Detroit: Become Human
| Genre | Action-adventure |
| Gamming Style | Single-player |
| Platform | Playstation 4 |
| Release Date | May 25 2018 |
| Developer | Quantic Dream |
| Publisher | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Website | Detroit: Become Human |
Detroit: Become Human is an action-adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Set in futuristic Detroit, the story centers around a handful of android servants who become sentient. The conflict of the game revolves around the revolt of these against their human masters.
Players may play as Kara, who escapes from her creators and explores her identity, Connor, who hunts down nonconformist androids, and Markus, who fights to release others from bondage. Depending on the actions of the player, the stories of these characters could be tragic or triumphant. The game is set to release in May 2018.
Contents
Gameplay
The game is played from a 3rd person perspective with many playable characters in the game. Depending on the choices of the player, a character can die and the game can continue without their storyline. Players occasionally have the option to replay parts of the game and change the choices they've made. By paying attention to clues in the game environment, players can predict the consequences of choices before they make them.
Ethical Concerns
The Butterfly Effect
The term "butterfly effect" refers to a concept in chaos theory which states that in a deterministic nonlinear system, a state change at an earlier time will affect all later states. [1] Ergo, we live in a chaotic existence but Fate guides us, and when we do something in the present it will affect all future possibilities for us. The butterfly effect is used in video games a style of gameplay that allows the player to control the game outcome, most often through dialogue choices with other characters. Many games before Detroit: Become Human have incorporated the butterfly effect including horror game Until Dawn and episodic adventure game Life is Strange.
In Detroit: Become Human, players experience the butterfly effect of the choices they make in relation to the android main characters. For example in Kara's storyline, she works as a servant for a man who is physically abusive to his daughter. The player must make choices to either defend the child or allow the father to hurt her. The choices made will have major consequences for Kara's treatment by other characters later on in the game.
The ethical concerns of the butterfly effect in Detroit: Become Human are clear. Players are given a superficial choice to act benevolently or malevolently in this virtual world. Allowing or participating in in-game violence may not seem that serious but when we consider that some people choose to do this for fun, we may find a problem. There are entire videos made on players making the "bad choices" in video games that use the butterfly effect because they want to explore what it feels like to be the "bad guy."
Human vs AI Rights
Humans and androids are constantly in conflict throughout the game. The majority of the game's conflict occurs once many of the androids begin to become sentient. They battle their human masters for their own autonomy. A major plot point in the game is the organization of androids by Markus. At first, it begins as peaceful protests but then leads to an armed revolt. The concept is very familiar to people in this time of increased social and political revolt. The android revolt mirrors real-life social revolts that have become violent such as some Black Lives Matters protests and political unrest in South America.
Are sentient androids humans? Do they have rights comparable to human right? Is an android life worth the same as a human life? These are the questions that this game asks players to consider. As we continue to develop androids in real life to have human-life capabilities, these are questions we will all have to consider. So far Saudi Arabia is the only nation to make an android a citizen, but we may see more of this in the future.
Violence
Detroit: Become Human contains a lot of violence. All the major plot points surround violent conflicts. Kara deals with an abusive owner. Connor attempts to disarm violent androids attempting to hurt humans. Markus plans an armed revolt against humans. The game continues a trend of extremely violent futures that have been established with action-adventure games like The Walking Dead, Fallout, and Bioshock. But it also includes everyday acts of abuse such as domestic violence, child abuse, and more. It is up to the player to either save victims or let the abuse continue. This has caused a lot of outrage from those who actively speak out against domestic violence. [2]
Conclusion
Detroit: Become Human is a game which explores topics of choice and human rights through the lens of a futuristic setting. By exploring these topics as they are experienced by robot characters, players can experience these topics almost in a simulation. It asks them to question whether these issues are being adequately addressed in real life.
