BrightFlame Detroit: Become Human Review

When Detroit: Become Human first launched, it felt like an expensive and gorgeous theme park attraction. A blockbuster from the video game world. And indeed, the first thing that catches your eye and still holds up today is the visual component. The graphics and animations, especially the facial ones, are simply out of this world - they still look incredible. The actors did great work too, particularly the excellent chemistry between Connor (Bryan Dechart) and Hank (Clancy Brown) - you follow their duo with genuine interest. But when you start listening to the dialogue, everything becomes... simpler. Critically simpler. The conversations are often so straightforward that it seems like the characters are afraid of being misunderstood by the player and spell out every thought directly. Though to be fair, Connor's storyline stands out even here: the dialogue and situations are much more lively and interesting than those of Markus or Kara, whose stories sometimes devolve into generic political thriller or outright melodrama respectively. The direction doesn't always impress either. It's not exactly bad - more like very formulaic. Slow-motion shots during dramatic moments, standard angles like "hero gazing into the distance" - all this sometimes literally hurts your eyes with its predictability. And when it comes to emotions, the game sometimes goes overboard with the tear-jerking. Some scenes practically scream: "Cry! Come on, cry!" using equally worn-out and obvious techniques. What you can't take away from the game is its genuinely functional interactivity. The story isn't just a collection of cutscenes - it truly branches, and decisions have quite tangible consequences. Replaying to see other story developments will be genuinely interesting. The other question is the choices themselves, or rather, their quality. They rarely put you in a real moral dead end. Most often it's a dilemma like "be a good guy or act selfishly". Or it's a social mini-puzzle: how to choose words to win over your conversation partner. And in such puzzles, either everything is too obvious, or conversely, the choice logic is completely unpredictable, and you're just choosing randomly. The free exploration moments were disappointing. They were apparently supposed to add actual gameplay to the game, but in practice they often just drag out the playthrough. Wandering around a room hunting for highlighted points, or slowly trudging from one end of a location to another - not exactly fun (there's no sprint, of course). Sometimes you catch yourself thinking it would be much better if these episodes were presented as pure interactive cinema with QTEs and key choices, without this artificial padding. But here's what's interesting: time works in Detroit's favor. If at release the game seemed like a fairly straightforward statement against xenophobia and for the rights of the oppressed, now, against the backdrop of news and discussions about neural networks and AI's future, it suddenly gains some new depth. What used to be metaphor can now be perceived as reflection on quite real prospects. As for the technical side beyond graphics - the music and sound didn't stick in memory. They're there, they're quality, they don't irritate, but they don't make you want to add the soundtrack to your playlist either. Just good, professional background. I didn't encounter any bugs during the entire playthrough. And yes, I highly recommend playing with a gamepad - keyboard and mouse controls feel foreign here. So Detroit is a stunningly beautiful blockbuster that raises important and interesting themes, but does so far too naively and directly. Nevertheless, sometimes excellent visuals and the right message are enough to get your share of impressions. Plus, on sale you can grab the game for 12-15 euro (not that much for a relatively modern 12-hour game). Overall, for the ambition, the visuals, the acting, and for making you think about important things, even if not very elegantly - 7 out of 10