Detroit: Become Human (PlayStation 4)

What does it mean to be human? The looks? The emotions? The choices one makes? In this tale set in 2038 Detroit, the player takes control of three different androids and takes them on a journey to discover what becoming human is all about. Each of the protagonists has its own story and consequences the come with choices selected and actions made by the player.

The game opens with Connor, an android sent by Cyberlife corporation to deal with deviants. Deviants are androids that deviate from their programming and start to become conscious and experience human emotions. Kara is a housekeeper android designed for cleaning, cooking, looking after children and other such tasks. She becomes a deviant in order to protect Alice, the little girl she lives with, from and abusive father. And finally, Markus. Markus was lucky to have lived with a caring master who treated him as a sentient being and taught him a lot. But after things turned south and Markus was shot and tossed into android scrapyard, he had to crawl out of mud and reassemble himself. This in turn led him to seek refuge and become the key figure in android revolt. He could try to seek freedom peacefully or go to war with humans.

With Connor tasked to eliminate all deviants, he and Markus start as enemies. But choices he makes may as well turn him into something more, or he may choose to stay an obedient machine and care only about the mission. Choices the player makes will not only affect single scene or specific character, but overall opinion of people around the world. The butterfly effect is shown as a tree structure showing players all possible paths and outcomes, but unlocking only those they reached during gameplay. Aside from action affected branching story, being aware of your surroundings, finding out things and noticing objects and their whereabouts will unlock additional dialogue options and possibilities.

As in previous Quantic Dream titles, the camera doesn’t constantly follow the player and instead tries to create cinematic feel by being able to switch between preset cameras on each and every scene. Little freedom in looking around is given, but not by much and more often you won’t be able to see exact spot you wish to examine in more detail as even 1st-person perspective is tied to only handful areas in each chapter. Each of the game protagonists can be killed, some even early in the game, which removes all future chapters pertaining to character in question. Points are awarded by unlocking paths in each chapter, which can then be used to unlock bonuses such as 3D character gallery, making-of artwork, soundtrack, and interview videos. Main menu features an interactive android who will comment of player’s choices and otherwise interact with the player.