Detroit: Become Human, a Game of Choices.

I have played many multiple choice games over the years and I am usually bitterly disappointed by them.
So often a new game will come out that promises players their choices will have dramatic effects on how the story progresses only for them to break their promise, with the choices having little to no impact (I am looking at you Telltale Games).
There are so few games out there that offer player choice that successfully give the player what was promised and, I am happy to say, Detroit: Become Human is one of these games.
Developed by Quantic Dream and directed by David Cage, Detroit: Become Human is set in the year 2038 in Detroit, where androids are used for everyday chores and are basically slaves.
However, some Androids become conscious, or deviants as they are called, and rebel against their creators.
The game centers around three playable androids Kara (Valorie Curry), a maid who goes deviant to save a little girl from her abusive father, Markus (Jessie Williams), who after becoming a deviant leads the others androids in a revolution, and Conner (Brian Dechart), who has been designed to specifically hunt down deviants.
It is a testament to this game with how closely I became attached to these three characters.
My favourite was Conner, who has a gripping storyline where you can either make him a heroic figure who discovers what it means to be alive or an emotionless jerk who will do anything to complete his mission, both of which are fun to play as.

Kara was my second favourite because I grew strongly attached to her through her connection with the little girl Alice (Audrey Boustani) and the lengths she would go to save her.
While, Markus was my least favourite of the three playable characters that does not change the fact that he was still a very likeable and investing character with his revolution, which can fail or succeed based on your decisions.
Even the side characters are great with Connor’s potential friendship with his partner Hank (Clancy Brown) being a great standout.
I got so attached to these characters that I broke my promise of playing through the game without going back to change anything because when I got Kara, Alice and their friend Luther (Evan Parke) killed I immediately went back to the last checkpoint to save them.
Speaking of which, the choice system in this game is unlike any other I have seen.
There are so many variations that it makes the game have great replay value.
I am currently on my third play through and still discovering new directions the story can go.
It is not all good though because this is David Cage we are talking about and the writing of the game can be a bit wince inducing at times.
Thankfully, Cage has clearly learned his lesson from Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls because the horrendously awkward interactive shower and sex scenes are gone.

Still, there is still plenty of awkward writing to see with some of the most blatantly obvious foreshadowing I have ever seen and even the usage of some of the worst cliches in film and gaming.
There was one cliche in the game where I literally paused it and said, “are they really doing this?”
Then there is the gameplay, which mostly consists of quick time events.
Props to Quantic Dream though because they know how to use these very well during action sequences as they heighten the tension because one wrong button press could mean certain death for one of the characters.
However, while these quick time events work for action sequences, when it comes to everything else they are very tedious and monotonous.
The true reason to play Detroit: Become Human is for its fantastic usage of the choice based system, lovable characters and story, at least the parts that do not have those eye rolling cliches.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes branching storylines in their games.