Anyone looking forward to this game? Tbh I hadnt even heard of Quantic Dream before (they're the developer behind the game, and also made another game called Heavy Rain that was supposedly very popular on ps4), but I came across a random trailer/ad for Detroit: become human on facebook and it got me hyped. The gameplay looks like an interesting change of pace (not action or adventure, more investigation/mystery seems like, and the entire game plays out like a movie from what I hear), and they claim it's got over 1000 different endings and thousands of choices you can make throughout the game, including the option to kill off one or more of the three main characters and the game still continues despite the loss.
Hopefully it's as good as it looks, I've been dying for a new story-driven game for a while now, the market is kinda dead at the moment.
Quantic Dream stories are usually very lackluster and lacking, tbh. They're only made up for by their budgets. You can very easily see this in how their earlier titles are even worse. Omikron: The Nomad Soul is horrendous, IMO.
(05-20-2018, 11:59 PM)Zephyranthes Wrote: Quantic Dream stories are usually very lackluster and lacking, tbh. They're only made up for by their budgets. You can very easily see this in how their earlier titles are even worse. Omikron: The Nomad Soul is horrendous, IMO.
Really? I've never played their games, but apparently their whole shtick is storytelling, so I find it hard to believe they're lackluster in that regard.
I played the free demo for detroit: become human on ps4, and from what I can tell the story is fine; what's lacking, compared to other games, is actual gameplay. Almost all of the action happens in interactive cutscenes where your only control over your character is via 'choices', the character then does all the work. Gameplay outside of those cutscenes feels a lot like an episode of CSI where you're investigating a crime scene and collecting evidence/clues/information that will open up better choices in the cutscenes later on.
From quickly looking through the three trailers, the game's plots do look a bit cheesy and more iterations of the endlessly redone Isaak Asimov novels, Commander Data, and Blade Runner:
Will the robot save the little girl and kill the evil man, even if it's against its programming? (dramatic orchestra plays)
So, finally got around to borrowing the game from my brother a couple days ago and finished my first playthrough (of many, I'm sure).
Here's my review:
The major con for me was the control scheme. The game has a tendency to make you do overly complex inputs for simple tasks like climbing or getting through a fence. Even 'washing dishes' required a mixture of button presses and use of the track pad. This is more of an annoyance throughout most of the game.
The real part I had issues with were the action scenes. Both the fights/combat scenes and the chase/flee scenes require you to reactively press specific buttons after a prompt onscreen, or do other things like joystick directions, trackpad swipes, or jolting your controller in one direction or another. Now, there are plenty of other games that have done this type of control setup (Infamous second son's grafitti is one that comes to mind) but in detroit you have very little time to react, and often that time allotment isnt enough to register some of the control inputs (like when you need to use a joystick direction, simply 'tapping' doesnt work, you have to hold it for just a split second for the control input to register).
This made those sequences very difficult at times, and I fumbled on the controls quite a bit resulting in less than ideal outcomes for some of them.
That said, if you can get past the tedious and frustrating controls, the rest of the game is golden. I would definitely describe it as an emotional rollercoaster: I found myself loving and hating characters equally, forming attachments with them, and genuinely feeling for their circumstances. Kara's arc brought tears to my eyes more than a few times, while connor and markus' arcs occasionally got me genuinely angry or disturbed. Many of my choices made throughout the game were reactionary, and many of those reactions ended up being the wrong ones. I shot and killed characters I really didnt want to kill, simply because in the midst of a fight or stressful situation you act on instinct more often than logic. Emotional choices also factored in heavily. Your characters are vulnerable, and that's not something you see very often in modern games. I tried my hardest to play as if I were the character onscreen, and despite all of my efforts to keep everyone alive, I lost two of the three towards the end, and the loss of one of those was heart-wrenching.
The plot also had more than a couple plot twists that blindsided me pretty good. I wont give any spoilers here, but I can definitely say that not everything is what it seems and some of those plot twists will leave you reeling wondering how you hadnt realized things sooner.
The playthrough took me two days and roughly 8-10 hours of play. Granted, that's not much by modern gaming standards, but not many games keep you sucked in and unable to set the controller down like this one did (for me anyways). I've played plenty of story-focused games and this one told the story far better than most, if not all. Additionally, that 8-10 hours can easily turn into 40+ hours when you go back to do additional playthroughs and explore choices that you didnt make the previous attempts.
Overall, I highly recommend the game. If you can get past the convoluted and overcomplicated controls, the story is most certainly worth your time.