Detroit: Become Human grabbed my attention right from the start it was first revealed to the world. Detroit: Become Human is set in a future where mankind invented super intelligent Androids to assist the humans in every way possible. The Kara model is the most popular maid model and takes care of your house and kids. It does exactly what you want it to do until something extreme happens and the Android starts to feel, starts to disobey, starts to do what’s right.
Meet Todd and Alice
Before we started our hands-off demonstration at Paris Games Week, the team explained some details first. It’s important to know that the ‘Stormy Night’ demo happens after certain events. Kara has been in the house before and she was programmed as a maid for Todd who ordered her online. The Kara model is programmed to take care of the house and the kids. Todd bought her after something went wrong with his relationship. Het gives Kara full responsibility for the housekeeping, cooking and looking after the young Alice. Right from the start, the atmosphere was rather dark and you could really feel the tension in the virtual room.
The demo starts off rather simple with Kara bringing some spaghetti to the table. Right from that moment, the game already offers you some choices. You can, for example, turn on the lights or let the two eat in the darkness. It’s nothing big of course, but it’s nice to see this kind of interaction, even in the ‘slower’ scenes of the game. Not long after you made your first decision, things go South.
Protect the child
While eating dinner, Todd started to complain about his current situation. We see a very bitter man who simply can’t handle the fact his wife left him behind. Soon, he’ll take his frustration out on you and demands you to stand still, he no longer supports the Android market. It doesn’t fill in the void and Kara only makes him more nervous. Since Kara is programmed to obey, she stands still immediately, resulting in Todd taking it out on Alice. What follows is a very brutal scene of domestic violence, already triggering the emotions of the gamers. This scene is an extremely strong one, the visuals and soundtrack truly lift this up to a new level.
Alice runs towards her room and you’re ordered to stand still while Todd crashes in the sofa, still extremely aggressive. It’s here where you’ll make your first important choice. Kara is able to break her system and disobey her owner. She can try to speak with him or run after Alice to protect her. During the first playthrough, she went after Alice to protect her. This ended in a rather thrilling scene where Kara locks the door and tries to escape from the window. Todd is after them, breaks the door and tries to stop Kara before the two manage to escape. This scene was rather light on violence so we managed to escape the room with ease. At the end of the scene, you see a flowchart, showing the decisions you could make and where they would lead you. Time to play this scene again!
Reason with Todd
During the second playthrough, the team demonstrated other choices, starting with reasoning Todd. Right from the start, you try to talk with Todd, things go wrong. He becomes more aggressive, strike you down and runs upstairs towards Alice with his belt in his hands. Needless to say, you can’t let this happen. Here, the team demonstrated how important earlier decisions are for the flow of the game. Earlier, Kara managed to find a gun and give it to Todd, who hide it in his sleeping room. Before entering Alice’s room, Kara takes the gun she found earlier, again altering the upcoming events inside Alice’s room.
When Kara enters the room, Todd is already insulting Alice, who is extremely scared. Kara aims the gun at Todd but he manages to disarm her rather quickly. This results in a fight between Todd and Kara. Fighting is very interactive since it forces you to constantly pay attention to the screen. In order to survive, you’ll have to push the right buttons at the right time. Yes, quick time events are back and they even use the motion control of the DualShock 4. The fight is very brutal and Kara takes a few hits before she manages to gain the upper hand and shoots down Todd. After that, she takes Alice with her and both end up on the same bus as our previous playthrough.
Impressive experience
The demo left me behind impressed. Detroit: Become Human dares to talk about heavy themes as domestic violence. It doesn’t do this to shock, in my opinion, it does this so you’ll feel connected to the Android. In the demo, I saw Kara as the humane one, while Todd was just pure evil. It’s amazing how a game manages to make you feel closer to a machine than to another human, maybe this is the direction the team wants to take. Detroit: Become Human dares to confront you with the dark side of the human brain and makes you rethink every decision. I can’t wait to see and play more!
