Topic: Detroit: Become Human

So as I game my son and I could play together after turning his nose up at Ff12 we started Detroit today.

What are the developers thinking making you spend so long on Mundane tasks? It just makes you forgot to clean your real life mug out and put a daily load on.

I love Gone home, most of the telltale games and a bunch of point and clicks so I'm at a strange point with David Cage games. There's no fun using the motion pad to shine up dishes, clean away rubbish and pick up objects. Any other game would let you press one button or do it automatically, the continual stop start of the Mundane really drags and I'm only up to the 5th or 6th section.

Quite like the overflow diagrams though.

@themcnoisy It’s been a while since I played, but I seem to remember the mundane actions do lighten up after the opening sections. Kara’s housekeeping duties is about the worst part, then the things you do in the game become more meaningful. Scene investigations with Connor can seem detailed and repetitive, but the context and problem solving nature make them flow much more interestingly. So yeah, even Kara will play out better pretty soon, so don’t give up.

@themcnoisy How old is your son? I wouldn't reccomended this to anyone in their young teens as it deals with some quite mature themes and can get quite dark in some places (and I'm not talking about the brightness lol).

I need to replay this game again soon. Too many games too little time.

@Ralizah good on you getting the plat for this game. There's no way it's coming my way! I will discuss why next so obviously spoiler alert comming to those who have yet to finish the game.

I finished my first playthrough - Markus was the good guy all the way through, getting beat up and never fighting back, the kiss with North showed the president the light who called off the attack. Kara ended up with Alice in a tip we sacriced Luther at his request to escape (this was really sad) the recycling centre - damn what a horrible place, evoking the holocaust. Connor initially started as a good guy however this conflicted with how I wanted him to be, as the best and last hope of cyber life I started answering as an uncomprimised android shortly after finding Hamk drunk. This led to Laura trusting Connor in the Japanese garden sections. Hank hated my Connor, dropping him off the Snipers roof which I thought was his ultimate demise. Amazingly the added twist at the very very end of shooting Markus close up - which I did in character as my Connor. Quality.

So it was a very enjoyable playthrough once it finally got going. I started a few Trophies in an effort to look at obtaining the plat via the chapter select (pushing Leo, Markus attacking the police) after these 2 instances, its not how my story played out and didn't want to tarnish what had happened. So that is it for Detroit. The whole thing wrapped up really well and it would be a shame to see Connor become deviant or to see Luther after he died protecting us.

@themcnoisy I agree that this game (and I felt the same about Heavy Rain) is tough for me to replay because I just feel like my first playthrough ending is the ‘canon’ ending and I just want to leave it that way in my memory.

@themcnoisy @Arugula @Th3solution Yeah I was the same with Detroit, but had no problems mopping up a few trophies using chapter with Heavy Rain.

@themcnoisy Some of your decisions were very different to mine, but we share the same protectiveness towards our version of events (as do many others, it seems).

I keep seeing this game in my trophy list and thinking "Hmm, should I play differently and go for the platinum someday...?" but then I remember that such an undertaking would have to involve being nice to North, and that simply isn't going to happen.

@RogerRoger woah Rog you have to explain that one mate. What happened with North?

@Arugula Ahhh man, you never met the Jerry's. Or Luther. Or Rose. These are all fantastic characters. The interactions with Rose and her son are perfect, I forgot it was a game at that point.

You would have also missed Zlatko in the house of horrors. That place will give me nightmares for years.

@Th3solution I may give it another whirl in a few years once my memory fades. Be interesting to know what you picked.

@JohnnyShoulder Did you get a similar result to me or completely different? A bunch of options were locked towards the end so I have no idea what else can happen.

This game clearly is the best at having truly meaningful choices and divergent paths. I personally had most of the main 'cast' dead at the end and yet apparently was only a couple of simple choices away from almost all alive.
Kara died at the border so the girl could go through with the human but apparently as Marcus had been pacifist she would have got through if I had merely tried it. If Marcus and North had kissed they would have been saved. And my favourite duo Connor and Hank, well Hank died because he told me not to sacrifice everything for him but again apparently would have survived if I just tried.

It's been a while and I left it on my hard-drive so I'll probably rectify these choices and maybe do a completely opposite play. I like the idea of the getting Connor killed at every opportunity trophy.

@themcnoisy if you don’t mind a little spoilage for a potential repeat playthrough, my endings were a bit different from yours:
I was able to keep Conner and Hank in good graces until the end and Connor became deviant and defeats his duplicate model. I was able to save Luther, Kara, and Alice and all be together at the end, and cross the border into Canada by sacrificing Jerry at the border. And Markus led a pacifist uprising, stood his ground against the police, was romantic with North, but where I really steered off from the mainstream was at the very end, I got ticked off at the unfair treatment of Markus’s pacifist rally and when they start slaughtering people I triggered the dirty bomb and destroyed Detroit. I forget the percentage but it was like only 3% of people triggered the bomb. I can’t explain my actions and I still feel guilty about that 😅

Couldn't stand her. She gave a face and, worse, an irritatingly nagging voice to justification of violent extremism; I respect the game for trying to tackle such a tricky subject, but everything about her just made me recoil in disgust. I spent the entire time ignoring her, or disagreeing with her, and having Markus side with Josh (the calm and dignified advocate for peace, North's polar opposite).

It wouldn't have been so bad if playing as a peaceful Markus could've swayed her, and led to a proper debate about different forms of protest, but no matter what I did she kept advocating hatred and intolerance, and gave me a freakin' WMD to use (which I took, but only because I didn't trust her vengeful, closed-minded personality with such power; I knew I'd never let Markus use it). Her intransigence was made worse by the fact that she was positioned as Markus' only love interest, meaning we (playing through Markus) had to compromise on her behalf, not the other way around. There is no way I'd ever wanna see Markus, a character I'd informed and guided, be romantic with... that, so I rejected any personal questions she asked of me.

I mean, kudos to the developers for making me feel an emotion so strongly, even if it is loathing!

Given that you're unlikely to ever replay the game, I'll tell you the outcome of this approach; during the assault on, and escape from, the Jericho tanker there's a part towards the end where everybody's fleeing down a corridor, and North stumbles. Markus has the choice of going back to save her, or leaving her behind to get shot. It was the easiest decision in the entire game for me, didn't even take a split-second to think about it. That was the moment I lost the "everybody survives" trophy.

@Arugula @RogerRoger @Th3solution @BearsEatBeets @JohnnyShoulder I hate you all, after reading about the different situations curiosity got the better of me and I had to see some other endings and scenes. I never realised Markus could fail to make it to the end with North leading the Uprising! There are also 3 variations on Kara leaving Detroit! It was actually really enjoyable and glad I tried to a few alternative scenes. Doubt I can get the other endings for Connor though without starting another playthrough as the options are locked out on my save. The ending meeting Todd in the terminal, I want him to get off drugs now and sort himself out.

One thing that Detroit has done better than any game is the fourth wall breaking stuff and the character profiles in the menus. The Chloe asked if she could leave, has that happened to anyone else? Also I completed a bizarre survey asking about sleeping with Androids and if I considered Androids to be a threat etc. Did anyone fill that in?

Last but no means least a shout to the character profiles, they are so good, unnerving when when back out and the faces are so realistic. The best avater graphics I have seen in a realistic game for sure.

@themcnoisy The game's main menu is stunning. I got all those moments you mention, and a couple more which made me laugh. At one point, I went to continue my game and she said something like "Oh no! Your save is corrupted!" She then paused, smiled and said "Just kidding!"

Genuinely had me going for a split-second. Such a beautifully simple moment.

@RogerRoger I let Chloe go, gutted I did now. Keep seeing a shadow in the background which is weird.

At one point when I continued she said wait, wait, waiiit, then the game started loading. I was like wtf? Very cool.

@themcnoisy Yeah that menu system is brilliant. I never did the survey but had Chloe ask to leave so I let her. Did you know enough people moaned you lost her once you let her go that Quantic Dream patched it that you get another 'Chloe' to replace the original. I also had that same joke as @RogerRoger.
I thought the graphs at the end of each chapter seeing all the choices you didn't take was really well done too. Especially near the end when you can see whole sections you never played because of your choices.

All this talk has made me want to play it again.

...but that completely undoes the entire point of letting her (and, by extension, all subservient androids) go free. I didn't know about that, but I strongly disagree with it.

@RogerRoger Oh yeah I totally agree. Think it happened after I had finished and I'm fairly sure it gave you the option if you wanted the replacement or not. Almost like people wanted to be 'nice' and set her free but not have her presence missing from the menu. As if they will set the next one free later.
Ultimately I let her go and had the boring menu as like you say otherwise it's like only doing a decent thing as long as it doesn't affect you negatively.

@BearsEatBeets It's absolutely a testament to how much of a connection people forged with her, and the quality of her portrayal, but the ironing is delicious.

I played it late but don't recall getting the option to replace her. I just let her go.

@themcnoisy I ducked out before the plat. Three remaining trophies would've required another playthrough, and I just didn't have it in me by that point.

I'll platinum it at some point.