Quantic Dream has a special place in my heart. Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls were experiences that I still think about to this day. The amount of control and choice felt real and the consequences even more so. That’s why when Detroit: Become Human was announced, it quickly rose near the top of my most anticipated games. At E3 2017, I was finally able to try the game for myself and see if it would live up to the hype surrounding it.
The demo puts you in the shoes of an Android named Connor, who was sent as a negotiator to deal with a “Deviant Android”. This “Deviant Android”, who we later learned is named Daniel, appears to have snapped and killed the father of the family he was a part of, as well as one of the first police responders. Not only that, he has taken the daughter, Emma, hostage at gunpoint and is threatening to jump off their balcony to the black pavement below.
As you enter that apartment, Emma’s mother spots you as she is being escorted out of the apartment and is clearly upset that they sent another Android to solve a problem that began with an Android. This appears to be the main theme of Detroit: Become Human, and the struggle and question of acceptance of these Androids stands at the forefront of this world.
After the mother has left, it’s up to you to search the apartment for clues to help in your negotiation. There are many objects to interact with in the apartment, including a fish whose home was destroyed in the firefight. You have the option to save the fish or leave it to its misery, and of course I saved it. That first choice introduces you to mechanics that continue through the entire demo. You can take or leave items, and when you encounter a particularly interesting piece of evidence, you have the ability to reconstruct what brought said item to its current state. After examining key points of interest, you are given a short playback of what occurred, with people represented by stick figures. You have to scrub through the short video, and there are key moments marked in gold that once discovered, reveal the truth.
The more of these you discover, the better your chance of success. This brings me to some of my issues with Detroit: Become Human. I felt way too guided to each point of interest. I felt more that I was playing Connect the Dots than being a clever detective. The game consistently told me which rooms to check and what to do next. Also, the camera is not the most cooperative. Quantic Dream appears to be trying to focus your line of sight on certain items and zoom in for cinematic effect, but I felt disoriented and didn’t have the control of depth of view that I was desiring. While this is an older demo, first debuted last year, the issues are still worth noting.
Anyway, back to the story at hand.
After you discover all the evidence and learn more about Daniel and the situation, it is time to confront him. From your discoveries, you find out that Daniel was about to be replaced by a newer model, and he was not happy about this. He believed the family loved him and cared for him, and now that they were finished with his services, he couldn’t comprehend or handle that.
In typical fashion of games in this genre, you have options on how to handle your discussion. Each interaction can be approached with a button press that corresponds to emotions and actions like Truth, Reason, Refuse, Deny, etc. You shape the conversations by your knowledge of what you discovered in the apartment. As you continue the conversation, another percentage meter rises and falls with the chance of saving Emma. I tried to reason with Daniel. I was honest with him, sent away a helicopter that was circling us, showed him the error of his ways, and tried to tell him Emma is not to blame for this. You have the ability to walk towards Daniel, slowly, and on the left there was another police first responder who had been shot and needed help. I walked over to him to help and show that Daniel has done too much damage.
In the end, my percentage of success sitting at a cool 75%, but Daniel did not heed my words and couldn’t be reconciled. He took a step back and began his welcome to the darkness below him. I sprinted towards them and reached out for Emma. I grabbed her and used my momentum to pull her to safety, but in the process fell with Daniel and joined him, sacrificing myself to save this young human girl.
What I found most interesting was that even though I didn’t survive this encounter, Emma being saved triggered “Mission Accomplished” to appear on the screen. I found this powerful and disturbing that Androids are clearly expendable, and there will be many more to replace Connor. It is a moment that sets up the crux of this game remarkably, and I can’t wait to explore it further.
Could I have made it out alive? Could Emma have died? Could we have returned Daniel to his former self and brought this to a peaceful conclusion? Knowing the history of Quantic Dream, those options and more are most likely possible, and seeing all the diversions are part of the fun and experience of these games.
While there are some serious camera and hand-holding issues, the core idea of the game is rock-solid. I look forward to trying new and improved gameplay, but for now, getting my hands on Detroit: Become Human has me begging for more. I want to see this game evolve and take shape and become everything I know it could be. Only time will tell, as we still don’t have a release date for Detroit: Become Human. However, we were introduced to a new gameplay trailer, so you can see the evolution for yourself below!
