Detroit: Become Human is a neo-noir sci-fi thriller from studio Quantic Dream. The creators of Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls.
The game tells the story of a group of androids who are trying to rebel against an abusive society and the people assigned to hunting them down. It’s hard not to think of Blade Runner from that description, but Detroit: Become Human distinguishes itself from its inspirations through a branching narrative that looks at both sides of this conflict.
This week Quantic Dream has released a series of trailers introducing the main android cast of the game. The three main characters – Kara, Connor and Markus – each have their own storyline and motivations, with slight crossovers between the three. Let’s begin the introductions.
Kara – RK200
Kara is the android servant in a household where a young girl Alice is becoming the victim of her divorced dad’s abuse. The story of Kara and Alice is themed around domestic abuse when Kara an android servant plans an escape with Alice after her father becomes physically abusive when his wife leaves them. We get glimpses of the duo out and about, presumably living free from the tyranny of oppression.
Kara first actually made an appearance many years ago in a PlayStation 3 tech demo that Quantic Dream released to demonstrate some of its animation tech that would later be applied to Beyond: Two Souls and now Detroit: Become Human.
Markus – RK200
Markus is an android who became self-aware and free and tries to ‘wake up’ other androids, in the process encouraging pushback from humans who despise the idea of android sentience. Owned by celebrated artist Carl Manfred, Markus is taught in the ways of the arts, passion, love and humanity, all of which will help guide him to growth and, ultimately, revolution.
Markus is one of the lesser-advertised characters in the game but could turn out to be the most important.
Connor – RK800
Connor is a law enforcement android that’s designed to assist detectives at crime scenes. His job is to apprehend and subdue deviant androids like Kara and Markus. He’s set to establish cause and effect of events using a sophisticated reconstruction device and a variety of inbuilt forensic tests. Players will have a choice in how they deal with deviants while playing as Connor, doing them in or letting them go free. Much like Quantic Dream‘s previous outings, players will be able to pick and choose outcomes for each character, and the game will continue to move forward even if one of those characters die.
Connor is the Detroit lead known most famously for taking part in the world’s easiest hostage negotiation atop an apartment building.
Detroit: Become Human is available for pre-order on the PlayStation 4 to be launched on May 25th, 2018. It’s currently retailing on the PlayStation Store in Malaysia for RM 209 and Singapore for SGD64.90.
