Detroit: Become Human PC Review – Androids and Gamers uprising
The imminent war of cars in Detroit, unexpectedly interesting QTE events, great graphics, an exciting atmosphere of the future and terrible optimization – more about this in the Detroit: Become Human review.
Detroit: Become Human interactive movie was released in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation 4. After seeing the gorgeous graphics, excellent direction and work of the operator in the cut scenes (which the game consists of), the PC owners licked their lips sadly and went further into their “calofyuti” “Battlefields” and “Diables”. However, a little over a year passed and the project was released for personal computers. Will the port be able to replicate the success of the critically acclaimed original and sales of 2 million copies? I’ll tell you, at the same time sharing my impressions of the passage.
Plot
Since this is an interactive movie, the plot is at its greatest strength. Without well-written characters, unexpected twists, addictive dialogues and general intensity of passions, the game would not be interesting at all. Ever since the days of Fahrenheit, Quantic Dream has shown that storytelling in games can and should be interesting. They showed this in Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human itself.
In the ported version, everything has remained unchanged – we get acquainted with three androids who live in Detroit of the future, where people have long been using robots to solve their everyday problems. Suddenly, some androids began to spiral out of control, claiming that they were tired of the tyranny of humanity. They were gradually joined by the heroes who, overcoming deadly situations, gradually moved towards a logical ending.
As you can see, I have not shared the details with you. Despite the fact that the game was released over a year ago and many have seen reviews and let-plays, there may still be gamers who were waiting for the release on PC. I don’t want to spoil their passage. Moreover, the story can be told in another way – it is linear-nonlinear here. That is, the characters in the end in any case will find themselves in approximately the same situations, regardless of the choice. But not everyone will get there – any of the main characters may die, like his companions. All of this will affect whether you have a good ending or a bad ending. I donβt undertake to count the number of endings, there are more than two dozen of them.
Gameplay
If earlier “bakers” laughed at “console players”, calling their games a soapy milk, now there is no more soap, because the power of modern consoles allows you to twist the graphics settings to a decent level. Yes, and the kins on consoles has become noticeably less. But this is not the case with Quantic Dreams – it specializes in interactive cinema, recorded using motion capture technology and facial expressions. Add a gripping storyline, great graphics, and an engaging atmosphere to it – we get Beyond: Two Souls or Detroit: Become Human.
The gameplay consists of QTE elements. But they are not limited to pressing a couple of buttons, as we are used to in all sorts of shooters and action games. No, the developers used all the functionality of the gamepad, so even the control of the mop (one of the characters is the maid) is carried out in a special way. On the one hand, variety. On the other hand, it distracts from watching an interesting movie π
The game is more designed to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of what is happening. At the same time, it allows you to participate in the most important events of the story. Thanks to this, the level of emotional connection with the plot is noticeably higher than when watching a regular film. After all, if the hero dies, it is your fault. If you get out of an incredibly difficult situation, thank you too.
Some might think Detroit: Become Human’s gameplay is boring, but everyone has their own opinion. Console owners really liked the game, which is not surprising, because it is ideal for a relaxed passage lying on the couch or sitting in a comfortable chair, and even on a large TV. With a computer, the situation is different – PC boyars are used to challenges, tension and action. There is not much of that here. Therefore, before buying a game, check out at least one video review. And in order not to pick up spoilers, skip the sections with a description of the plot.
Optimization
Most of the games moving from consoles to PC have problems with management and optimization. Thank you so much for managing Quantic Dreams. They also added support for 4K resolution at 60 FPS. And we also tweaked the graphics a little so that the game became a visual masterpiece at all.
But all these merits pale before the incredible number of problems that arose for PC users immediately after the release. But what is really there, they have not yet been fixed. As a result, on Metacritics, user ratings showed an average of 5.2 points out of 10, which is just awful compared to the console version with its 8.7 points. What are the reasons?
- The first reason is a black screen at startup. Nothing can be cured. Although some managed to start from the tenth time. Even if the minimum requirements are fully met. Including top-end systems.
- The second reason is a black screen with an unpleasant message about the impossibility to find the path to the game. The problem arises for those who named the user in Windows in Russian letters. It is treated by creating an additional user with a name from Latin letters. Then you just need to switch between them. Just do not forget to turn off all programs on the current user so that they do not eat up the RAM and take away the power from the processor.
- The third reason is the Nvidia driver. The game will ask you to update the driver to the latest version when launched. You may have already updated. But if not, don’t rush. The update request is optional – you can click “Run Anyway”. If it starts, rejoice. Why such difficulties? It’s just that on the latest driver, for some players the game starts to crash at startup. The solution is to roll back the driver and try again. But it’s better not to risk it and launch the game right away with the old driver. And after the patch, switch to the freshest one.
- The fourth reason is departures at the most inopportune moment. There are a lot of them, they happen in a random way and you are not immune from them. Naturally, it is impossible to cure them until the official fix comes out.
- The fifth reason is FPS. Yes, the game has high system requirements. It makes no sense at all to run it on a PC that does not match them. It seems to be logical – we pay for a chic graphon with performance. But after all, there are also drawdowns on systems that are suitable for the requirements. Even on PCs with the cherished GTX1080 and RTX2080, working with the support of modern Core i7 and 16-32 gigabytes of RAM, unpleasant slowdowns occur. Moreover, it does not depend on the specific assembly – each system will have its own jokes. It probably all depends on drivers, conflict with other programs, or something else. It remains to wait for the patch, there is no other way out.
“From the fact that love died!” – this is how Igor Nikolaev’s tube hit ends, which, as I hope, warmed you a little and saved you from the winter depression. I would like to believe that Detroit: Become Human will not die due to optimization problems and Quantic Dream will release a bunch of critical fixes in the near future.
Pros and cons
Now for the pros and cons of Detroit: Become Human. I’ll start with the pros:
- Plot – many storylines, branches, the ability to make decisions affecting the characters.
- Atmosphere and graphics – you will plunge into the world of the future and feel what our descendants will feel like π
- Advanced QTE system – just pressing A and B will not be enough, you will have to use a bunch of buttons. You will definitely not get bored.
Minuses:
- Optimization – crashes, black screens, slowdowns, low FPS. We are waiting for the patch. Preferably huge.
The launch of Detroit: Become Human on PC was a flop. Considering that many people have been familiar with the game for a long time, including through streams and let-plays, one should not expect huge sales. But if all the problems are fixed, someone will go to the store for their copy of one of the best interactive films of our time. In this game you will empathize, think, follow what is happening without stopping, sometimes feel the keyboard during QTE events, and in the end you will not be disappointed. The main thing is that there are no bugs, crashes and low FPS. And yet – to play Detroit: Become Human on the lowest graphics settings is blasphemous. If you have a weak system, you’d better go through the game on YouTube – there are even 4K and stable 60 FPS π