the atmosphere of the game with all my soul, empathizing with the main characters, as if it were my real story. I was amazed by the huge variety storylines, where it is influenced by any of your actions, I cannot convey all my emotions - this is a game for which it is worth buying a PS4 and not regretting the money spent one bit, I have a great desire to replay this game again and again. Thanks to this game, I was immersed in another reality, thanks to the developers for this opportunity!
The game is simply a masterpiece in one word!
I played all the games from quantic dream, all the games were enjoyable in their own way, but this game opened my eyes to how cruel people can be and that the future cannot be changed, it will remain so. (our era is not endless)
The plot of the game is quite logical. The fact that some androids "need" sleep, food and warmth is programmed to make these particular models more like real people.
The very nature of emotions in androids can be explained by a certain virus, which is indirectly confirmed by the fact that some androids can “infect” other androids.
In general, the plot in the game is very non-linear, the characters in the game are also quite good, I especially liked Connor, it was a pleasure to play him.
In any case, the game should only be bought by those who fully understand what the interactive cinema genre is. There are no difficult puzzles or fast-paced gameplay. The essence of this game is making decisions and the consequences that these decisions lead to. And if you like such games, then feel free to take them, you definitely won’t regret it!