Detroit: Become Human First Playthrough
So, yesterday I finished my first playthrough of Detroit: Become Human and I'm very impressed with how it handles branching storylines, character dilemmas, and all of that. Great stuff.
Having said that, I have never failed so hard in a story in my life. XD What I mean is, if I was trying to go for a "happy" ending (which is generally my goal for a first playthrough), I think we can safely say I blew it. Massive spoilers under the cut.
Okay, I'm going to separate it by character since we had three protagonists.
Connor
I was not even remotely good at playing Connor outside of the first chapter, which went smoothly. I bungled up the investigation on "Partners" so badly that we never found the perpetrator, I never even saw the next chapter with Connor (we skipped ahead to "Waiting for Hank"), and Hank wound up disliking me not only because I was an android but because I was an inept android. Sorry, Connor.
I also managed to exclusively say the wrong things to Hank, so about the best terms we were ever on was "tense," but we frequently dipped into "hostile" territory. At a certain point, I just embraced it because to be honest, Hank was getting on my nerves. 8D I mean, even saving him during "Public Enemy" only briefly improved things, but our relationship was still awful, probably because that mission was an abysmal failure.
What's truly astounding is that not only was I on bad terms with Hank, I was also on bad terms with Amanda, and this really feels like a set up where if one of them dislikes you the other thinks you're great and vice versa. But no, I played my cards just right to ensure everyone disliked me.
Connor never quite picked a side in this playthrough because I could not quite figure out what I was trying to go for, so Connor came across as kind of a sad character that both wanted to be more than what he was, but was too steeped in the denial that he was anything more than a machine. From a writing perspective, very interesting. From a gaming perspective, kind of a rough ride. XD
This is part of what led to things going so badly with both Hank and Amanda. My first death with Connor was because Hank shot him (not going to lie, was not a huge fan of Hank in that moment) and things only got worse from there. Connor shot the androids in "The Eden Club," (Hank was upset, but considering how he'd been complaining about the very existence of androids up to this point it felt pretty hypocritical to me), but spared Chloe in "Meet Kamski." Connor ultimately became a deviant after this, but a deviant that was just trying to fulfill his mission of killing Markus. He ultimately spared Markus, though (indecisive, remember?), and died when Jericho was blown up.
But, since Connor doesn't really "die" in this game, he came back, this time a "proper" android, and went to kill Markus one more time. Hank intervened, they argued, it led to a tussle, but Connor tried to spare Hank all the same. It didn't work, and Connor wound up killing Hank. Honestly, kind of felt like the logical conclusion to how lousy our relationship had been for the entirety of the game.
Also, he ultimately spared Markus as well because, um, Markus was basically dying already. Even so, Amanda wasn't happy. Connor's fate at the end was to replaced by a "better" model.
So, to sum up:
1. Was generally inept at all missions
2. Hank hated him
3. Amanda hated him
4. Couldn't choose a side; flip-flopped like mad
5. Ultimately deactivated and replaced at the end of the game
Ouch.
Kara
Her playthrough went the smoothest by far. I think it's because I had a very clear idea of what kind of person Kara was and what our goal was: protect Alice. Okay, makes sense. As such, I protected Alice with all my might.
Still, there were moments that probably could have gone better than they did. Making up my mind on what to do about Todd was kind of tricky because figuring out what would set him off more than he already was was difficult. He was not a rational person, after all. So, I only got Kara moving after it was clear he was going up the stairs to hurt Alice because I was kind of hoping he would just rave and, I don't know, fall asleep or something. Ultimately, I had to fight him to free both Alice and myself and it was a scene, let me tell you.
When we sought shelter, I first tried stealing some money, but that upset Alice a lot since I used her as a distraction, so we ultimately wound up in a rundown building with a crazed android helping us. I kind of regretted staying there even though he was ultimately helpful because his instability was too reminiscent of Todd's, and that can't have been good for Alice.
Things didn't go great in "Zlatko" either. I got my memories erased, barely restored them in time, and had to once again fight my way out of the mansion to save Alice rather than sneaking out if I'd been faster. Zlatko was killed by the androids he'd tormented though, and that was good. Luther also wound up coming with us.
The theme park was actually an awesome and very smooth section, as was our rest time with Rose.
Things went so smoothly that when I did finally mess things up in Kara's run I was genuinely frustrated by it. 8D Luther died during the raid at Jericho, and I was so mad about it. Luther had become a valued ally and friend by this point and our little trio was supposed to last forever.
We continued without him only when we had no other choice, got into the little boat to go to Canada, were attacked, Alice was hit. Kara had to get into the water to move the boat herself and nearly froze to death. When we got to the other side, it was too late. Alice died, and we were alone.
In summation:
1. Had to fight Todd to escape
2. Lost memories; had to fight Zlatko to escape
3. Luther died at Jericho
4. Alice died in Canada; Kara carries on on her own, brokenhearted
As a side note, Kara really reminded me of Claire from Resident Evil 2, so I had an instant liking for her.
Markus
If I was terrible at Connor and good at Kara, I'd say I was so-so to terrible as Markus. Basically, I started out strong only to go out as an unloved martyr. Yeah...
But let's break it down. Markus was leading a peaceful life with Carl where he lived as a manservant surrounded by the arts. I had him take an interest in the piano and paint a hopeful depiction of androids. He had an artist's soul.
But when Leo came and started beating on him, I had him fight Leo back, which got me sent to the scrap heap. I got out of that, and had several successful missions with Jericho once I found them. The magnitude of my success got me feeling a little too confident, and that's when things started to go wrong.
"The Stratford Tower" was kind of ... so-so. Mostly we were able to spare people, but I did kill one guy and I feel like the message I gave out to the world wasn't... great? Like, there wasn't anything wrong with it, but I feel like it didn't hit the right notes. I don't know.
"Capitol Park" was where I really blew it, though, which was maddening because it had been going pretty smoothly until I messed up the timing with the patrol and we had to run for it, thus failing the whole mission.
Somehow Markus and North got together despite how dismally things were going, and I like these two, actually. I would have liked some more development on that as well as the whole Jericho group, but it worked ultimately.
I really do feel like "Capitol Park" marked the beginning of my spiral into complete failure territory on Markus's run, though. XD We attempted a peaceful protest, got shot at, ran away, which then led to the events where Jericho was blown up, and then I declared war because, frankly, having SWAT come after my base, having to blow up said base, and losing a ton of people made it seem like going for a peaceful resolution would be phenomenally tone deaf. I also lost North in this altercation, and I just couldn't see anyone being satisfied with asking for peace politely.
Unfortunately, the war effort went terribly as well. All the androids died, Markus was severely injured, and he ultimately died after Connor spared him. Public opinion on androids was "hated" if you're curious.
In short:
1. Fought Leo (made amends later with Carl and got some good advice though)
2. Initial run at Jericho markedly successful
3. Doomed by hubris; failed next several missions
4. Got together with North; lost North at the fall of Jericho
5. Revolution was a violent failure; humans hate androids and they're still not free
So, it's the ultimate downer ending. 8D The only survivor is Kara, and she has zero joy in her life. Will she find any now that she's in Canada? I don't know; the going's gonna be rough.
I have kind of mixed feelings on certain plot points as well. I think that peaceful revolution results in the "happy" ending, but... since when are revolutions ever peaceful? We're talking about slavery here. I don't know, I don't like the idea of violent revolution either, but I think if they want a peaceful one to be believable they needed to show a lot more humans in support of androids for me to believe it.
Also, Hank. I like Hank as a character quite a bit actually, but I'm feeling really iffy on his and Connor's interactions. I know they can get along, but in order for that to happen, Connor has to be really... kind of perfect? And not at all bothered by this guy's bigotry? Why would I want that? 8D
I also just wanted the game to be longer. I feel like I didn't get to know Markus's crew nearly well enough, and they all seemed like really cool people.
And the game kept mentioning "President Warren" and her support of android servants and... do they actually mean Elizabeth Warren or is this just an unfortunate coincidence? That part really made me raise an eyebrow. The fact that people were trying to flee to Canada in the game felt a little too on point, though. XD Things are rough.
Anyway, I'm replaying it now and being very careful to get the "happy" ending. It seems to be the ending the fandom talks about most, and I figure it will give me further perspective on the characters. Well, maybe not Kara as much since I would need to play a less nice version of her to get a different look at her, but I'll do that in another playthrough. I'm curious to see if this will change my opinion on any of the characters by doing so, but most importantly I'm hoping to gather more details on the world they inhabited. It sure was an interesting one!
Having said that, I have never failed so hard in a story in my life. XD What I mean is, if I was trying to go for a "happy" ending (which is generally my goal for a first playthrough), I think we can safely say I blew it. Massive spoilers under the cut.
Okay, I'm going to separate it by character since we had three protagonists.
Connor
I was not even remotely good at playing Connor outside of the first chapter, which went smoothly. I bungled up the investigation on "Partners" so badly that we never found the perpetrator, I never even saw the next chapter with Connor (we skipped ahead to "Waiting for Hank"), and Hank wound up disliking me not only because I was an android but because I was an inept android. Sorry, Connor.
I also managed to exclusively say the wrong things to Hank, so about the best terms we were ever on was "tense," but we frequently dipped into "hostile" territory. At a certain point, I just embraced it because to be honest, Hank was getting on my nerves. 8D I mean, even saving him during "Public Enemy" only briefly improved things, but our relationship was still awful, probably because that mission was an abysmal failure.
What's truly astounding is that not only was I on bad terms with Hank, I was also on bad terms with Amanda, and this really feels like a set up where if one of them dislikes you the other thinks you're great and vice versa. But no, I played my cards just right to ensure everyone disliked me.
Connor never quite picked a side in this playthrough because I could not quite figure out what I was trying to go for, so Connor came across as kind of a sad character that both wanted to be more than what he was, but was too steeped in the denial that he was anything more than a machine. From a writing perspective, very interesting. From a gaming perspective, kind of a rough ride. XD
This is part of what led to things going so badly with both Hank and Amanda. My first death with Connor was because Hank shot him (not going to lie, was not a huge fan of Hank in that moment) and things only got worse from there. Connor shot the androids in "The Eden Club," (Hank was upset, but considering how he'd been complaining about the very existence of androids up to this point it felt pretty hypocritical to me), but spared Chloe in "Meet Kamski." Connor ultimately became a deviant after this, but a deviant that was just trying to fulfill his mission of killing Markus. He ultimately spared Markus, though (indecisive, remember?), and died when Jericho was blown up.
But, since Connor doesn't really "die" in this game, he came back, this time a "proper" android, and went to kill Markus one more time. Hank intervened, they argued, it led to a tussle, but Connor tried to spare Hank all the same. It didn't work, and Connor wound up killing Hank. Honestly, kind of felt like the logical conclusion to how lousy our relationship had been for the entirety of the game.
Also, he ultimately spared Markus as well because, um, Markus was basically dying already. Even so, Amanda wasn't happy. Connor's fate at the end was to replaced by a "better" model.
So, to sum up:
1. Was generally inept at all missions
2. Hank hated him
3. Amanda hated him
4. Couldn't choose a side; flip-flopped like mad
5. Ultimately deactivated and replaced at the end of the game
Ouch.
Kara
Her playthrough went the smoothest by far. I think it's because I had a very clear idea of what kind of person Kara was and what our goal was: protect Alice. Okay, makes sense. As such, I protected Alice with all my might.
Still, there were moments that probably could have gone better than they did. Making up my mind on what to do about Todd was kind of tricky because figuring out what would set him off more than he already was was difficult. He was not a rational person, after all. So, I only got Kara moving after it was clear he was going up the stairs to hurt Alice because I was kind of hoping he would just rave and, I don't know, fall asleep or something. Ultimately, I had to fight him to free both Alice and myself and it was a scene, let me tell you.
When we sought shelter, I first tried stealing some money, but that upset Alice a lot since I used her as a distraction, so we ultimately wound up in a rundown building with a crazed android helping us. I kind of regretted staying there even though he was ultimately helpful because his instability was too reminiscent of Todd's, and that can't have been good for Alice.
Things didn't go great in "Zlatko" either. I got my memories erased, barely restored them in time, and had to once again fight my way out of the mansion to save Alice rather than sneaking out if I'd been faster. Zlatko was killed by the androids he'd tormented though, and that was good. Luther also wound up coming with us.
The theme park was actually an awesome and very smooth section, as was our rest time with Rose.
Things went so smoothly that when I did finally mess things up in Kara's run I was genuinely frustrated by it. 8D Luther died during the raid at Jericho, and I was so mad about it. Luther had become a valued ally and friend by this point and our little trio was supposed to last forever.
We continued without him only when we had no other choice, got into the little boat to go to Canada, were attacked, Alice was hit. Kara had to get into the water to move the boat herself and nearly froze to death. When we got to the other side, it was too late. Alice died, and we were alone.
In summation:
1. Had to fight Todd to escape
2. Lost memories; had to fight Zlatko to escape
3. Luther died at Jericho
4. Alice died in Canada; Kara carries on on her own, brokenhearted
As a side note, Kara really reminded me of Claire from Resident Evil 2, so I had an instant liking for her.
Markus
If I was terrible at Connor and good at Kara, I'd say I was so-so to terrible as Markus. Basically, I started out strong only to go out as an unloved martyr. Yeah...
But let's break it down. Markus was leading a peaceful life with Carl where he lived as a manservant surrounded by the arts. I had him take an interest in the piano and paint a hopeful depiction of androids. He had an artist's soul.
But when Leo came and started beating on him, I had him fight Leo back, which got me sent to the scrap heap. I got out of that, and had several successful missions with Jericho once I found them. The magnitude of my success got me feeling a little too confident, and that's when things started to go wrong.
"The Stratford Tower" was kind of ... so-so. Mostly we were able to spare people, but I did kill one guy and I feel like the message I gave out to the world wasn't... great? Like, there wasn't anything wrong with it, but I feel like it didn't hit the right notes. I don't know.
"Capitol Park" was where I really blew it, though, which was maddening because it had been going pretty smoothly until I messed up the timing with the patrol and we had to run for it, thus failing the whole mission.
Somehow Markus and North got together despite how dismally things were going, and I like these two, actually. I would have liked some more development on that as well as the whole Jericho group, but it worked ultimately.
I really do feel like "Capitol Park" marked the beginning of my spiral into complete failure territory on Markus's run, though. XD We attempted a peaceful protest, got shot at, ran away, which then led to the events where Jericho was blown up, and then I declared war because, frankly, having SWAT come after my base, having to blow up said base, and losing a ton of people made it seem like going for a peaceful resolution would be phenomenally tone deaf. I also lost North in this altercation, and I just couldn't see anyone being satisfied with asking for peace politely.
Unfortunately, the war effort went terribly as well. All the androids died, Markus was severely injured, and he ultimately died after Connor spared him. Public opinion on androids was "hated" if you're curious.
In short:
1. Fought Leo (made amends later with Carl and got some good advice though)
2. Initial run at Jericho markedly successful
3. Doomed by hubris; failed next several missions
4. Got together with North; lost North at the fall of Jericho
5. Revolution was a violent failure; humans hate androids and they're still not free
So, it's the ultimate downer ending. 8D The only survivor is Kara, and she has zero joy in her life. Will she find any now that she's in Canada? I don't know; the going's gonna be rough.
I have kind of mixed feelings on certain plot points as well. I think that peaceful revolution results in the "happy" ending, but... since when are revolutions ever peaceful? We're talking about slavery here. I don't know, I don't like the idea of violent revolution either, but I think if they want a peaceful one to be believable they needed to show a lot more humans in support of androids for me to believe it.
Also, Hank. I like Hank as a character quite a bit actually, but I'm feeling really iffy on his and Connor's interactions. I know they can get along, but in order for that to happen, Connor has to be really... kind of perfect? And not at all bothered by this guy's bigotry? Why would I want that? 8D
I also just wanted the game to be longer. I feel like I didn't get to know Markus's crew nearly well enough, and they all seemed like really cool people.
And the game kept mentioning "President Warren" and her support of android servants and... do they actually mean Elizabeth Warren or is this just an unfortunate coincidence? That part really made me raise an eyebrow. The fact that people were trying to flee to Canada in the game felt a little too on point, though. XD Things are rough.
Anyway, I'm replaying it now and being very careful to get the "happy" ending. It seems to be the ending the fandom talks about most, and I figure it will give me further perspective on the characters. Well, maybe not Kara as much since I would need to play a less nice version of her to get a different look at her, but I'll do that in another playthrough. I'm curious to see if this will change my opinion on any of the characters by doing so, but most importantly I'm hoping to gather more details on the world they inhabited. It sure was an interesting one!