i have watched through every QD game, but this is the first i played myself, so it'll be the first i write about.

my general opinion on cage's gaming library is that it is racist, sexist, homophobic detritus not worth the crunch he forces his teams to endure. each story presents itself as competent & profound, but when put under any sort of scrutiny, manifests as the exact opposite of this: unrealistic, emotionally charged scenes, viewed in total isolation from the greater fiction they're being told in, will illicit a genuine emotional response from you -- fear, stress, dramatic relief -- but when thinking for even a second about what's going on, you will say to yourself, "... wait, this is dumb." cage's directing has always relied on you not thinking, lest you realize you're being sold the same shit story again, with the same unearned payoffs. it is low effort storytelling, wrapped up & shrouded in a high effort presentation.

predictably, i feel no different about detroit: become human. although i do feel like this is the best of QD's technical work to date, it is, at the same time, also their worst work overall.

the game has a genuinely embarrassing lack of self awareness. some examples include:

• the concentrated Sexy Imperiled Woman trope cage can't seem to let go of, which permeates the entirety of kara's route like an airborne disease, rendering her inclusion in the story completely, literally, inarguably pointless;

• the """borrowing""" of symbols & moments from historic real world oppression, reducing them to props for this utterly uninspired story, like numbers & armbands branding androids as inhuman, a literal concentration camp, or using the US civil rights movement as the game's "inspirational" backdrop;

• a general contempt for players who dare to veer off the path of cage's idealistic tone-deaf vision, ie. "wrong" choices lead to nonsensical "gotcha" conclusions, rather than logical / thematically appropriate ones;

• other renewals of old, outdated tropes, like an obsession with cops, evil creepy fat men, twists the audience has absolutely no telegraphing for ...

i could go on, but you understand. it just feels like detroit was made to piss as many people off as possible, except for the microscopic audience cage has in mind for every one of his projects ( people who don't want to think ) ( AKA himself ).

but as much as i complain, there's still some good in this, somehow. i like that there's a model viewer ( more games should let me scope those gorgeous assets like this! ). the user interface is finally readable, easy to follow, & integrated aesthetically into the lore by virtue of all the characters being computers. the short gameplay time ( ~10hr ) makes for decent replayability as well, & there are actually quite a lot of differences in the consequences you'll reap as you play differently; the only problem is, this game has one of the worst stories of all time, so why would you bother wanting to replay? for the allure of schadenfreude? perhaps.

the thing i enjoyed most though, is the character acting & animation. it's great in this title, lots of subtleties & attention to detail. i even found myself genuinely caring about some of the characters because of how tactfully they were portrayed by their team.

relatedly: the most successful of the three routes was connor's ... not because the story was especially good, but because of the relatively focused emphasis on character. while marcus' route put the greater plot of the game at the forefront ( thus weakening his individual story in the process ), connor's route put his feelings & emotional growth at the forefront; it tied his co-star hank into it as well, creating two diametric perspectives that in the end either learned from each other & found peace, or used each other as scapegoats to grow bitter. the benefit of the route focusing on individuals rather than the asinine Oppression Olympics cage was working with ended up really making connor's stories stick out ... but again, i don't actually think these stories were particularly amazing, & i think they're made much worse for existing in the realm of detroit's narrative. it's just in comparison to the hollow storytelling for the other two protagonists, a story arguably about dawning realization & acceptance -- or suppression & denial -- of one's nature is a sigh of relief & an honest to god surprise for this studio.

( as a side note: kara's route is also focused on her character, but that character is Woman = Mother, rather than an actual individual with unique motivations, & it made me feel fucking insane. if the question "can a robot be a caretaker?" was actually addressed with any sort of thought -- just like, any, like any at all -- this could have been an interesting route. but this is david freaking cage, after all ... )

ultimately though, as i said at the beginning of this review, detroit & its predecessors are crap & cage is a merciless hack. i wish he'd never make a game again, & i wish the crew at QD could be released to the wind to go use their skills on projects with actual meaning or purpose beyond being something their director can jerk off to. alas, life is cruel, & cruel people tend to get their way.

there's more to be said, but this review is already too long. there's probably a hundred & one more eloquent, detailed, & better written reviews about this game & the rest of QD's works ... so go seek those out if you want more dirt.

i do have one final thought, though: if you make a game where the premise is asking your audience to grapple with the humanity of non-human characters, & in the introduction of your game, you show the audience both 1) that these non-humans are undeniably human, & 2) that anyone who thinks otherwise is a ghoulish villain ... like, why are we still here? what then, is the point of your story?

... nothing?