PC & console game reviews
THE TECHLIFE TEAM REVIEWS THE LATEST GAMES FOR PC AND CONSOLES, BEGINNING WITH THIS NARRATIVE-DRIVEN TRIP TO DETROIT.
Detroit: Become Human THIS CINEMATIC ADVENTURE SETS OUT TO PUSH YOUR BUTTONS. $79 | PS4 | www.quanticdream.com
THE ADVENT OF the android has given the failing city of Detroit the kiss of life. Now a hub of robotic manufacturing, the city is reliving its glory years. You’ll be pleased that there’s nothing jerky or pixelated about this game’s visual presentation. The actors’ visages are well-realised digitally and, for the most part, their performances shine through their polygonal forms. Jesse Williams and Bryan Dechart play equally compelling sides of the same android rebellion coin, playing the leader of the deviant androids and a robot detective who wants to eliminate deviants, respectively. While there is a level of uncanniness to each of the three leads’ performances, it is subtle and, as you’d expect, the characters’ humanity is pulled to the fore in Valorie Curry and Williams’ performances. In contrast, Dechart’s Connor is wonderfully stoic and inhuman. Each of their stories is shot in its own distinct, cinematographic style and, through this complementary contrast, mesh together as a cohesive whole better than you’d imagine.
The UI mimics the androids’ OS overlay, and your choices throughout are largely well communicated. This gimmick is used to great effect when justifying the confines of an area, with the android protagonists unable to explore beyond the bounds of a scene as they cannot stray from carrying out their orders.
But alongside this polished presentation is what feels like a first-draft script. The game obviously has a lot on its mind about what it means to be human, the rights of those existing outside of a widely held but woefully narrow definition, and the violence that is perpetrated against them. It’s angling for something profound, but the game’s exploration of these ideas feels half-baked.
The few quieter moments we do get are some of the most effective. Clawing your way out of an android graveyard or attempting to avoid raising the suspicions of a copper over coffee are both sequences that achieve a lot more in terms of mood and tension than the louder set-pieces. The conclusion to each android’s personal story too is far more satisfying in its execution than the overarching narrative that unites them.
Detroit is a beautiful game that pushes the graphical limits of PS4. As a choice-driven narrative game, it offers a high level of replayability through its many branching scenes. However, what it concerns those scenes with is a great deal of sensation and only lip service to the loftier themes it professes to really be all about.