Detroit: Become Human asks you to keep three androids alive across a branching story, and it rarely lets you feel good about the ones you save.
Quantic Dream built the game around Kara, Connor and Markus, three playable androids in a 2038 Detroit where machines speak, move and behave like people but exist to serve them. The studio released it for PlayStation 4 in May 2018, then put out a Windows port under license from Sony in December 2019. It is an adventure game played from a third-person view, and it treats your indecision as content rather than failure.
Trailer, via PlayStation.
Three Androids, No Game Over
Kara is a housekeeper android who develops artificial consciousness and becomes responsible for a young girl’s safety. Valorie Curry plays her. Connor is a police investigator android tasked with hunting down androids that have deviated from their programmed behavior. Bryan Dechart plays him. Markus is a caretaker android who, after gaining consciousness, takes it upon himself to free others like him from bondage. Jesse Williams plays him.
All three can die as the story continues without them. There is no “game over” message following a character’s death.
The cast is not decorative. Curry also starred in Kara, Quantic Dream’s 2012 technology demonstration that the game is based on. Hundreds of actors were cast before shooting and animation began.
A Flowchart You Can Rewind
Detroit: Become Human runs on exploration, dialogue decisions and quick-time events. The right analog stick on the DualShock controller interacts with objects and observes your surroundings, the left handles movement, and R2 scans an environment for possible actions. Motion controls and the touchpad are also employed.
Choices branch the story, and the game shows you exactly how. A flowchart tracks your path during and immediately after a given chapter. If you regret a call, you can rewind to certain points and reshape it.
Certain scenes feature countdowns that force quick action. Levels abound with magazines for players to read. Connor can highlight and analyze an environment with augmented vision, reconstructing and replaying events that occurred before. The more information he collects within an allotted time, the greater his chance of success. Markus can grant androids free will and calculate the outcomes of certain acts.
Detroit 2038, and the Freighter
Markus and his owner return home and alert the police to a suspected burglary. Confronting the perpetrator, Markus bypasses his programming and becomes a deviant android with full autonomy and sentience. Police shoot him on arrival. He wakes in a landfill of broken androids, escapes, and finds Jericho, a derelict freighter and safe haven for deviants. There he rallies the others to fight for their rights. They perform acts of civil disobedience, which catch the public’s attention and draw more androids in.
Depending on Connor’s actions, the FBI may attack Jericho. If Markus survives, he leads a final march to an android recycling centre, ending in either war or the president opening peace talks.
Connor is sent by the CyberLife corporation to assist Detroit Police Department Lieutenant Hank Anderson, an alcoholic who hates androids. Their investigation into an outbreak of deviants either builds a bond or an enmity, potentially resulting in Hank committing suicide. Connor can deviate or preserve his programming. He eventually locates Jericho, where he can become a deviant himself.
What the Choices Actually Cost
Set the three leads against each other and the game’s structure shows up.
| Android | Role | Core ability | What the story asks of them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kara | Housekeeper | Develops artificial consciousness | Protect a young girl |
| Connor | Police investigator | Reconstruct and replay past events | Hunt deviants, or become one |
| Markus | Caretaker | Grant free will, calculate outcomes | Free other androids from bondage |
Critics praised the setting, visuals, story, main characters, the quality of motion capture and voice acting, the impact choices had on the narrative, and the flowchart feature. They criticized the motion controls and the mishandling of historical and thematic allegories.
The Verdict on Detroit: Become Human
An engine was built to complement the game. Writer and director David Cage completed the script in over two years, and the developers visited Detroit, Michigan, to research the setting. Philip Sheppard, Nima Fakhrara and John Paesano composed for Kara, Connor and Markus respectively — three composers for three leads.
The flowchart and the rewind are what set the game apart. A character can die and the story keeps going, and there is no “game over” message to mark the loss.
The criticism is worth taking seriously. Reviewers flagged the motion controls, and they flagged how the game handles its historical and thematic allegories. Those are the two places Detroit: Become Human is most exposed.
Three things decide whether the game still works for you:
- Whether you can live with a lead dying and the story carrying on without them.
- Whether the flowchart and its rewind option read as a tool or as a crutch.
- Whether the allegory lands or collapses under its own weight.
Detroit: Become Human is ambitious and uneven. Eight years after release, its branching structure is still the reason to play it.
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