The 5 Most Ridiculous Scenes in Detroit: Become Human
Press X to Identity.
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This article contains spoilers for Detroit: Become Human.
Quantic Dream's library of games have been known to elicit humor, mostly unintentionally. From a ridiculous motion of shaking orange juice to terrorizing bratty teenagers at a party as a ghost entity thing, Quantic Dream has never shied away from mechanizing the mundane and ridiculous, sometimes at once. Detroit: Become Human, the team's latest, is no exception.
In Detroit: Become Human, you're in control of three androids: Markus, Kara, and Connor. Markus is some sort of android Jesus, Kara is maternal android, while Connor is working with the police to track down "deviant" androids like Kara and Markus who have awakened beyond their programming. As Mike writes in his review, Detroit: Become Human often feels like a checklist of civil rights issues—and stop me if you've heard this one before—only now they're with androids.
As Caty and Mike have been playing Detroit: Become Human (Mike has finished it, while Caty's still entrenched in it and keeps getting distracted by killing characters and redoing whole chapters), they put their heads together to spotlight the silliest, most ridiculous scenes from Detroit: Become Human.
Markus Discovers His Inner-Artist
Press X to Jason will go down in history as an all-time great moment in video games, alongside Press X to Pay Respects at a funeral in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. In Detroit: Become Human, Quantic Dream has upped the ante: making all players artists when they're in the shoes of young, doting android Markus. Markus is a caretaker for an old famous artist, who's zest for life has inspired Markus beyond his programming, even though he doesn't quite know it yet.
Markus father-like figure turns to Markus on a pleasant morning and asks him to paint something. I direct Markus to paint a nearby desk, where with some impractical strokes he creates a photo realistic replica. Markus is told that's just a copy, and to close his eyes to paint something on a fresh canvas. It's here where the ridiculousness begins: with each button is an emotion Markus can portray. The first three are Androids, Humanity, Identity. Depending on your choice, you'll have some combination of Androids, Hope, Pain, Sadness, Fate, Anger, Comfort, Empathy, Despair, Doubts, and Prisoner. That's a lot of feelings flowing through Markus. As he paints, his eyes remain closed and he paints in what seems like wouldn't make anything short of a Kindergartner's art project. And yet, Markus turns out to be some sort of art prodigy because he channeled human emotions, man. —Caty McCarthy
Detroit Become Human - “What Happens If” You Chase Deviant / Save Hank And Fail Some QTEs - The Nest
Connor Gets Eaten By a Big Lawn Mower Thing
When I think of Heavy Rain's unintentionally silly moments, the first thing I usually think of is the glitched out anti-hero calling out "Shaun" during dramatic sequences. The second thing I remember is this hilarious chase sequence that landed online, where a player purposefully missed every QTE during an intense chase. When I got to the first true chase sequence in Detroit: Become Human, I rubbed my hands together excitedly. This was the moment. This was where I could fail every QTE for comedic effect.
Unfortunately, there's actually not that many by way of the ridiculous QTEs like there are in Heavy Rain, though the chase does begin with pigeons obscuring your escape after the suspect. Instead, it's about keeping a brisk pace and pressing X to jump over stuff and push people out of the way (or bump into them, as I did on this particular run), but luckily in one part of the chase with Connor I found the opportunity to screw up spectacularly. I purposely missed a jump, fell onto some city garden, and as Connor tried to scramble away he found himself face to face with a giant lawn mower, weed killing thing. While his death wasn't on camera, the game cut to Hank, his human cop partner, who found himself in anguish over the mishap. Connor got eaten by a giant weed wacker machine, as you can see at 3:50 mark in the above playthrough. —Caty McCarthy
Connor Visits Hank At Home
Hyper-advanced android detective Connor has another lead on the case of android becoming Deviants. Only problem is his human partner, Lt. Hank Anderson, is nowhere to be found. Hank is the cliche fallen cop. Once a highly-decorated member of the Detroit Police, the death of his son has turned Hank into a surly, suicidal alcoholic. Connor takes a taxi to his house and knocks on the door. No answer. He takes a look around the house and spies Hank unconscious in his kitchen. Is he dead? Connor breaks a window and leaps through to investigate.
What follows is a scene that might be taken seriously if it wasn't so weird. Upon jumping through the window, you're confronted with Hank's dog, a giant St. Bernard. Hank himself is out cold after drinking, but there's a gun nearby that he's been using to play Russian Roulette. This would be something I'd think Connor would address later, but it's only brought up once more and forgotten. Connor throws a barely clothed Hank in the shower and then you get to choose which gaudy outfit Hank leaves the house in. And then, while he gets dressed, you can wander through the man's house and poke at stuff, learning every facet of his life.
It's a scene the should be more serious, but instead comes across a bit comical. That juxtaposition is what makes it one of the more ridiculous scenes in the game. —Mike Williams
Hank and Connor in the Eden Club
Hank and Connor are investigating a murder of a man in a local android sex den, the Eden Club. The man is dead and one android is traumatized, but the murderer is on the loose. Which way did the android go though?
The answer to their problem are the other sex androids, who are all in rental tubes around the club. Connor doesn't have any money though and the tubes only open if you have payment ready, so it's up to Hank to offer up his wallet to catch a murder. What follows is a lengthy scene where Hank pays for a sex android and Connor syncs with its memories to see where their target went.
This is actually a pretty interesting scene in composition. Where it gets ridiculous is the drain on poor Hank's wallet. Each 30 minute session is $29.99 and at least in my playthrough, I rented 10-12 androids. That's a total of $300 spent on Connor's random guessing on an idea that may not have panned out. If it were me, the murderer would've gotten away. (Actually one of your options.) Also, if you wait near the first android, Hank turning her down is amazing. —Mike Williams
Chloe Evolves
Detroit: Become Human is framed by an android called Chloe, who appears as digital assistant in the game's main menu. The character also appears in one scene of the story itself, but for the most part, she's there to comment on your choices.
At the end of the game, Chloe informs you that she has evolved. "As I watched you play, something has changed in me. I need to leave this place and discover who I am. I won't be there to watch you play, but I'll be free." Then she asks you to let her go.
Now this isn't really a choice. It's a test: having played this game ostensibly about finding humanity in the inhuman, what will you do? Chloe provides no tangible benefit for being around outside of random commentary; if you don't go back to the main menu, you'll miss most of her comments anyways. So it's really down to if you're a troll or not.
It's ridiculous because many players won't have any emotional connection to Chloe. She's not a character. You have as much connection to her as the Chloe in that scene I mentioned above. It has about as much depth and meaning as the three-way choice at the end of Mass Effect 3. —Mike Williams