117. Detroit Become Human (PS4)
I've been wanting to pick Detroit Become Human back up for a while now, ever since I first beat it almost 2-years ago. The promise of its extensive branching story paths with each of the playable characters and how heavily those differences can vastly change the final outcome of the story promised to make my second go around with this game feel like an all new experience. Or so I thought.
There is no denying the impressive amount of choices and branching paths in Detroit Become Human, however with a few exceptions here and there, and especially during the last fifth of the game, I found doing things different to produce mostly inconsequential differences between my first and second playthrough. Despite choosing to play the game vastly different this time while playing as Markus, Connor, and Kara, I'd say 75% of the game felt like mostly like the exact same experience I had the first time I played Detroit Become Human. For some people, different dialogue during a certain part, or seeing something minor happen occur that didn't happen the first time is a bigger deal, but for me it really didn't make my experience with this game during the second play through any more interesting or enjoyable.
This is a real shame since Detroit Become Human heavily leans on the mechanics of choice and branching paths as a heavy component of its gameplay. In fact, Detroit Become Human is the closest thing to a movie game I've ever played. I often wince or roll my eyes when people criticize more cinematic modern games as "movie games" despite these scripted sequences and cutscenes making up a small fraction of the overall experience. However, in Detroit Become Human, the term movie game is absolutely appropriate. The best way I can describe this game is a choose your own adventure film taking place in a scifi setting. The only controller inputs mostly involve trivial button prompts to do menial things like open doors or grabbing an object. There are more demanding QTE events in this game too that can have serious repercussions depending on whether you success or fail, but overall, your interaction with the game is secondary to the story it wants to tell despite those branching paths the game can take.
I will say however, the ending of this game can be DRAMATICALLY different depending on what you do, don't do, who gets killed, and what alternate paths you take one way or another. This is where the real bread and butter of the branching paths really pays off. I really wish there could have been more of these dramatically different scenarios during the bulk of the game, but it's almost worth it just for how different your endings can be. In fact, my ending with 2/3 the characters looked nothing even remotely like it did during my first play through, which I found pretty awesome. Unfortunately some of the writing, no matter what branching or alternative paths the game takes is a bit of a mixed bag.
For whatever reason, I did notice more writing issues during my second playthrough. Character motives and sympathies almost spontaneous changing, events that seem to be trivial having a way more impactful effect on the story than they likely would have in real life, and also some really heavy handed, on the nose social commentary relevant to the cultural/political landscape of the late 2010s really took me out of Detroit Become Humans' story at times. Fortunately, there are many excellent story moments and plot points that will keep you wanting to play, but I'd advise you not to think about things too much during certain parts of the game unless you want to either heavily roll your eyes or throw your hands up in confusion.
One final piece of the limited gameplay of Detroit Become Human I wanted to mention was the inconsistency in some of the dialogue choices while playing. Detroit Become Human gives you alternate ways of responding to characters when interacting with them. These decisions and their outcomes aren't always the most intuitive, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, what is bad is selecting an option, let's say to be "sympathetic" while conversing with another main character and your intentions of selecting that option don't align with the intentions the game had in mind when programming what the character you'e controlling is about to say. This happened mostly with the character Markus for some reason, but it happened more times than I would have like, resulting in certain parts of the game being fudged up for no good reason. Despite this, the dialogue options will typically align with what you were hoping to get across as the character you're playing, but be prepared for whoever you're speaking with to take your meaning in a very different way than what was intended at times.
The audio in Detroit Become Human is mostly reliant on its voice cast and their acting abilities. I can't say there's a single bad or even okay performance in this game. Everything from a vocal presentation standpoint is good to outstanding. This will definitely enhance your immersion and personal investment into what happens to the various characters throughout the game. The music is mostly somber classical sounding tunes with a mix of more high energy tracks reserved for the more action focused or tense situations throughout the game. The score is excellent and there is very little not to like about it.
Finally, from a visual presentation, Detroit Become Human is a very impressive game. Character models and animations are the highlight of this game especially. Emotions and intentions of characters while looking at their face alone will tell you precisely how they're feeling at any given time during the game, and this is all thanks to the facial captures and visual fidelity of the game. The world around you in general is very well done for the mostly is well crafted and dynamic. However, there is a plainess or flatness to some of the environments which can feel a bit gamey in a game that's trying to be as realistic and lifelike as possible. There are enough of these more flat visual parts and areas to prevent this game from being nearly perfect from a visual perspective, but overall they are a relatively small blemish.
I still enjoyed my time with Detroit Become Human during my second playthrough, but I'd be lying if I said the often worm shaped outcomes (limited option in the beginning and the end, but more variety and variations in the middle) during the majority didn't hamper my enjoyment just a little. Even choosing to dramatically alter my approach with each character did little to give me the fresh experience I was hoping for, save the vastly different endings I got with each of them. For some, this will be enough and all that is needed to motivate multiple playthroughs which is something Detroit Become Human heavily relies on. For me, I'll likely not play this game again for some time. It's still a game I'd enjoy replaying in 5 or 6 years once my memory of what happens in it have faded more than they have in the two years since I last play Detroit Become Human. (12/7/25) [36/50]
