Game Review: Detroit: Become Human

Mikayla Leskey | Arts & Entertainment Editor

Four Robots working with laptop. / Photo by 'iLexx', licensed by Envato.com.

Recently, I finished a game called Detroit: Become Human. I’m sure many of you have heard of this game before, I hadn’t until my friends introduced me to it earlier this year. Surprising, considering my love for “choices matter” games. But nonetheless, I managed to complete the game in three days and it exceeded most of my expectations.

But before I go on, for those of you who don’t know about this game, Detroit: Become Human is set in the near-future, where humans have made androids. Androids are sophisticated AI’s that look like humans, made to complete either the most tedious of tasks like cooking and laundry or minimum-wage or state jobs. 

You play as three characters; Connor, an android specifically made to hunt Deviants. Deviants are androids who go against their programming. Kara, a maid to a family living in poverty, and Markus an android tasked with taking care of an old man. Be aware that the rest of this article will contain spoilers and my own thoughts and feelings about this game, so if you want to play for yourself, I’d advise you stop now.

If you’re still here, welcome. To start, I will admit that Connor had one of the best character-arcs throughout the game, no matter if you choose for him to stick towards his programming or becoming a deviant. You get to see his gradual change to becoming a deviant, him realizing things are not all that they seem they are. Not only does he learn to care about humans, like Hank, his cop-partner, but androids too. By the end of the game he’s willing to fight for them. 

My favourite character out of the three, by far, was Markus. From the start you can tell he’s different from the others, more ‘real’ so to speak. He’s already closer to becoming a deviant, that he practically already was before disobeying his programming. His caretaker, Carl, already treated him like a human. Then, when he goes on to lead the rebellion, becoming the face of their revolution, it’s like every dystopian book I read coming to life. 

My least favourite facet of the game is how they treated their female characters. They completely failed Kara’s character. Her main thing is wanting to be a mom. Which yes, I know some people really want, or some people love the parent-child trope, and honestly I love that trope too, when it’s done right. Kara’s story felt inherently misogynistic, especially compared to the two male leads who either led a rebellion or worked to capture the rebellion. 

There’s a certain injustice done with Kara’s story, and then again with North, who is pretty much only used for Markus’ main love interest and the ‘kill them all’ voice for the rebellion. It is way too easy to fall in love with North, almost ridiculously so. In my game-play Markus was more or less a pacifist, the direct opposite of what North wanted but only two good interactions when agreeing with her made her love Markus. It was weird—you could maybe try arguing that it’s because they're androids and they’ve never felt love before but no other character was that easy to fall in love with, I’m honestly not even sure if you could fall in love with other characters. 

Other than y’know, the built-in sexism of the game, if you can get past that there’s some visuals that are phenomenal. Scenes and plot-twists that will make you sit and stare at your computer or TV screen for a few minutes, wondering what just happened. Sometimes you might even make choices that make your friends call you a monster or unpredictable, but that’s the beauty of choice games, you get to choose yourself what you want your character to be like. 

I don’t regret playing Detroit: Become Human. It tells a compelling story despite making me uncomfortable at times, but that’s the point of life. Living with the uncomfortable and dealing with the truth even makes you uneasy.