E3 Hands On — Detroit: Become Human

Detroit: Become Human

While at E3 I was able to see Detroit: Become Human in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here’s my take on Detroit: Become Human.

With each new trasiler for Detroit: Become Human, the game looks more and more impressive in terms of animation and visuals. There is no denying that Quantic Dream has something special here in terms fo all of that. While it is all nice to look at and experience, that of course does not make a game be itself and there should be a lot more to Detroit: Become Human to make it more than just a pretty walking simulator. Thankfully, before the major PlayStation conference I was able to give a small demo of the game a spin to see just how it plays and if it will be a great experience on the PS4 when it finally launches. Hopefully that will be sooner and not later.

Plain and simple, Detroit: Become Human plays a lot like the other titles they have released out here in the recent years. Not too surprising as Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain were some spectacles for the time and it feels like they have perfected even more of the controls here for Detroit. Yes, it was mostly walking around and searching for clues with a few QTEs mixed in, or basic motion controls using everything that the Dual Shock 4 has to offer, but it seemed a little smother to get things done than before. Maybe it’s been a while since we had a game like this and I forgot how easy it was, but that is just how it felt and played here for me. No complaints as of yet.

Setting the basic controls aside for Detroit: Become Human, for now, we also had a look at one of the features in the game that was made popular for me in Arkham Knight. This would the crime scene recreation simulator that we get here. Maybe this was just for the demo, but we were able to rewind events and try to rebuild everything to see just how events went down. We were able to rewind, fast-forward, and search around for little clues to completely understand just what was going on before diving i. It seemed like a bit more of the core gameplay for Detroit: Become Human and looked and felt just as amazing as it was when it was first introduced as well as a needed element for the next little bit.

As I said, this wouldn’t be more than a walking simulator if Detroit: Become Human didn’t mix in a dynamic and changing dialog tree. In the demo here, we were able to replay out the crime scene with a small hostage. All of the clues we gathered made it easier or harder to make sure we made it to a successful completion and saving of lives, as was to be expected. What was interesting here though, was the fact that the response time in the dialog also has a bit of a factor. In this part of the demo we were trying to talk everything off a ledge, literally, as a negotiator. Clues from before opened up extra options and the “deviant” would be swayed one way or another. The degree of the sway was also affected by the time it took to select the option. Almost like the AI could tell we were hesitating or unsure. This will make multiple plays a needed thing to make sure we can get the perfect outcomes for sure.

When all is said and done, Detroit: Become Human felt and played like a more refined version of Quantic Dream‘s other title. All of which in the est of ways. The story of the game is going to be the bigger selling point as it isn’t the most focused on specific gameplay elements, but that it’s why we would be coming into Detroit: Become Human anyways. I am excited to get more to play here and dive into the larger story of it all. More so after seeing what they had to offer in terms of the latest story trailer. I have high hopes for this game and it looks like it would take a drastic hiccup to make me not want to play more of Detroit: Become Human in general.