Game Review - 'Detroit: Becoming Human'

The new game by Quantic Dream published by Sony exclusively for PS4 is a graphic adventure of multiple choices.

It is much more than a pure experience, despite its sensational topic suggestion which ranges from a dystopia conceived of artificial intelligence in and identity crisis that has led to a future less human than humanity itself.

Set in 2038, where the populated Detroit had entered an era through Cyber Life, a company that in very few years has managed to become the world’s largest in turnover.

The reason for its success is straightforward, it is the only company that has led to a license and brought androids to the world market. The results are machines of human similarity with extraordinary artificial intelligence, capable of performing any tasks efficiently and carrying out its owners’ orders.

Consequently, the advent of androids has beaten the Earth’s economy with serious repercussions on employment, creating discontent among the poor social classes.

The plot takes places in a week’s time, where the destiny of these androids will be intertwined. To trigger these events will be the growing case of a group of androids that have managed to overcome the limits imposed by their programming, the so-called Deviants.

The game narrates the stories of three androids, each of them involved in the precarious balance between android and human.

Cara, the technological version of a nanny, who must choose whether to obey to its programming or become a deviant for the love of the girl she takes care of, living in a dramatic family situation.

Markus, an android assisting a wealthy artist weak in health, is a deviant that had imposed himself the mission to set free and release the androids from slavery.

Last is Connor, a prototype built to help police with complex cases, or those requiring a detective. His other aim is to hunt the deviants and eliminate all of them. By manoeuvring every one of them, the player lives and relives the story from different perspectives where the viewer is both interpreter and director.

‘The most important feature is the freedom given to those who face it’, explains Adam William who is the lead narrative of Quantum Dream.

‘Whatever happens in the game is the direct consequence of the player’s choice, for example, the player needs to catch a rebel Android, it is necessary to reflect on the possibility of granting civil rights to artificial intelligence. It takes looking deep inside to figure out how to perceive the others, the outcasts, the different’.

For this reason, by giving the player the opportunity to repeat each choice once again, seeing the effect it does obligating anyone to impersonate himself in the game like in real life and to understand through reactions decision that sometimes can have nefarious consequences.