Detroit: Become Human Hands-On Impressions At EGX 2017

We got to go to EGX this year to play some video games, one of which was Quantic Dream’s upcoming Detroit: Become Human. Here are our hands-on impressions:

Detroit: Become Human is an extremely difficult game to talk about in regards to a hands-on because it was such a captivating experience and I don’t want to spoil it. The game had my heart racing, my hands sweating, and I literally punched the air in the relief as the demo came to an end. For this reason, I will keep spoilers to an absolute minimum and only discuss the premise of the demo and how the gameplay works, but if you want to go into the game spoiler-free, then here’s your chance to click away. However, if you really do want some juicy details from the demo, then check out Small Screen’s thoughts below.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Detroit: Become Human, it’s the latest venture from Quantic Dream, the creators of Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, that takes place in a future where sentient AI exist and serve humanity. While this isn’t anything we haven’t heard before, the attention to detail and the depth instilled in the world is something that really shone through in the demo. Every character felt and looked like a real person, and in true Quantic Dream fashion, the choices you make in the game can positively and negatively affect the outcome. I felt invested almost immediately.

I felt invested almost immediately.

In Detroit: Become Human’s demo, an AI had taken somebody hostage, and it was your job as the hostage negotiator to get that hostage out alive. You’re not just any negotiator though, you’re also an AI, and you were chosen because you were deemed the best person to respond to this crisis. The prejudices against you are obvious as you walk into the room, but ultimately, it might be your very nature that allows you to save the hostage’s life.

I’ve never played Heavy Rain so I can’t attest to any similarities there, but there were some similarities in the demo with the detective mode cases in Batman: Arkham Knight. As you’re investigating the scene in Detroit, you’re able to rewind and fast-forward time to get a full snapshot of what happened, provided you have located sufficient evidence to perform the analysis. You can then use that snapshot of the crime to decide how to approach getting the hostage back and believe us when we say every decision matters. Will you pick up a weapon to take with you, or will you leave one behind? The choice is yours.

It’s going to be one helluva exciting ride.

The way the hostage negotiation works in this exchange is simple: you choose between multiple dialogue options with the AI criminal, and your choice will either increase their trust in you or decrease it. This will display in a percentage in the top corner (AI are smart, guys!), and should give you some indication of how negotiations are going. It’s not as simple as choosing the correct dialogue though, because the decisions you made earlier in your investigation prior to confronting the criminal, will have ramifications on how the negotiation plays out.

I won’t go into how our encounter ended, but I discussed the demo ending with a friend, and it transpired that we took radically different approaches and received different endings, so this game should really appeal to you multiple playthrough enthusiasts out there. Detroit: Become Human doesn’t debut until 2018, but based on my experience at EGX, it’s going to be one helluva exciting ride.

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