May 2019 Playthrough - Detroit: Become Human

[douglie007]

Oh boy. I just played this a few months ago. I really don't want to play it again, but I'll surely take part in the discussion.

That would be awesome Pam!

Well do I even have to say anything, I'm always here.

Wait until we play Minesweeper next month. We'll see if you turn up then.

Lol my windows 98 Viso is hooked up ready to go.

[Addicted]

I played this game last year. I'll join in on the discussion using as much as I can remember.

[Crabmaster2000]

I've played a lot of PS4 lately and every time I've picked up a game I see Detroit sitting there, urging me to play it again and I've been fighting that urge in the hopes it would be a playcast title and I could play it alongside all you guys. I'm gonna see if Incan convince my never-plays-games wife to try this one with me, but even if she won't I'm totally on for this.

[douglie007]

I just started it today, and already happy with the voice acting.  And just coming off Syberia 3, controls are not bad.

[singlebanana]

I started the game yesterday. I'm liking everything about it so far. I'll echo that the controls are pretty good. Sometimes they can get a little weird, but overall I'm impressed. I like that hitting R1 changes your perspective.

So far, I really like all of the storylines and yep, this is right down my sci-fi alley. All three of the playable characters are well-developed and I feel like they did a great job of throwing you right into their lives.

I'm not sure how I feel about the event timelines at the end of each segment just yet. I don't mind it so much, but sometimes I feel a little conflicted, since it doesn't really fit with the "Cage philosophy" for playing his games.

How about we discuss the name?  Why Detroit? Why not some other city or other title like "Rise of the Androids?"  My thoughts are rather simple on this: Detroit is basically the manufacturing and steel capital of the U.S.  The city has undergone set backs and hardships due to the ups and downs of the automotive industry.  It is a city with one of the highest unemployment rates, and therefore, has high poverty and crime rates. It seems that the city has undergone a revitalization, but those who once had jobs again in the manufacturing of androids, have once again been replaced by machines.  Interesting setting and I think it was a good choice. 

[Pam]

I think that's a really interesting topic about the name, Rich. There's a really good article about using (or mis-using) the setting of Detroit and ignoring most of it's history in the game. https://www.vice.com/en_u...iew-marginalized-struggle  
I had the author, Yussef, on Media Mavens to talk about it.

If you want to check out either of these, I'd wait until you finish the game.


On to my own thoughts... I think Detroit, more so than previous Cage games, starts very slowly. Whereas in Heavy Rain the slow start functioned to build up a relationship with Ethan and his children, for Kara and Marcus' stories they just do a bunch of chores. I get it, they're service bots, they are discriminated against. But it goes on for so long, especially in Kara's case. The exception is Connor who is great and who I wish the entire game was about.

I also have mixed thoughts about the event timelines. It's superficially impressive, seeing all the different paths. But it also sort of gives the game away in that though there may be 50 decision points in a chapter there are really only 2-3 outcomes.

[Crabmaster2000]

My mother in law is up visiting this week. Gonna start as soon as she heads home. Very excited to revisit it!

[singlebanana]

Interesting Pam!  I will be sure to check out your episode once I finish the game.

[Mr_Stubbes]

I’ve been needing an excuse to pick this one up, I’ll have to snag a copy this weekend.

[singlebanana]

I’ve been needing an excuse to pick this one up, I’ll have to snag a copy this weekend.

Awesome! Happy to have you aboard.

[douglie007]

I would like to point out my thoughts on the setting of the game ( I have not read Pam's article yet so sorry if it's the same ). If the US was at the point in history that we have androids to do all our labor, the whole system would have to change.  We could not be a money based society. It would have to be more like the society in Star Trek.  And in that case the rights of the android would not be an issue anyway, because everyone is working together for betterment and not personal gain. 

The setting as it is feels like they just got androids that year and people have not found a way to adapt to their presents. 

Saying all that, I do like the game, even though its depressing and sad at points.  Too bad it's not Syberia 3

[GrayGhost81]

I put up some checkpoints for discussion purposes. By now you should be past the point where Markus finds himself in a junkyard.

I'm enjoying the game quite a bit. I actually really like the decision tree system and the ability to go back and "fix" mistakes you made checkpoint by checkpoint. I only had to use it once so far anyway, as I got Connor killed in the prologue LOL.

I agree with Pam that Connor's segments are the best. I really love the job his actor did. He comes off as the most "robotic" of the three main characters, and yet is the most magnetic and interesting. Next I enjoy Kara's segments. It was a cool revenge fantasy fulfillment to execute a child abuser but I was kind of annoyed by the next segment where you have to find a place to sleep with Alice after you first flee the house. Trying to find the "right" way to keep Alice safe and warm without doing anything illegal was appropriately unclear, but I felt like each thing I tried was a dead end. Ended up sleeping in the car even though Alice didn't want to.

Lastly there's Markus, and so far his storyline has been an ice cold bore to me in its entirety. There are a few segments playing as him that really have tested my patience, not because they are challenging but incredibly long-winded and repetitive. Because of this I've been more reckless in his segments to try and spice things up. Certainly, I have been able to make a few interesting things happen but I'll save them for later because I'm ahead of the checkpoints.

[Mr_Stubbes]

My copy of Detroit came in last night and after playing a few hours I cleared the junkyard before calling it a night. I also find the setting to be quite interesting. Detroit makes sense as it is a large and industrial center that houses those who are extremely wealthy all the way to those who are barely getting by.

@douglie007. I don’t see it as if they just got the androids that year but more in the sense that the rapid growth in technology went unregulated. I guess what I mean by that is the very first models of android were probably housekeepers/servants that were simplistic compared to the current generation of models. They were probably efficient at cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. It’s from those original models that the creators were probably thinking, “what else could these things learn to do”. From there they created more and more models of android, that started to replace the working class ultimately causing unemployment to rise and a growing hate/distrust in the people that were being replaced to the very androids that replaced them.

I can honestly say I really like all of the three of the main characters, because their back story or “up bringing” are all different ends of a spectrum. With Conner you have a highly skilled and intelligent police investigator/hostage negotiator, whose sole purpose is to apprehend deviant androids and bring them to justice, even if it means going after his own kind. I’m interested to see where his character arc can go because in my opinion he seems like he is going to work with humans on apprehending more deviant androids, but I wonder if his views will change and he’ll turn on the humans later on. With Kara you have a an android who was brought up in a very chaotic environment. Where her owner, Todd, who is an unemployed, divorced, alcoholic, drug attic, who blames everyone, mainly his daughter and the androids, for his own short comings, makes life a daily hell for Kara and his daughter Alice. This eventually leads to Kara taking Todd’s life and her and Alice going on the run. I hope their story will have some kind of happy ending, but I’m not getting my hopes up just yet though. Lastly with Markus, I feel his character arc has the largest potential to change. He lived a rather sheltered life with an wealthy, elderly and wheelchair confined painter named Carl, who, as it seems, has always been very kind to Markus. Treating him not just as a servant but also as an equal. Even to the point where he is telling Markus to be be a freethinker and to do things, not for what humans want, but for what he wants. With how is last sequence ended before the junkyard, he has the potential to be a savor for other androids, or possibly a danger to the humans.

[singlebanana]

Well, I finished the game a few nights ago, but will definitely stick to the suggested checkpoints regarding discussing the game. Like Mr_Stubbes, I have say that I really like all three of the main characters. Their story arcs really help set the stage for how emotionally drawn you get into the game and invested you are in your decision-making. I really like the storylines for Connor as others have suggested, but Kara's arc is pretty good too. I like the character of Markus, but his story takes some turns later on (which I want discuss now) that are a bit lacking. I guess I never really had a problem with a lot of the lack of action/servicing humans at the beginning of the game. Sure, it's a bit mundane, but I think that's kind of the point in regards to where this game ends up.

This is a very thought provoking game, which are they type I typically enjoy and though it is set in the future, we see a lot of our past reflected in it. What's the old saying, "'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."  Yeah, I think there might be a bit of that in here.

[Crabmaster2000]

I was finally able to sit down with this yesterday. I got my wife to play who NEVER plays video games. I don't mean rarely, I mean NEVER. I'm just sitting and watching her learn and make decisions which is really cool for this game specifically. When I originally played this game the opening scene with Connor trying to save the girl blew me away. It was so interesting and exciting that it really hooked me in the game early. Watching my wife play it and have to learn controls, learn gameplay mechanics, understand what the was going on with characters/setting/situation I was feeling overwhelmed for her. She did save the girl, but it cost her Connor's life so she may not get to experience him anymore going forward. Markus and Kara have a much more relaxed introduction to help her get used to playing the game. Would have been cool to have an "experienced player" and "new player" option at the start which just shuffled the order of how they introduced each character and left Connor until last as I think she would have been able to make it through that section after getting more comfortable with moving, camera controls, and the various ways of interacting with objects.

Another thing I noticed when playing was just how alive the world felt to me. Little things like walking to get paint with Markus and noticing all of the people/androids walking around the city having conversations and living their lives. But my wife keeps asking "can I do this?", "why can't I talk to this guy, but I can talk to this guy?" is really showing me the "game" seams of it all. I think I just got really sucked into the world when I was playing solo since I'm so used to all the typical video game stuff like NPCs and interacting with objects/environments. She's learning those rules so stuff sticks out to her when one thing doesn't play by the same rules as the other things like it. And even with her taking the her time as she is discovering how to play she's missing a ton of stuff I would have considered very obvious. Like walking from the paint store to the bus she did so with no social issues. When I first played I remember being harassed by a group of people on the street and belittled by a street preacher. I'm very interested to see how this playthrough is going to go compared to my own since every decision has been pretty different than my own so far.


We left off at the point where Markus had the brief confrontation with his owner's son asking for money. Hopefully she'll be up for playing more today.