An atypically serious game, more of an interactive movie

User Rating: 8 | Detroit: Become Human PC

Detroit Become Human is a difficult game to review. On the one hand, if you think of it as a game in any traditional sense, it's lacking gameplay in the traditional sense, particularly user-controlled combat. On the other hand, if you think of it as a movie or a pure story, it would not be incredibly memorable. Novels like I, Robot or recent TV shows like Humans have covered very similar ground. However, something about bringing a familiar narrative or familiar themes to the video game arena does make this feel fresh.

To be honest, game narratives in most cases lag far, far behind those available in other forms of media (a few notable exceptions like Last of Us notwithstanding). Even the universally praised games may have corny or perfunctory plots that largely function to stitch together major set pieces or to justify travel to whatever levels the developer has designed. In most games, the story just isn't the point, and that's perfectly fine. I don't play Gears of War hoping to have deep thoughts, after all.

Because there are fewer excellent stories in gaming, even solid efforts stand out. I'd recommend Detroit to anyone who enjoys science fiction stories and would like an interactive exploration of the themes of artificial intelligence, the rise of consciousness, and the ethical and moral quandaries that arise when we encounter or create beings capable of cognition, emotion, and self-interest.