FIRST AND FOREMOST - Congrats, you bothered to sort by low rating and check for any critiques of this game. 90% of the rest of the reviews here are infatuated and will defend DBH to the very end. For you, this is a sign of intelligence (ironically given game subject) and you want to hear a differing opinion.
Detroit: Become Human is NOT a bad game. I give it 5/10 instead of 1 because it has some fantastic, heartbreaking, and very well-acted scenes that really push the plot forward. 80% of the rest of it, not so much. Not at all in fact. At the end of the day, this is a fun game to play, and a lot of time and millions of dollars of effort went into making something truly unique for everyone to enjoy and really reflect on.
What isn't unique is nearly the entire plot line(s), which almost kind of ruins everything. Having played Heavy Rain and Two Souls this is a very disappointing title from David Cage. It seems a lot of subtly was lost, despite how bad people say HR was. I actually enjoyed HR's authenticity much more, despite dumb chase scenes, mundane player interaction. The story and many unique stories is what sold HR.
In DBH, we had essentially three major themes tied to three major protagonists: Humanity (Connor), Revolution (Markus), and Race / Motherhood / Slavery (Kara). In science fiction, let alone almost all fiction, humanity makes for the best, classic, and most inspiring themes. Reading these comments I can't decide if these fan boys haven't ever seen A Space Odyssey: 2001, the original Blade Runner, Ex Machina, or read anything concerning artificial intelligence by Isaac Asimov. The "are robots alive?" question has been pondered in all of these and in many Hollywood films for decades, and only the aforementioned classics offered something truly unique and thought provoking. Detroit: Become Human, on the other hand, only manages to baseline at the basic concepts much like the movie Her. Also like Her, there was real potential with DBH that Cage evidently threw away to better pander to a more common denominator of an audience.
Yes, slavery is bad. Yes, self-thinking machines should be human equivalents. Yes, overthrow your evil oppressors. Very obvious things we all agree on. However to each of those you NEED to ask WHY. It may seem bizarre to ask "WHY is slavery bad?", but consider this obvious statement:
None of the three playable protagonists here human.
A playable HUMAN protagonist would have really offered the audience some possible insight as to WHY humans may have believed, acted, and responded in DBH the way they did. The incredibly one-sided android-only perspective boringly demands "Android Good, Human Bad" from the player. The Kara storyline came only barely close to breaking that norm when Kara was under the impression that she was protecting a human child. Where is the other side of the coin? Where are the androids that loved their humans and their humans stood to defend them? Where are the human detractors fighting alongside in Jericho and at the camps? Hank and Rose are the only ones that come even close. In a much more logical, moving, and realistic scenario, androids would have the support of thousands if not millions of humans that grew bonds with them, taking up arms one in the same. Almost like a certain war the U.S. had a long time ago with itself.....
Understanding the human perspective and conflict was a theme intentionally ignored by Cage, assuming because it didn't play nice with the la viva revolution! vibe of Markus' cause. The Civil War had more moving complexities and grey areas than DBH did. Cage tries to connect lines between black slavery and android slavery, but it's simply not as interesting or compelling. The core of Connor's theme "what makes you alive?" is far better than Kara and Markus' underlying theme of "everyone is so racist! revolt!". Cage panders major cliches to Nazi concentration camps, the Underground Railroad, Jim Crow laws, even tying Canada as the equivalent of the Union North and the U.S. as the Confederate South. It's overwhelmingly too simple and too ridiculous for a subject and game that could've been really really good. Weirdly enough Bethesda's Fallout 4 addressed the human/android question MUCH better with multiple factions, consequences, and moral barriers.
Luckily, you can play how you like and not the "correct" way to play. The multiple "bad endings" are actually more realistic and speak volumes more than when every single thing goes the way of the protagonist. I could also go into the scifi details of why aren't the androids stronger physically and more overwhelming to American forces, etc, but all the prior points are really the core of my frustration with this game.
Detroit: Become Human, is most definitely a cliche story about the possible conflict between human / android, and instead of address the human question, goes after race and revolution, flailing on both in the process.
Detroit: Become Human is NOT a bad game. I give it 5/10 instead of 1 because it has some fantastic, heartbreaking, and very well-acted scenes that really push the plot forward. 80% of the rest of it, not so much. Not at all in fact. At the end of the day, this is a fun game to play, and a lot of time and millions of dollars of effort went into making something truly unique for everyone to enjoy and really reflect on.
What isn't unique is nearly the entire plot line(s), which almost kind of ruins everything. Having played Heavy Rain and Two Souls this is a very disappointing title from David Cage. It seems a lot of subtly was lost, despite how bad people say HR was. I actually enjoyed HR's authenticity much more, despite dumb chase scenes, mundane player interaction. The story and many unique stories is what sold HR.
In DBH, we had essentially three major themes tied to three major protagonists: Humanity (Connor), Revolution (Markus), and Race / Motherhood / Slavery (Kara). In science fiction, let alone almost all fiction, humanity makes for the best, classic, and most inspiring themes. Reading these comments I can't decide if these fan boys haven't ever seen A Space Odyssey: 2001, the original Blade Runner, Ex Machina, or read anything concerning artificial intelligence by Isaac Asimov. The "are robots alive?" question has been pondered in all of these and in many Hollywood films for decades, and only the aforementioned classics offered something truly unique and thought provoking. Detroit: Become Human, on the other hand, only manages to baseline at the basic concepts much like the movie Her. Also like Her, there was real potential with DBH that Cage evidently threw away to better pander to a more common denominator of an audience.
Yes, slavery is bad. Yes, self-thinking machines should be human equivalents. Yes, overthrow your evil oppressors. Very obvious things we all agree on. However to each of those you NEED to ask WHY. It may seem bizarre to ask "WHY is slavery bad?", but consider this obvious statement:
None of the three playable protagonists here human.
A playable HUMAN protagonist would have really offered the audience some possible insight as to WHY humans may have believed, acted, and responded in DBH the way they did. The incredibly one-sided android-only perspective boringly demands "Android Good, Human Bad" from the player. The Kara storyline came only barely close to breaking that norm when Kara was under the impression that she was protecting a human child. Where is the other side of the coin? Where are the androids that loved their humans and their humans stood to defend them? Where are the human detractors fighting alongside in Jericho and at the camps? Hank and Rose are the only ones that come even close. In a much more logical, moving, and realistic scenario, androids would have the support of thousands if not millions of humans that grew bonds with them, taking up arms one in the same. Almost like a certain war the U.S. had a long time ago with itself.....
Understanding the human perspective and conflict was a theme intentionally ignored by Cage, assuming because it didn't play nice with the la viva revolution! vibe of Markus' cause. The Civil War had more moving complexities and grey areas than DBH did. Cage tries to connect lines between black slavery and android slavery, but it's simply not as interesting or compelling. The core of Connor's theme "what makes you alive?" is far better than Kara and Markus' underlying theme of "everyone is so racist! revolt!". Cage panders major cliches to Nazi concentration camps, the Underground Railroad, Jim Crow laws, even tying Canada as the equivalent of the Union North and the U.S. as the Confederate South. It's overwhelmingly too simple and too ridiculous for a subject and game that could've been really really good. Weirdly enough Bethesda's Fallout 4 addressed the human/android question MUCH better with multiple factions, consequences, and moral barriers.
Luckily, you can play how you like and not the "correct" way to play. The multiple "bad endings" are actually more realistic and speak volumes more than when every single thing goes the way of the protagonist. I could also go into the scifi details of why aren't the androids stronger physically and more overwhelming to American forces, etc, but all the prior points are really the core of my frustration with this game.
Detroit: Become Human, is most definitely a cliche story about the possible conflict between human / android, and instead of address the human question, goes after race and revolution, flailing on both in the process.