March 2021 – Dublin

I had heard great things about Detroit Become Human such as being named as one best and most discussed games for PS4 in 2018. Recently, it became available for PC. Reason enough to check out what have I missed out by not being a Playstation owner and what the hype all is about.

Unfortunately, being a port is where the trouble arised; it took me 20 minutes to open the main menu as it was calculating graphic stuff. After finally being able to start the game, it started crashing. Until now, I have no idea what the specific reason is as I have one of best gaming laptop. Probably, from what I read the Vulkan technology isn’t getting along with Nvdia.

Being determined of discovering what the hype is all about I pulled through and I am glad I did as it is one of the best games that I played. Apart from that it inspired me and gave me a different perspective on game design. In this article I will discuss the three components of game design: story, gameplay and graphics. In the end I will give my opionion about the secret of this game why it is a hype and recommandable to play it.

Story – decision making

The story is impressive as it is like an interactive movie; you can write your own story. Every interaction a dialogue appears where you can pick the action or response you want to go with . As a consequence, Detroit Become Human has a lot of variables and options how the world is going to evolve. All the choices you make in one chapter will have an impact on the two other character you play as well, how the world will evolve and how the public opinion is receiving ”Androids”. It is a great way how they designed this game with a flowchart with different scenarios. In short, the player is in charge how the story evolves making the game very replayable.

”FLOWCHARS ARE A GREAT WAY TO MAKE EVERY DECISION IMPACTFUL”

Story – setting

Apart from being in charge of your decision, the whole setting of the game is mindblowing. It is also, very actual as we are leaning towards technology oriented society. The game is centered about one simple questions ”Androids are they human or just a piece of plastic”?

To tackle this topic you play different characters: Connor who acts like a robot and hunts deviants, Kara who feels the need to be a mother and Marcus who is mistreated because he is different. All characters are accompanied with their own type of music for example Marcus the music is very epic whereas with Connor the music is very mechanical. And all of them evolve in a different way dependable on how the world evolves around of them.

”BY GIVING EVERY CHARACTER UNIQUE TRAITS AND ENVIRONMENT YOU MAKE EACH OF THE MEMORABLE AND ALIVE”

Gameplay

Recently, a new trend emerged in games; repeatedly smashing one button until your fingers turn blue. A worrying trend and frustrating as it is often broke and it puts so much pressure. But actually, with Detroit Become of Human I am glad they did it! The quick button events are indeed still stressful and your fingers turn blue, however in this game you fight for the live of your character. For example, Kara was going to be killed by Tod and in order to save Kara you had to press promptly some buttons. She was fighting for her life and it was the first time she was defending herself. By smashing the buttons as a crazy person I was feeling the same kind of pressure that Kara was feeling. On the other hand, I wanted badly that Kara survived as she had just expressed the first signs of human emotions.

”QUICK BUTTONS ARE A GREAT WAY TO EMPATHIZE WITH YOUR CHARACTER AS YOU KINDA FEEL THE SAME PRESSURE AS YOUR CHARACTER”

Graphics

The game is astonishing, because the environment has a lot of details and the characters are so real and so human. The very reason for this is the fact that, the game has used real actors for a full year with all kind of stunts being filmed as well. Also, the game contains really emotion. One example: the actress of Kara Valorie Curry; has thought about the fact that her character is robotic at first but slowly as the story progresses the character is showing more and more human traits. As a result, the game is displaying emotions in a way we have never seen in any game. In my opinion a great design choice as this game questions ”humanity”. In my opinion an essential element. If the world would not be alive and breathing the players would not be able to empathize with the characters and feel connected.

”AN ABSTRACT STORY CAN ONLY STAND GROUND IF THE WORLD IS ALIVE”

The secret of Detroit Become Human

Detroit Become Human is a masterpiece, because the game puts you in charge of the fate of your characters making every decision count and meaningful. This would not be possible without the asthonishing graphics that make the game very alive. The quick buttons are strenghting all this by empathizing the pressure the characters are in it. Of course the topic is very intriguing that is to say if robots are ”just a piece of plastics”, but according to me its the right ingredients that make this story function. Correspondingly on what I discussed I do not think that there is a straightforward answer for creating an extraordaniry game. It is just the right mix of ingredients that blend in nicely together .

”THE RIGHT MIX OF INGREDIENTS IS THE SECRET OF MAKING A GAME EXTRAORDINARY”

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