Detroit: Become Human | Therapy Thread [Will Contain Spoilers]

[+wongojack]

I had to come somewhere to talk about this. I guess AtariAge is as good a place as any.  Personally, I found the ending completely unsatisfying. The problem wasn't the various characters dying or not dying. My biggest problem is in a "final" conversation between Hank and Conor, it is revealed through dialog choices that Hank had a son. I never discovered this in my play through but I'm still given the choice to ask about it?! WTF

 

I now realize by reading some details that in Russian Roulette, you can find a photo of Hank's son. - Well, Sh!+ - I tried to walk around his house as much as I could before he emerged from the damn bathroom . . . I even unlocked "friend" status with Hank throughout the game. The least they could do would be not give me the option to talk about a son that I don't know about in the climax of the only storyline with an actual human in it. Or . . . let me discover this important detail of character background some other way than just missing one thing in a walking hidden object game. Or . . . if we stop suspending disbelief for a moment then we realize that Conor would know every single last thing about Hank because he is a police robot and can look crap up instantly - duh.

 

The game was long, and I mostly don't care about the other storylines. I guess the designers intended for the player to play multiple times, but I just don't really want to. A good effort, but time is limited, and I'd rather play an old Telltale game instead.
 

[+wongojack]

The further away I get from the game, the worse I think it is - and I'm talking about the core story. Since the idea that "artificial humans are equal" is pretty much presented to you at the outset as fact, the primary drama/mystery in the game seemed to be "why are they becoming deviant?" If it was a TV show, the answer to the question of "Why are we watching this?" would be to discover what is the cause of the deviants. My playthrough just seemed to leave this behind and didn't even bother to bring it up again. I can't be bothered to put extra time into a story if the creators aren't even going to resolve the main mystery.

I suppose some might say I'm missing the point and the central story is supposed to be "Will the Androids Become Free?" But, that is just too fantastical for me. If they really designed this game to tell a story about sentient androids getting "universal suffrage" like a suppressed minority then that is a disgrace to actual minorities. I cringed every time the game wanted me to compare the events in the game to the actual civil rights movement. The best parts of the game were when they left this behind.

As for the Kara storyline? It's about nothing. They even weaken it multiple times by revealing that Alice is actually an Android and having her reconcile with the abusive father. So . . . Androids are so stupid that they can't recognize each other AND abuse in this case isn't so bad because he had some hard times. What a perfectly good waste of some actual story material.

Overall, I think that the central problem for me is that I didn't connect with the characters. I didn't WANT the androids to be free. Why? They are machines. I expected the story to have some kind of "nice" ending where things sorta got resolved without them all dying or having to be freed.

I also found myself thinking about all the technically impossible things they were asking us to accept in this future. Untraceable androids that can't be deactivated? Really? Androids that need flashlights to "see" in the dark? Androids that must vocalize with each other to be understood? Androids that can't detect each other immediately?  For goodness sake, I can see where my entire family's phones are at all times right now. Humanoid bi-pedal androids that fetch single item purchases one at a time?

 

I get that maybe the creators were thinking that these questions weren't as important as the question of "should they be free?" Perhaps they wanted me to overlook those questions and apply the game's message to people in this world around me. However, I already agree that other people are equal, and I didn't need a Sci-Fi story to teach me that. I wanted a Sci-Fi story that took the time to build an intricate and believable world, and this isn't it.

 

I'm more likely to go back to something from Telltale or even Beyond or Heavy Rain.

[glazball]

Yowch, you're a tough critic.  I personally felt the game was incredible, with interesting characters and top-notch production values.

 

I can't respond to all of your points, but mainly wanted to say that though the game's characters are androids, imo the devs were trying to make a parallel with those in our society who are overlooked, silenced and oppressed.

 

Loved every minute of the game.  Easy plat, too.

[dj_convoy]

My wife and I watched some streamers we like play this, and she quite fancied the idea of playing herself. However, Alice being an Android makes NO SENSE AT ALL and basically ruins that whole part of the story. 

[+wongojack]

I did end up re-playing from the Kamski chapter to the end again.  It is unforgivable that you cannot skip dialog or even the end freaking credits!

First game:

• Marcus sacrificed himself at the first demonstration
• Kara and Alice caught at border checkpoint
• Connor did not turn and killed North

Second game:

• Marcus survived the peaceful protest and won the day with love
• Kara, Alice, and Luther made it through the border
• Connor was killed by evil Connor but woke up the androids (sacrificed Hank)

I also replayed the Connor section one last time and didn't sacrifice Hank which gave me the "shoot him - no HE'S the bad one" scene. Hank's story was FINALLY explained to me. I was able to guess Hank's son's name even though that had never been revealed to me during the game. It was a horrible use of that trope since 'evil' Connor would have had all of 'good' Connor's memories. It was made even worse that - me - the player didn't even have the fact that Hank had a son revealed during the game.

I liked the second game better because I felt like so much of the story was simply missing in my first playthough, but I still wasn't very impressed with the storytelling. Love saves the day and a derivative scene with clones/twins.