Detroit: Become Human isn't Entirely Devoid of Merit

So, I am going to do a something you don't see a whole lot of people doing these days and I am going to heap a bunch of praise onto David Cage. Despite the many issues I am going to bring up about this game, a lot of what was good about his other games is present here in Detroit.

Detroit itself follows three different Androids as they gain s sort of self-awareness and human emotions. You have Kara who runs away with an little girl abused by her father, Markus who is scrapped for a crime he didn't commit but survives and starts a revolution to gain rights for Androids, and a new model named Conner whose goal is to hunt down Deviants, androids that are seen to emulate human emotions.

(This is Martin, as in Martin Luther. There is also a character named Rose, as in Rosa Parks. Sublte)

To start with the obvious problems of this game, David Cage knows no subtlety. Androids are an oppressed class and throughout the game here is a list of things Androids represent: Blacks, LGBT, Jews, Mexicans, and women. There are characters with names like Luther and Rose, Markus is basically Malcolm X, androids are rounded up into Camps, there is rarely a point in this game you aren't getting hammered over the head with this. This is by far the preachiest game I have ever played in my life. It's not even a matter of whether you agree with the message or not, its' just absolutely relentless with it to the point you stop caring about what it has to say.

The dialogue can, at times, feel very stilted and inhuman as a result of this, as well as a result of David Cages usual inability to write convincing characters. He's always been pretty hit and miss on this, but some of his worst are in this game. The worst example I felt were Kara and Alice, those characters never really hit a note beyond sad little girl and mother. They are easily the most boring part of the story, though there is at one point a twist involving Alice that kind of destroys the entire theme that the story was trying to build.

Though there are well-done characters like Markus and Conner. Despite how painfully obvious it is he's supposed to be Malcolm X, Markus is actually very interesting with his constant conflict over how to proceed. Having gone down the route of violent revolution rather than peaceful, Markus himself always seemed to hate violence but went that route because he didn't feel there was another way it could be done. Connor is fascinating for his relationship with Hank, a police Lieutenant you are paired up with to track down the Deviants. There is a constant struggle with Connor about whether or not he sees himself as a person or machine, and his relationship with Hank actually feels genuine.

I also love that there are a lot of ways you can go in this game. It feels like a genuine Choose Your Own adventure, something I felt lacking in his last game and was a more expansive feeling version of Heavy Rain. Your choices really do matter and can alter how you view the story entirely.

There is one more thing I love about David Cage, and that is he is fantastic at building an atmosphere. The scene with Connor where you are interrogating a Deviant can be very tense, and watching the Android try to kill himself if you go the right way with the Interrogation is rightfully disturbing to witness. You will find yourself faced with some very, very difficult choices and be worried about what the outcome could be. The game is full of some very real tension and great moments.

Give the above, you would think I would recommend this game, but there is a glaring problem that is present. That problem is the fact the game was written and directed by David Cage, and he is a madman. Despite the good qualities present in his games, he just does not know how to not include stupid things all throughout his games. At least three times someone who had a gun was defeated because they just let another person walk right up to them and pull the gun out of their hand. Or the time I decided 'maybe I should tell this guy not to kill himself' and the result of me trying to be a good person was to get shot in the face. Or just letting two deviants escape despite the fact there was absolutely no way they could get away unless I let them, which is a problem because I had been playing Connor more of a machine route, and there was no reason I should have let them go there.

The thing is stuff like that happens constantly throughout the entire game. And that's not even addressing the core problem with this entire set up, and that is why anyone would design these androids this way? So much is wrong with the entire premise of the game the more you think about it. I won't spoil it for you, as the more you know the stupider everything gets, but despite his ability to build an atmosphere he also possesses the ability to destroy it just as quickly. So many issues with the narrative and events that unfold feel like they could be prevented if they gave it two seconds of thought before giving it the green light.

And while I know the core of the gameplay is making use of quick time events, you do them for so many mundane tasks it feels like you constantly wasting your time. You can wash dishes with quick time events, get out of your car, clean up trash, undress, open doors, and so many other dumb things. There are times he has made these kinds of events interesting to do, but having to hold down three different buttons to slowly push a cart is not engaging, it's boring. This accounts for about half of all the gameplay.

I really liked Heavy Rain, and I even enjoyed Beyond Two Souls despite having a lot of the same problems on a fundamental level of Detroit, but when it comes to this game it is so much worse than his previous releases. It's a shame, because there really isn't anyone out there making games like David Cage, and it's clear the man has many amazing talents, but the amount of stupid you have to deal with in order to appreciate the good parts is just too high in this case.