Detroit: Become Human wants so badly to be an interactive Hollywood blockbuster, but its amazing visuals and cinematic presentation can't make up for some really lame writing, weird performances and an overall lack of grace. In spite of all that, though, I kind of love it.
From the makers of landmark narrative game Heavy Rain, Detroit tells a story set twenty years in our future, where artificial humans make up a new slave class. Suddenly, however, these androids are awakening to their own potential as self-aware beings, and demanding their freedom from oppression.
To get the negative stuff out of the way first, there are a lot of problems with Detroit. The facial animations, and especially the eyes, are an absolute technological marvel, but the writing and many of the performances are not up to mainstream cinema standards. The sci-fi element of the story is weak (it's essentially 2018, but with unbelievably human-like androids), the narrative leans on an absurd number of tropes and, although it explicitly and repeatedly invokes contemporary and past race and gender issues to frame the divide between humans and androids, its allegories are, to be kind, simplistic.
As with previous Quantic Dream games, Detroit takes itself incredibly seriously. It's po-faced and cynical, supercilious and (ironically) without a shred of self awareness. The characters all have a tendency to plainly speak their motivations and inner monologues out loud to each other, leaving virtually zero subtext for the player to mull over, and where there is humour it certainly isn't intentional.
To be honest, if this was a movie I don't know if I would have been able to watch the whole thing, but the genius video game structure hidden beneath makes it all much more fun than it should be.