Detroit: Become Human

[DisturbedSwan]

Started this earlier, put in about 3 hours.

 

I have to say, so far I've been incredibly impressed with it. The presentation is absolutely flawless, some of the facial animation and models look nigh-on photo realistic at times and the way the lighting refracts in the rain and puddles and has that JJ Abrams-esque lens flare to it, it is just phenomenal all round.

 

This may sound a bit strange but I've always loved in games when they give plot time to breath and grow organically and that's just how it feels like here. I'm super early in all 3 of the characters' stories but I love just doing menial things like cleaning a house or entertaining myself with a game of chess, there's just something fun about going through the objectives and attempting to make sure you've ticked off everyone in each scenario.

 

Of the three characters it's definitely Connor and Kara I've warmed to the most really. Connor takes on the investigator-type role similar to the FBI dude in Heavy rain and seems to be the only one that can do the Batman Arkham-esque investigations and reproductions of crime scenes. Kara's has been completely different to Connor's and it feels more raw and darker at the moment, quite emotional and moving at times and I have to admit I've teared up already at a certain scene. It's Marcus that I've not really warmed to yet, he just seems like a bit too much of a blank slate at the moment, but his story has only really just begun compared to the other two so we'll have to see how it goes.

 

As for the David Cage-ness, I've not really seen anything egregious. Yes, I went through the child abuse scene earlier, but you know what it is actually done very well in my view, the Junkie Dad character is very much a cliche yes but that infamous scene is preceded by another that sets it up perfectly and is the catalyst for Kara's story. Also I thought the way they've set Marcus' motivation lets say feels a bit cheap, a character is introduced out of nowhere and it just feels a bit rushed and shonky how that was handled, but that would only be a minor complaint.

 

What the game absolutely nails is the consequence of choice. So many Telltale games give you the illusion of choice but you're really just filtered down pre-determined routes, there's pre-determined routes here, sure, but they're 5-10 routes instead of 1-3 and those 5-10 routes are available at the end of every chapter rather than at the very end of the season. It just feels a bit like an old school adventure game at times, there's one scene with Kara where you have to find Shelter and there's numerous ways of achieving it and you all by yourself have to decide which is best not only for you but for another character too, you weigh up all the pros and cons in your mind, whether it's right to steal etc. And it just gave me so much satisfaction to feel like I live and die by my own half-assery or not.

 

Very early in, but it is already better than the dreadful Beyond for me so far, definitely shades of what made Heavy Rain so great for me back on the PS3, can't wait to play more.

 

Some pics:

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this earlier, took me about 11 hours.

 

Really enjoyed it overall, think this is probably Quantic Dream's best game - although I still have very fond memories of Heavy Rain but I doubt it stands up today - it's surprisingly well written for the most part with some interesting characters and a compelling story.

 

It definitely feels like Cage reined himself in a bit for this one, there's no gratuitous shower scenes or any supernatural elements thankfully. There are a couple of dopey scenes in there - one that riffs on the Toy Story 1 scene where Sid's toys come to life and mixes it (strangely) with Resident Evil, another that is influenced by Beauty and the Beast even down to the line 'be our guest!' - but for the most part it feels a bit more toned down than his previous games. The whole game has some Blade Runner and Altered Carbon vibes to it at times but perhaps what it most reminded me of overall was the Will Smith film I, Robot. 

 

The three characters' stories manage to stay fresh throughout and all offer different dynamics. Kara has you caring for a young girl and surviving with some TLOU/Clem from TWD vibes in there, Connor is a detective working alongside a grizzled cop in the DPD and it plays out very much like a grizzled cop show at times and Markus is the resistance leader who eventually must rise up to fight or fail in the march for Android Civil Rights.

 

I almost immediately warmed to Kara and Connor, but it took me a very long time to warm to Markus, I just found him cold and his motivations rushed compared to the others but by the end of the game I thought he was a really cool, quite inspiring character at times. 

 

I think what makes the game is the stakes. The tension really is palpable at times as you really don't want to get any of the characters killed off, there's one scene about 2/3 of the way through the game where I really thought one of the characters was going to be shot, but as the trust gauge (similar to TWD's 'remember that' stuff) was at a certain level they didn't follow through with it. Every action sequence and choice you make whether big or small feels like it matters, it may affect the trust gauge or may lock away a certain later action if you don't discover something or choose something within a chapter or across multiple chapters.

 

The motion capture, voice work, sound design, graphics and music are all phenomenal as well. There are the odd few secondary characters that don't look quite as fantastic as the main cast, but overall it is a very good looking game with near-perfect believable performances from the actors, a fantastic soundtrack from 3 different composers and peerless sound design. 

 

How all the choices interconnect and weave into each other is really impressive, obviously QD's previous games did this to some degree or another but it feels even more extensive this time around, with the finale mission having about 20-30 different options opened or closed to you at numerous points dependent on the decisions you might've made 5-10 chapters ago in the game. 

 

As for the endings I got 

Spoiler

I went with a pacifist approach to Markus' Android group 'Jericho' and managed it almost until the end where I went full on revolutionary and turned it violent - thankfully I still managed to achieve the goal of liberating the androids and achieving their dream of civil rights. With Connor I eventually turned him deviant - with the help of Markus - and he would go on to free thousands of Androids at the Cyberlife plant that would turn the tide in the battle for Detroit. And finally Kara, I got her killed right near the end when you try to escape over the Canadian border with Alice  actually really gutted about that one and it was heartbreaking to see her die after all this time spent with her, but the sacrifice was needed to save Alice.

 

There's probably about another 20-30 endings I could've gotten I reckon, I could go back and attempt some trophies and try to change some stuff but I don't think I'll bother to be honest, I like keeping my playthrough mine and not messing with it afterwards.

 

So overall, a really great experience. Like an extremely high budget Telltale/Adventure game really, I still don't know if folks who haven't liked QD's previous games or haven't played them will like this but I think it's definitely worth a go.

 

Lots of pics:

 

 

[shinymcshine]

Enjoying this, couple of hours in, and whilst it seemed a bit slow paced at first it gets intense quite quickly.

 

These David Cage games represent the real future of interactive TV / Movies - they pack a decent emotional punch and impact of choice - shame that the QTEs are a bit obscure at times though, nothing ruins the immersion due to failing at something because the instruction just wasn't clear.

[DANGERMAN]

@shinymcshine can you make sure you use the impressions threads so I don't have to move stuff ?

[shinymcshine]

12 hours ago, DANGERMAN said:

@shinymcshine can you make sure you use the impressions threads so I don't have to move stuff ?

Sure, no problem, I just searched for a thread then didn't realise it was a news thread rather than game thread I'd posted in.

[shinymcshine]

Probably not much more I can add apart from echo Blakey's views as above - it's an excellent experience so far - I'd estimate I must be 75% through by know.

 

Albeit its not quite "flawless presentation" - the android on the menu screen often greets me with a "good evening" when I'm playing at 5am - I guess that it's not been programmed to recognise 'morning' quite so early ! There's also a bit,about midway through where North's appearance seems to change too (maybe she just wears her hair down, but it felt odd when I first noticed it).

[shinymcshine]

It was pretty great but still the endings were a disappointment :

 

Spoiler

Don't know why they felt the need to make Kara do some sort of wide circuitus route only to end up at Jericho anyway ?  Would have been better had they kept the three stories interconnected but locationally separate. I never got any vibes that people escaped to Canada via Jericho, so that felt a bit too forced.

 

Conor going back to Cyberlife was just bizarre too, as clearly Amanda new that he was bordering on deviancy and had no particular reason to go there.

 

Anyway in terms of endings -

 

Marcus led peaceful demonstration after the destruction of Jericho and secured the rights of androids, but North died during the assault.

 

Kara and Alice died on the escape from Jericho.

 

Connor sacrificed Hank but liberated the androids in the warehouse, whilst taking critical damage.

 

So not a great ending, in terms of character survival, but fulfilling in terms of public support for the freedom for androids.

 

Don't get me wrong, I've no issue with the characters dying, and I was happy with the overall outcome I got, it was just the jarringly odd situations the characers were contrived to be in in the latter scenes which let it down a bit.

 

 

 

[dante76]

Been playing this recently having started going through my ps4 plus backlog. Visual and aurally stunning with some great facial animations. I've loved all quantic dreams games and I'd say this was the best of them all. Not just in plot but gameplay, the world seemed well designed and the choices really made you struggle with making the right decision. One of the very very rare games that I managed to convince Mrs Dante to play. Might squeeze into by overall top 10 games. 

[mmmark]