With Detroit: Become Human’s recent demo reaching critical praise, and the full release of the game coming shortly on the 25th of May, we’ve decided it would be a good idea to culminate our thoughts on Quantic Dream’s latest bout…
Ben
I have actually been hiding from as much of the marketing for this game as possible as I want to go in as blind as possible. All I have seen of the game is the promotional video that was presented at E3 in 2016. The way I’m looking at it is that the game is a futuristic version of L.A. Noir, the police simulator which involved deep interrogation with suspects watching facial movements to see their true intentions. The exploring of the crime scene is what is getting me excited, hunting around for clues, makes me feel like a real policeman, even if I am an Android.
Will
Well, it’s certainly the relevant topic of the time, isn’t it?
Look, the times they are a-changing. There is a very good chance that my hypothetical children will grow up in a world shared with Artificial intelligence. They might be a servant class, they may be used for data processing, they may be our equals, or they may be our overlords. We have to decide how we exist in that world, and as always, art is where we begin thinking about it. And it is 2018, so why not make it into a video game?
Stories like Detroit: Become Human are today’s important brand of Science-Fiction. It started with Blade Runner, and it will end when the question has been answered. The 1990s was a time when Sci-Fi was all about surveillance, control, and rebellion through technology. That’s where cyberpunk fiction comes from. Today, we have AI-Punk. Info-Punk?
Suffice to say, as a gamer, a critic, and a writer, I’m very excited for Detroit.
Salman
Oh David Cage, you beautiful beautiful psychopath. I love David Cage games the same reason I love The Room. They’re both hilariously bad… but by the end of The Room I can applaud Tommy Wiseau’s genuine love for making films and he sure tried his best at it. At the end of David Cage games I just sit and think, “Boy, that sure was rapey”.
Detroit doesn’t look too bad to be completely honest, it has like one big name actor I think as well who played a hunky doctor on Grey’s Anatomy. But I also know you can have literally no exceptions for these games since David somehow manages to make them take a turn for the worst. I just wish he could go back and do something like Heavy Rain but better. Now that was actually a decent game.
Joe
I’m in a bit of a bizarre space when it comes to Detroit: Become Human – On the one hand I’ve NEVER played a David Cage game… But in the other, it’s a subgenre of game that I’ve always wanted to play.
Heavy Rain, to me, just seemed like another run-of-the-mill crime story with some cheesy moments and mainly just being a bit of a tech demo for the PS3 (Feel free to prove me wrong…); Beyond Two Souls as well felt a bit too out of line with my interests, as I’m not the biggest fan of supernatural tween drama (Another reason I haven’t watched Stranger Things…) – Detroit: Become Human though looks RIGHT up my alley.
The dark, moody futuristic setting and moral ambiguity of the nature of Androids is something I’ve always like to see developed in sci-fi… And to have a game centered on that very theme? Brilliant!
I’m excited for Detroit: Become Human to break my cinematic game virginity – It’s gonna be a bumpy ride…