We’ve all seen those movies where it takes us far into the future and there are flying cars or other advancements in technology. But we also see the creation of humanoid machines who become implemented into our everyday lives.
These machines known as androids are the main topics of the newly released video game, "Detroit: Become Human." The game starts off in a setting that doesn’t look overly futuristic as you see in some movies. The setting looks realistic enough to make the viewer think that this could actually be our future. Aside from the cool looking futuristic buses, this world coexists with androids.
Androids in this world are used for different purposes. From general housekeeping to having actual occupations, androids have basically found their way into the everyday lives of humans.
Right from the start, the game allows the player to immediately jump into action where they play as an android themselves. But unlike other games, you don’t stay with that one character; instead, you actually get a chance to play through multiple perspectives.
The first perspective that the game throws you into is an android working alongside the police force. From the start we can see that not everyone is particularly happy about using the android, Connor, to complete a human’s job. That’s where the game shows the player that some people don’t enjoy working alongside androids because they’re either taking jobs away from humans or they can’t produce the same human emotions in sensitive situations.
Next, we are introduced to another android, Markus, who seems like he’s in a better situation compared to other androids. Markus is shown compassion by his human owner and in a way we see there is a level of respect that we don’t get to see towards his other Android counterparts. Markus actually experiences a chance to think on his own and the game really pushes a theme of identity with this character.
The last perspective is an android who recently went through repairs, including a reset, which means its memories prior are completely wiped. The android is introduced as Kara and she primarily does housekeeping and takes care of the daughter of an abusive father.
Playing through her route we slowly unlock memories and hints to show the reason Kara needed to be repaired in the first place. We even discover that androids are capable of disobeying their owner’s commands and Kara taps into an artificial consciousness which is rare for androids.
In movies about androids, we see the struggle of whether androids can be considered as humans themselves and what rights do they have. The same situation can be shown through this game as these androids, despite given names, are called “it” instead of “he” and “she” pronouns. This shows that humans in the game only see the androids as objects and not as equals to themselves.
There are even protests shown in the game against having androids because of the fear of unemployment for humans. Much like how in the real world, we deal with people fearing immigrants coming into the country because they believe every immigrant will throw them out of a job.
This game makes the possibility that we might deal with the issue of having androids in our lives in the future a reality. You get to play these different yet similar characters and choose different paths based on the decisions you make in the game. I’m excited to see how the story develops and the different endings that will develop based on the player’s choice.
