Detroit: Become Human

About The Game

Detroit: Become Human is an adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2008. It is an interactive film with action-adventure elements, in which the game narrative development is based on the choices a player has made.

Story

The story takes place in the year 2038. Detroit has become a metropolis and its largest industry is technology. In 2022, a young man named Elijah Kamski managed to build the first android that successfully passed the Turing test. They are powered by the new mineral "thirium" and serve humans by taking on unpopular and dangerous tasks. After this revolutionary breakthrough, Elijah Kamski founded CyberLife, which became the most influential company in the world. Nowadays the company produces various android models. Androids are designed to look and behave like humans. Only the lack of autonomy and a LED display on the temple make androids distinguishable from humans. They are owned by humans and do jobs in all kinds of work sectors hence they have become an indispensable part of humans’ everyday lives. They work as civil servants, nurses, domestic helpers, soldiers and prostitutes. Regardless the fact that they support them there are also negative side effects. Due to the use of androids as workers the US (human) unemployment rate is 37% which causes tension between androids and humans. This manifests itself in the form of protests against androids, active abuse and scrapping of androids. Not only humans but also androids face problems and conflicts. As they live among humans they develop deviant behaviors that differ from their preset behavior patterns in the software, making them potentially dangerous for people.

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The plot contains three storylines. All protagonists have different life stories but they cross each other's ways in many chapters. The player takes control over the following three characters in alternating order: Connor, an android who works as an investigator for the Detroit Police Department and hunts deviant androids, Kara, a housekeeper who becomes a child’s guardian after escaping from her violent owner’s home and Markus who fights for the liberation of androids from slavery by humans.

The player exclusively experiences the plot from the androids’ perspectives. During the game the player is confronted by many arising questions about humanity, agency and morality. Throughout the game, the existing social and political structures within the game world are increasingly scrutinized.

The player’s choices and their subsequent consequences determine not only the protagonists’ fates but also the future of Detroit and its human and non-human inhabitants.

Research-relevant Topics Of The Game

Core Game Mechanics

Gameplay

PS 4 Wireless Dualshock Controls in Detroit: Become Human

The player experiences the game world and narrative from a third-person view. The perspective is set but controllable by the player. The following controls only apply to the Sony PlayStation 4 Wireless Dualshock Gamepad.

By pressing the options-button the player accesses the pause menu. The left analog stick of the Dualshock controller is used for the character’s movement while the right one is used for interaction but also the observation of the objects and environment. In need of a different camera angle the player can always switch camera perspective by using the R1 button.

Contextual Controls in Detroit: Become Human

For performing actions the player has to follow on-screen instructions such as holding or pressing certain buttons multiple times, pushing the right analog stick into a specific direction, swiping the touchpad or shaking the controller.

Quick time events and countdowns might occur during decision-making processes that put the player under time pressure to act or make choices quickly. These elements, as well as dialog option decisions, influence the further course of the game narrative. In case the player does not make a choice within a certain time frame a default option will be chosen by the game. At the end of each chapter the player's decision-making is displayed in a flowchart. Additionally the flowchart also shows all other possible paths and endings.

The R2 button needs to be used to access the android’s mind palace. All of the characters have the skill to scan the environment in order to identify options for possible interaction. For example, there are objects, such as magazines, with which the player can optionally act and thereby obtain information on certain issues for example the climate change or politics.

Each of the android characters have abilities. Connor is the only player character with unique skills that can be used by the player to influence the game narrative’s development.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction in The Hostage

The protagonist Connor is able to use his augmented vision to discover and analyze clues at a crime scene in order to recreate the events that took place.

For reconstructing a sequence of events Connor has to analyze the subjects and objects at the crime first. The analysis will provide essential information for example about the type of murder weapon, its speed and trajectory or the damages that have been caused during a crime.

In the process the evidences are marked and the player can get access by following on-screen instructions. The finding of evidence leads to more until the reconstruction process will be completed.

During the reconstruction it is possible to switch the camera perspective as desired. This camera function ensures that Connor is able to examine the entire crime scene from different angles.

Unlocked Weapon in The Hostage

The reconstruction can be reviewed as often as needed. The sequence of events is displayed as a timeline and it can be reviewed by pressing the L2 and R2 keys. It is possible to pause at any point in time in order to examine specific events further.

In each chapter there are always several places to reconstruct and objects to examine. Besides his ability to reconstruct events Connor is also able to analyze sample, such as blood samples in real-time. Some evidences are story-related items and their discoveries unlock new dialogue options and narrative paths. The more information is collected, the higher the chance that the chapter will be completed successfully.

When all information has been gathered the chance of success is at its highest. Though it is not necessary to find all evidences in order to get a positive ending and the player can end the reconstruction any time.

Game Narrative Design Elements

Detroit: Become Human features an interactive narrative meaning that the player participates in the creation process of the story. embedded narrative design elements have the purpose of increasing the player's emotional and moral participation. THey are used to visualize development processes in particular regarding autonomy, morality and agency.

Deviancy

Kara becomes a deviant in Stormy Night

When an android starts to deviate from its programmed behavior it becomes deviant. In addition, the android gains the ability to develop opinions and desires that are not included in the software. The deviant can identify itself as a human being.

In the chapters Stormy Night and Broken Kara and Markus become deviant due to them being in extreme situations. Their decision-making processes to elevate themselves to beings with a sense of freedom and agency are visualized with the help of narrative design elements.

Markus becomes a deviant in Broken

In Stormy Night Kara’s deviancy is caused by her violent owner Todd. After he demands Kara not to move he goes to the first floor and wants to take out his anger on his daughter Alice. The android has to decide whether she stays obedient and will be destroyed again by her owner or she defies her preprogrammed behavior and will run away with Alice.

As she decides to resist she develops consciousness and autonomy. The resistance process is visualized by her breaking through a wall which is a powerful visual metaphor. The wall represents the preprogrammed obedient behavior pattern. That detail and in combination with the written commands “Don’t Move” highlight the significance of this particular decision.

When breaking through the wall, a certain sequence of keys is required. The wall cannot be broken easily and the player is instructed to accumulate physical force in order to break through. The player must smash the X button very fast until the wall will show signs of damage. At this point the decision is still reversible but if the player decides to proceed Kara will become a deviant. The damages and warnings indicate that becoming deviant is an irreversible decision with high significance for the story development.

In the chapter Broken Marcus and his owner Carl are visited by his son Leo who is addicted to drugs. During the encounter Leo acts violent but Carl demands Markus not to fight back. When Markus realizes that Leo is also a danger for Carl who is sitting in a wheelchair he has to decide whether he obeys or defy Carl’s order, so he can protect himself and his owner.

It is clear that there are similarities in terms of the challenges Kara and Markus are facing. But the significant difference between the two situations is that now the player is confronted with a one-explicit-choice situation. Markus' development as a deviant is therefore an unavoidable decision that has been defaulted by the game developers.

Player's Agency and Decisions

The plot of Detroit: Become Human is non-unilinear and the decision-making channel in each storyline has an influence on the development. Sometimes the player’s choices are not always made conciously and the levels of impact are often unclear. Accordingly the consequences might do not only have an impact on the storyline’s character but on the other ones too. In the later course of the game the characters’ paths will overlap. Instead of each character having a separate ending, the final game ending affects all player and non-player characters. Even though the player-characters may possible die at an earlier point in time, their deaths will influence the final outcome.

In fact the decision-making process has always been a key element in order to play a game. In terms of game studies it is a topic that many scientists do research about. Due to the game's interactive nature there are many kinds of choices and levels of impact which makes it an interesting research object. In the following, the different decision-making situations are determined based on the concept of meaningful play, future narrative and procedurale decision logic.

Future Narrative

[T]his new kind of narrative […] does not only thematise openness, indeterminacy, virtuality, and the idea that every ‚now‘ contains a multitude of possible continuations. No, it goes beyond this by actually staging the fact that the future is a space of yet unrealised potentiality – and by allowing the reader/player to enter situations that fork into different branches.

Future narrative combines the aspects agency and narrative. The smallest unit of the concept is called the nodal situation, also known as the node. It is characterized by the fact that at the node there are several possible continuations available. The choice that has been made by a player leads to a specific, exclusive state that is different from every other possible one. Instead of being a recipient, the player is involved as an active participant who has the agency to make a wide range of various decisions and therefore influences the future narration. Many aspects influence the decision-making processes. for example the amount of information or experience a player has but also the awareness of his/her agency. Since there are different narratives, each of them is one of the many possibilities that was realized in one playthrough. Since Detroit: Become Human is an interactive film with playable action-adventure elements, it corresponds to the idea of ​​story-playing. In every playthrough there are repeatedly moments of decision-making the player cannot avoid. For example the player has always to decide whether Connor gains autonomy by becoming a deviant or not in order to maintain a status quo.

A gameworld is the state of the game system and the storyworld throughout a specific run of that game as perceived by the player.