As someone who is a fan of choice-based/story-based games, I thoroughly enjoyed this game due to great characters and witnessing their development as the story progressed, however, what makes this game a special one for me is just how emotional it can get. You follow three main stories through Kara, Markus and Connor and what's done really well is that they all differ from one another extensively, as well as their stories. In addition to good separate stories, the game also gives us some really nice soundtracks that change as the tone of the game changes from light to dark. At first you feel as though the music is rather upbeat or at least rather happy, however, as the story goes on and your journey with these characters begins to feel threatening, the music changes completely and gives off an acoustic somber tone. Nevertheless, the game is not perfect and does introduce with it some issues along the way so let's start.
Starting off with some negatives... bugs/glitches. The good news is that there aren't a lot of them in this game, matter of fact I found it rare to get glitches or bugs, however, when they did it occur, it was pretty bad. For instance, at one stage when playing as Connor and I was investigating a crime scene, for some unknown reason, Connor's head begun to just move at all directions frantically as if some sort of demon possessed him. I mean it was rather funny and terrifying at the same time but if anything, it was just purely unexpected. I don't know if anyone experienced this as well but it lasted about 10 seconds before it completely stopped. The next glitch I encountered was with Kara, in an attempt to hide from Zlatko I had decided to hide myself and Alice under a bed, however, as Zlatko enters the bedroom he would then fall underground only to reappear once again. This was just weird and even worse than the one with Connor as this one wasn't amusing at all and took away from the intensity of the scene. However, the last one was perhaps the worst as it totally ruined my mood to play the game. In the second last chapter 'Night of the Soul', the game decided to completely crash for me at one stage and it was pretty far into the chapter so I almost had completed the chapter. The game crashed and it didn't save some progress so I found myself having to repeat some stuff. It wasn't a massive issue as it was only the one time it happened but still, the fact that it happened at all and so late into the game was just quite disappointing. Thankfully those were the only glitches/bugs/crashes I experienced in the game but I don't know if these issues are frequent with others.
My next issue is with the story itself, I know I said this is a good story and that's because it is. Although just because a story is good, doesn't mean it didn't have any issues with it. My issue and perhaps my only real issue with the story in this game is that it tries to do a little too much at once which I suppose is understandable as you're playing three different characters that all go through massive complications. The game tries to fix this issue by supplying players with a flowchart so that if you do forget what happened previously, you can easily access the flowchart and remind yourself what's happening in the story currently. That's the good thing with this but at times when playing the game it felt like too much was happening at once especially towards the very end of the game where the three main characters do eventually cross paths. For me that was the only real issue I had with the story and overall I did enjoy the story very much mainly because of how emotional each story gets and with that comes decisions that become incredibly difficult to make.
Let's jump onto some of the things the game does so well and first up, the trio themselves. If there's anything the game does amazingly, it's the trio. Bryan Dechart, Valorie Curry and Jesse Williams are all exceptional in their performances as their respective characters. Bryan as Connor brings a sense of naivety to his voice which is seen throughout the game and as Connor sees the harsher reality of the androids vs humans storyline, Connor begins to wake up and open his eyes as it's no longer just his mission that matters but so much more. Valorie as Kara is just wonderful, she's easily my favourite character in the game. Valorie Curry is amazing at portraying her love for Alice and not only that but displays her strength through her determination to ensure Alice's safety. Jesse Williams is spectacular here and at no point is his character ever annoying or unlikeable as some have stated. Jesse does so well in illustrating his passion for freedom for the androids and although this fight can get aggressive, Jesse portrays Markus as warm and rather calm. At no point in the game was I ever disappointed by the portrayals of the trio and that for me just increased my experience with the game for the better.
Of course, this game is a choice-based game, meaning you can pretty much decide what the personality of these three characters are like and even further, you decide how side characters in the game view you. An example of this can easily be seen through the relationship of Connor and Hank Anderson who essentially hates androids. The way you choose to go with this friendship is literally up to you, Hank can either hate you or the two of you can become really close friends by the end of the game. That's to say that choices in this game do truly matter and what you decide will lead you to different paths but you better believe any path you take will have consequences. Personally, the most satisfying relationship in the game was between Connor and Hank but a close second was Alice and Kara. Although Kara and Alice were rather quiet throughout the game as opposed to Connor or Hank, it's the quiet and somber moments that made their relationship so special. However, that's where I felt the game lacked in terms of Markus as his relationships almost always felt rather distant and I didn't really enjoy his relationship with Chloe.
The game does have a main story, meaning despite the choices you make, this is the one story that you will at some stage get to in the game. The main story is a very fascinating one to say the least, it's fun and it's a very curious one. The story of androids fighting for freedom and bascially living among people and not just working as slaves to humans is done quite well here. The main story does have multiple endings and you can get the good ending, bad ending or the neutral ending and thankfully after a careful play-through of the game, I got the good ending but because I don't want to spoil anyone reading this, I won't get too into the different endings you can get. However, the good ending feels extremely satisfying in the end as all three characters have been put through some form of emotional, physical and mental hell. Seeing your characters happy in the end with their missions accomplished is truly an exciting feeling in this game as you'll grow an attachment to these characters. I will be playing the game a few times again as there is a lot of replayability in this game especially due to the fact that there is many paths you can take with your characters and there are also multiple different endings.
Gameplay and graphics are up and I have to say the graphics are beyond amazing. The level of detail is immaculate in the world of Detroit but also with characters as you can clearly see something as small or simple as blemishes, freckles or even moles and pimples. The graphics are just outstanding and even better when played on PS4 Pro. The detail of the world makes it feel very real and it helps that the writers have allowed a strong sense of history in the world as we have magazines, news channels and more that inform players of world events. It's no doubt that Detroit would get the animations spot on as well, on nights when it was raining heavily or snowing, you can see Alice attempting to warm herself by rubbing her shoulders. This game feels all too realistic which helps the concept of androids living among humans immensely.
The gameplay is fairly simple here as Detroit relies more on story and the atmosphere of the world to draw you in rather than just gameplay. However, the gameplay consists mainly of just clicking buttons and moving your character around with the thumbstick. Where the gameplay does shine though is through the android detective mode which seems to be inspired from the Batman Arkham games and I must say, it's really well done and very suitable with the game. The detective mode allows you to scan rooms or environments to reconstruct a crime or perhaps pre-construct the way that you're going to escape a certain situation. Action sequences are quite simple here as they're usually executed through timed button presses, occasional swoops of the thumbsticks and at times some motion control. While the execution of fighting sequences aren't exactly the most exciting, the fight scenes themselves are very well done.
Possibly the most important part of the game is the consequences of the choices that you make as this a choice-based game and therefore they must be substantial to the story. Detroit ensures that the choices you make have some impact to the overall story and if not the story, definitely to characters around you or to the public opinion. While Detroit does have a main story that cannot be avoided, I found that the choices you had to make in order to reach that story were very consequential as some of the choices could also lead to a character dying or even worse, one of the trio could die. My gripe with Detroit though is with the fact that Connor can return after he "dies". He's the one character that can return after being killed/shut down as CyberLife basically depends on him. I understand that he's necessary to the story but I feel like that it takes away from the importance of the choices I made. In my first play-through I did manage to get Connor killed only once and I was surprised in a conflicted way when he came back. Not every single choice you make will have some sort of impact to the story or the world around you but even then, the choices you had to make were still interesting and made sense. Other than Connor coming back even after making a decision that leads to him dying, the choice-making factor in this game is strong and the game will have you in shock at times. As the story goes on though, the choices you have to make become more difficult and at times I had to pause the game for just a short moment to consider all my options before doing something that could lead to something drastic. Overall, a good job on ensuring that decisions in this game truly matter.
All in all I ended up really enjoying this game, I've seen that some reviews and people have had mixed reactions to this game which in all honesty surprised me. Maybe people were expecting more gameplay or perhaps an open world but for me this game was a really enjoyable experience. The emotional aspect of the story drew me in and the trio were extremely interesting. Side characters were also great and the world itself was beautiful. Some glitches/crashes here and there did affect the game negatively, Connor coming back after dying made it seem less intense and important so I don't really know if there's a concrete death for him and the story doing a little too much at the same time dragged the game a little. Overall, I ended up giving the game an 8.3/10.
What did you think though? Did you enjoy Detroit: Become Human or was this a hit and miss for you? Be sure to let us know down in the comment section!