Detroit: Become Human
It’s taken me a while to get round to writing a review for Quantic Dream’s latest interactive experience, Detroit: Become Human because I haven’t played enough of it. And I know I’m NEVER going to pick it up again. Ever.
I do have a feeling for what Quantic Dream was trying to do with Detroit, you can see it quite clearly in one small scene, and through chatting with a friend who absolutely loves the game. The problem, in my opinion is that Detroit seems to be first and foremost a tech demo for the power of the PS4 and the technical capability of the cats at Quantic.
In the world of Detroit, set a decade into the future, Androids are real and are the playthings of human consumption, from doing menial tasks to looking after children to doing dangerous police work, androids are everywhere.
Detroit begins ok, in it’s introductory level, where you play a android police hostage negotiator, where you have to quickly assess the scene before having the right tools to talk to the hostage taker – who happens to be an android. This not only sets the scene for the game where you play a series of android characters, but is also a hint, as if the game’s title wasn’t enough of one, as to what the game is going to be about.
This opening mission however is a very linear walk through that leaves little room for any genuine decisions for the player. It’s ok as an introductory training level, but the game really needs to kick into gear to hook players, which makes the next level quite the disappointment.
You play another android who has been sent to go pick up some paint from the store. Yes, you read that right. But at least this time you appear to be in a living open world. That is until you attempt to jay walk and hit an invisible wall. Pretty soon you realise that there is a very arrow corridor that you can actually move along in this deceptive world.
Ok, so what’s next Quantic? Oh I’m a female android that has been picked up from the repair shop and taken home to catch up on the house work that nobody has bothered with whilst I’ve been getting fixed up. What the actual fuck Quantic Dream, I don’t play video games to do simulated dish washing.
At this point I start doing everything I can to try and break the game or escape from it’s confines. But no, I’m trapped as some piece of shit’s cleaner and child minder. I grit my teeth and finish the level. THIS HAS TO GET BETTER.
The next level I’m some rich dude in a wheelchairs’s home help. I’ve just got home with the paint and now have to gelp this dude do everything. The hell with this, I’m not wiping your arse.
At this point I’d rather go to bed than play video games. That’s how shitty my experience has been with Detroit: Become Huma has been, it’s stolen my love of video games.
Now of course, if you’re like me and loved their 2005 game Fahrenheit, but found every subsequent game becoming more and more arduous, then do yourself a favour and run away from Detroit as fast as you can. However, if your felt that Fahrenheit was a solid start, but Quantic’s games have gone from strength to strength, then you’ll probably love it.
Rating: R16 NOTE: Violence, domestic violence, sexual material, drug use and offensive language.
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