Detroit: Become Human

It wants you to treat it seriously too, despite all evidence pointing to it not deserving it. In the end, you can't help but laugh at it. Detroit is a perfect game to livestream, or play with three mates and half a bottle of tequila - but if you tell me you genuinely think the story is well done, I will immediately be sus that you, yourself, are an android poorly trying to replicate human behaviour.

While the acting across the board is strong there is just a lack of originality in the writing. The quick-time-events are also overutilized and it was frustrating to fail scenarios not because of a choice players made but because of an errant button press. Hopefully whatever David Cage and Quantic Dream attempt next relies less on cliches and more on character and heart.

Detroit: Become Human is still a bold and accomplished experience that’s leaps and bounds away from its previous efforts. At times it’s often more of a big budget visual novel than a full-on ‘game’, but, nevertheless, its themes, twists and ever-evolving character arcs will likely stay with you long after you put your DualShock 4 controller down.

With the rest of Detroit, what we have instead is a story equally overstuffed and underdeveloped. Quantic Dream has mastered making a very playable, even enjoyable interactive experience. But there’s always this performative feeling behind it — always this reminder that, for as much as someone wants to help out a cause, there’s a difference between saying it and doing it.

Detroit is a beautiful game, one rendered with a level of visual care and detail that’s rare even in the lavish world of blockbuster video games. But all of that work feels wasted, tied to a story that, by the end, feels meaningless. In Detroit, androids can dream. But the game’s creators can’t seem to dream of anything new to say.