Detroit Become Human, the Kamski test!

Detroit Become Human is an interactive story with multiple branching paths for each of it's three main characters. It's heavily reminiscent of those books I used to read as a kid, so many pages in you'd be granted with a choice and if you picked option one it'd say go to page fifteen or if you picked option two, go to page twenty-two. For the first time I was reading a book that was worth re-reading again, to explore those other avenues and see where things go. Detroit Become Human urges you to do this, it actually outright tells you if you 'mess up', not to reload and try again, go with your choices. 
So you've made the choice to read this review, let's see where it takes you!... 

I normally spend my time talking about the game aspect of any game with a nod to the narrative. I tend not to talk about sound or graphics, especially with new games as they all look pretty amazing these days and sound design is either good or bad, rarely an in between and nothing is more important to me than how a game plays. However, because Detroit Become Human is just an interactive movie, there isn't a great deal of gameplay, but it's still a fun to play. 
The general control you have over your character is to maneuver around the environment, choose objects to interact with and also to converse with NPCs. Conversations have branches that do converge, though I would say that Detroit has far more independent dialogue paths than any other game I've played.
Interacting with objects has the ability to open up further dialogue choices and the game always notifies you when you find something noteworthy. Some items you can interact with for instance, when you're the investigator Android Connor, is you can analyse a murder weapon for evidence details or even create a virtual playback of the possible crime, simply by analyzing items and the environment.

The games pacing is done fairly well, in heightened moments where your character has to make fast decisions, you will be bombarded with quick time events (which are often derided mechanics these days), which you can fail in some scenarios with no consequences and in others can be pretty fatal in all senses of the word. The game doesn't end either when you lose any one of your three characters, the story goes on and comes to a natural closure depending on who lived and who died.
Also what helps the pacing is how the game swings between characters, you never spend too long with any one of the three protagonists but the game does a good job of keeping you aware of what has been happening and to whom. At times characters will clash in the arcs and even with each other. The game shifts focus smoothly and naturally, there's a great deal of cinematography here that elevates the experience to something cinematically impressive.

Like I said earlier, I don't tend to focus on graphics too much, but in a game like Detroit you have to consider the characters and the world on a superficial level. The developer made the right choice putting more visual detail into character models than the world, which can feel a little flat in places. It's a visual style I've seen before in high quality games and I'm not opposed to it, it feels more stylistic than anything else and helps give the player focus on the details you want them to notice but some people might find the world a bit sparse and featureless.
But onto the character models, in short: amazing. The facial reconstruction of the live actors is amazing and perfect, the characters move, talk and emote naturally and there is a great deal of attention to the elements that make someone look alive, the shine and glow of the eyes, the subtle movements of lips, blinks and facial ticks. The characters look as alive as possible and this detail is so important because in order to care about the characters and therefore the story, they have to be believable and this is a character driven story.
I was able to feel genuine emotional connections to the characters, I even (gasp!) replayed a chapter because I lost one too early which both shocked and gutted me. The plight of Marcus and Kara were genuinely emotionally powerful and there are amazing and well crafted moments that feel inspiring, such as one moment in the game where you walk down a street converting other Androids to your cause, it's a great scene and it knowingly emulates events like Tiananmen Square protests.

Sure, at times the plight of the Androids is laid on a bit thick and the story makes it appear that Androids are more abused than cared for, which seems bizarre because if I spent ten thousand pounds on an Android to help around the house, I'd look after it. I have a fiscal investment, like my car and I don't want to carry on spending tons on money (like the character Todd has) repairing it. I guess that's my main gripe with the narrative, it really heaves on this idea and there's only a few Humans that are kind and respectful to their Androids. The resistance to Android sentience I understand, such a thing would be shocking, scary and thoroughly misunderstood and that's the basis of all hatred and fear. We fear what we don't understand and we hate what we fear, so that part of the narrative is truly compelling and I loved the story when it moved away from the constant abused Android sentiments.
I personally had the most fun and investment in the Connor story arc, but that's because I loved the twist on the Buddy Cop story line. I also think this style of game works very well as a detective story, the elements all lend themselves to investigating, interviewing and apprehending criminals. I'd love to see a game really expand on this idea and make it it's central theme.

Detroit's story lasts around ten to twelve hours depending on your choices and how many characters you end up with. The game tries to entice you with replayability, offering you the ability to select any chapter you'd like to redo your choices and see where things lead. For completionists there is a flowchart that hints at all the branches you could of potentially had which is a nice touch.
Personally, I didn't find much replayability in Detroit, it's a bit like watching a film again right after the first time, (which some people may enjoy!) and that's not something I do. I made the reference at the beginning of this review about those adventure books I read as a child and wanting to re-read them again and see what happened in the other paths. The issue with Detroit is that the differences are minimal and the true changes only occur in each character's fate rather than their complete journey which plays out the same either way. 
I also think what would help replays is the option to skip text, if you just want to see where your choices go, you will have huge chunks of dialogue and exploration you'll have to redo as often as you replay the chapter, and that sort of thing is very exhausting.

So, overall what have we got? A gorgeously detailed and powerfully emotionally driven story with incredibly interesting elements and characters. A short but sweet experience that urges you to explore all of it's facets. For most people, I imagine they'll generally have a single playthrough and generally will get most characters to the final chapters. 
I think Detroit Become Human is definitely a game to be played at least, by anybody. It's an interesting game that asks intriguing questions. You won't be playing it for months on end like Call of Duty or what have you, but you may find the experience and thought provoking one. What would happen if we accidentally gave birth to artificial life? Would we resist the independence of our own creation? Or would we welcome them to the world of self awareness and teach them how to deal with emotions and the realities of mortality?
I'll leave you on that thought. 

Thanks for reading!