A Few Thoughts on ‘Detroit: Become Human’

Even though E3 is this week, I'm not really interested in what's coming out in the next one to five years for three reasons.

Number one, the Playstation 4's library has expanded enough that I can sort through what's already out and be content for the next two years, and by then some well-liked games from E3 2018 have come out, allowing me to avoid the pain of impatience.

Number two, it seems this generation has utterly failed to prove that gaming has innovated beyond hyper-realistic, high-quality graphics that PCs $200 cheaper with five times the library size have accomplished five years ago. Even if it's an exaggeration, I'm concerned that the [Western] gaming industry still correlates pretty graphics and orchestral flair to high quality art and advanced technical achievement.

And number three, Detroit: Become Human.

Fuck this game.

Never forget the creep from lack of consent to binders.

I might not be in the know about everything in gaming, but I'm no stranger to David Cage. He tries his damnedest to innovate the industry by bringing player interaction to cinematic storytelling to make you immersed and full of feels. I kinda respect him for that... except, the man and his games are laughingstocks of the entire medium. For years I didn't need to play a single Quantic Dream game to know that.

Instead, I watched other people [suffer] in my place. I've followed the Super Gaming Bros' let's play of Heavy Rain from beginning to end. I've listened to Jim Sterling and Yahtzee tear Beyond: Two Souls multiple new assholes with the former's fatal needle-sharp criticisms and the latter's rapid-fire machine gun rhetoric. I've witnessed an LPer, whose name and channel I long forgot many moons ago, rage-quit Beyond about three parts in and go on a rant about how much the game was shit. I've read every single emotionally devastated post Voltech penned on that game as well. I've seen the "Jason" and "no game over" memes, watched the character animations drop into an uncanny valley deeper than the Mariana Trench, heard great writers of European literature roll in their graves, and learned how some employees at Quantic Dream have been harassed and belittled over the years thanks to His Imperial Majesty, Supreme Director/Writer David Cage. The last thing is especially egregious if it's proven to be true (I'm inclined to believe the employees over Cage, but I'm not joining the trigger-happy witch hunt that the "court" of public opinion has become this past decade).

Due to all of the above, along with dozens of other conversations I've had with people who hate Quantic Dream, David Cage, or both, I either rolled my eyes or shuddered whenever Detroit: Become Human was mentioned. Back when the game appeared at E3 2016, I remember feeling mildly curious, but otherwise assuming the game would be another unsubtle, questionably written, overly contrived, pretentious clusterfuck lacking in restraint.

I actually laughed at the advertising. "YOUR CHOICE REALLY SERIOUSLY MATTERS!!!!" was plastered all over it. With season 2 of TellTale's The Walking Dead imploding many years ago and Bioware's continued failures from wanting linear stories and player freedom simultaneously in a multi-installment series [leading to disasters like the ending of Mass Effect 3], I became disillusioned by the concept of "player choice". Detroit: Become Human seemed nothing more than another fart hitchhiking the wind of progress. The peak of my dismissal was how much Quantic Dream milked the hostage scenario for every penny it contained with yet another blandly-voiced, milk-toast, generic-faced white guy with brown hair, a tepid suit, and a gun arriving to be the hero or a zero as a protagonist. I had no idea I found desperation appealing.

I anticipated the game's jokes, memes, and fuckups, but - I must confess - I kinda wanted the game to succeed... just a little bit. The microscopic optimist within me wanted to find something good in Detroit: Become Human. Sure, the trailers are cheesy and the music is epic to the point of unintended hilarity, but I had hoped it would stand out in a good way as well as the inevitable bad way. Quantic Dream tries to go against the grain by offering an approach to gaming that either hasn't been done before or hasn't been mastered yet. In this case, Detroit stands out by being a single-player interactive video game movie with a flexible but self-contained and complete narrative in an ocean of micro-transaction-ridden online multiplayer video game services with half-cooked stories (if they even bother) and creatively bankrupt graphics and art design.

So even if I never played it, I do know it shines like a beacon in a dark world for gamers like me who just want a complete product in AAA and single-player games. Time will tell if people still consider this game to be "the best David Cage game" that came out at the right time to be impactful, which sorta sounds like a backhanded insult.

A day or two after it came out, I heard the buzz online, watched a few videos discussing it, looked at my bank account, and decided to take the plunge. In hindsight, I realize I had chosen this game to be my one and only Quantic Dream purchase. If Detroit: Become Human failed to entertain me, there is no way I'd play Heavy Rain, despite enjoying it from my experience from watching SGB. This was to be the one and only purchase I'd make, because even I can't rationalize giving David Cage more money than he deserves if he doesn't learn from constructive criticism.

So I bought the digital deluxe edition for $75, which came with the game's soundtrack, an art book, and Heavy Rain.

After waiting an hour for it to download and install, I played the game.

I first beat it in two sittings. I've beaten it seven times since.

I've read at least three fanfics on AO3. I joined two fandom servers on Discord. I frequent the subreddit.

I'm hunting pics on Tumblr and vids on Youtube. I'm watching two LP's right now. (Yes, even Bryan's.)

The soundtrack is really dynamic and memorable for each of the three main characters.

Its shameless homages to other (and admittedly better) science fiction movies are kinda neat.

There's a possible post-credits scene you can get that made me choke up because it reminded me of  the end of The Shawshank Redemption.

The writing feels tightly edited and polished with some of the worst David Cage moments feeling limp and bearable compared to those in Heavy Rain.

The hostage scene is actually a damn good introduction to the gameplay and narrative mechanics... and Brown-Haired McBoring is my favorite character.

Melstradamus strikes out once more for getting the character's role and personality in the story completely and utterly wrong. I must forgive my past self for not expecting the child of John Wick and the Terminator to be a squeaky-voiced, six-foot tall, socially clumsy puppy who can't detect sarcasm or make small talk to save his life when he's not taking down entire armies with his fists and a pistol... in a spiffy suit I most definitely do NOT want to buy if it ever becomes merchandise.

Must. Not. Squee. Must. Not. Squee.

Other than Connor being just as absurdly effective in stirring overprotective instincts in me as Rei Kiriyama and Yuuri Katsuki, I also enjoyed Markus' and Kara's stories very much. The game balances their narratives so well with small but emotional stakes (Kara) and hamfisted but definitely effective epic drama (Markus).  I can say I don't hate any of the characters, even the ones with little to them beyond being a personification of nonviolent or violent or pragmatic forms of protest. I even find Gavin entertaining despite him being a massive dickweed, and you bet I beat the shit out of him in that one chapter every time. Most stories don't tend to have a cast I love almost completely, so I have to [grudgingly] give David Cage that credit. I try to be able to separate a person from their work enough to give the artist credit for the quality of their skills rather than the content of their character.

Or I'm busy riding an emotional high after this game scratched an itch left ignored for what could be near a decade.

Detroit: Become Human reminds me of summer blockbuster films back before the franchise fucking monopolized the movie-going experience. It's simple enough to follow, but engages with intellectual concepts at an entry level without sacrificing too much artistic flair, technical composition, and accessible fun. And it's an original story (even if it's a blatant homage to Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). This game is a stormy gust of fresh, crisp air I have cried for and craved for since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 at the absolute latest. I had feared that I'd stop looking forward to new and original movies since 2011, and the gaming industry followed a similar path to a lesser degree a few years after. Maybe this will spark a new trend that a neglected market has demanded in silence for so long?

... Maybe not with the internet being the internet.

Anywho.

Since I've been playing this game extensively to see what directions the plot can go, several flaws of the storytelling become hard to ignore, and I'll try to make note of them on my next playthrough. I might share more thoughts later, especially because I have a lot to say about the three main characters' stories, how they interweave, and where the overall story succeeds and fails in execution.

Don't worry, Alice brings out the dormant mother in me too.

At the very least, besides Heavy Rain, this is probably the best game Quantic Dream has put out. Don't take my word too seriously, as I have not played Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophesy), and I'd rather swallow a bucket of razorblades before ever touching Beyond: Two Souls. I have boundaries that must be preserved.

While I did shout "Fuck you!" to this game at the beginning of this post, it's because I now need to run some kind of tally of how often I fail to predict how much or how little I'll like something. I could make a drinking game out of this.

As I have more free time in the coming days, I can try to squeeze in a review... when I unglue myself from replaying the game until I 100% it or watching Bryan Dechart's livestreams. Like the humans within the world of Detroit: Become Human, I'm so glued to pointless stuff that I'm doomed to rot in a corner somewhere.

Please send help. I might not recover from this. ._.