Solanna's Playthrough of Detroit: Become Human

It will amuse me if we end up switching perspectives.  (but I doubt it.)  Either way this should be fun.

And Kara was a hell of a video.

And the problems in Detroit are all that one guy's fault who got kicked in the feels by an android and started putting out defective models.  

Spoilers for “Shades of Colour” ahead.
(American spelling be damned)

First was a cutscene, the beautiful Kara from the initial video is here.
She was hit by a car in an “accident” and got reset.
I also saw a pre-owned android for sale.
That makes Daniels insane murderous outburst all the more bizarre.
If he had viewed himself more as a nanny than a family member he would likely have not had such an issue with being replaced.
He would likely have been sold to a new family to help.
I will reserve judgement however.
This cutscenes story has yet to commence.

For now, step into the shoes of Markus.
I have been tasked with acquiring painting supplies.
First thing I see on route is a magazine.
I decide to investigate the magazine and have a quick browse.
Seems humans have fucked the planet in 2038, pollution and global warming were on the rise, androids seem to have slowed the wrath of humanity but I did not go too in depth on the reading here.
Last thing I noted before putting down the magazine is that androids are being used as military weapons now too it seems.

I continued on route and stopped to look at a hotdog vendor, the vendor promptly got angry at me so I decided to leave immediately to avoid any confrontation.
I noted a busker and decided to stop and listen too him, judging by his sign androids make the music now too.
Seems humanity is getting lazy AF.

Androids have an inbuilt GPS it seems.
GPS is two way though which makes me realise why Daniel was so quick to compromise, he would never have escaped via car, his every move would have been tracked without effort.
An android cannot hide it seems.

I go to the paint store and on route ponder the point of the Android parking spaces outside buildings.

I arrive at the paint store and retrieve the supplies then Ieave for the bus.

On route I see a group of protesters who are extremely passionate about their disdain for my kind.
I go the back route around them to the bus to avoid unnecessary conflict.
At the bus I try to board but am looked at like I am defective and told to get on the back.
I do so and for a brief moment I’m slightly offended as I observe the empty bus seats.
But then I note I never had to pay and realise perhaps its not so bad.
I would ride at the back too if it was free.

Mission was very short.
I wonder the consequences I would have faced had I attempted to force my way more directly past the protesters.

But that will have to wait for another day.

At present I have not seen much abuse towards the androids.
I have seen anger at losing employment, but simultaneously I have seen that androids are now the ones “dying” on the frontlines and that the implementation of them has potentially begun to reverse a cataclysmic event.
I see the points of both sides here,
But the music however, thats just people being fucking lazy, like come on.

Spoilers for “A New Home” ahead.
Big spoilers so beware.

This is by far the hardest mission I have had to playthrough so far due to numerous personal reasons.

Enter the shoes of the lovely Kara.
Kara is the android serf of Todd and his daughter Alice.
On route home Todd does not speak to me much, he seems distant, uncaring.

Upon arrival I see that the pair live in a real shithole.
Documents on the table suggest he is failing to pay his bills, outside it is clear industry is building a highway straight through his suburb.
Todd immediately tells me to get to work.
He is extremely aggressive in his mannerisms and puts me on edge.
He is also less than pleasant in his interactions with his daughter.

I get to work cleaning as instructed, I decide the high priority task of emptying the trash is the most crucial as Todd strikes me as the type to cause damage if I make an error.

After clearing the garbage while Todd watches tv I note a magazine on the table and decide to inspect it.
It has two interesting things, first is a discussion about Android sports players.
Too me this is ridiculous, combining android and humans in a team is lunacy, androids will be superior as they do not tire or suffer impairment, whatever daft shit decided to field androids needs a slap hard it would kill the sports industry.

The second story is one I found very intriguing, it details driverless vehicles and immediately the old game “The Moral Machine” sprung to mind.
In the game you are tasked with deciding what action a smart vehicle would take in an accident scenario.
For example, a child has run out into the street, there are two elderly people on one side of the road and a wall on the other, continuing to follow law would mean the childs death, to swerve off road to one side will kill two elderly people but to swerve the other way will kill the vehicles occupants, what does the car decide?
Who has more inherent value?
A child, 2 elderly people or yourself?
(Game is really heavy and makes you think hard about the ethics of automatons logic, I highly advise you check it out if you haven’t seen it before, its free to play,

moralmachine.mit.edu

Now back on subject.
That story provides some interesting points.
If we take into account an automatons decision process could a machine ever be considered more valuable than a human?
Would a convicted felon be less useful to society than a top of the line expensive android who cares for a crippled man and his family?

After debating that for a moment I continue with Kara’s cleaning duties.
Whilst venturing to the vacuum robot that Todd had somehow been unable to turn on for 2 weeks I crossed in front of the tv.
He immediately lost his cool and swore at me, I will endeavour not to do that ever again.
I head to the kitchen to do the dishes and decide to stop briefly to watch the tv, its a hockey match, I did not watch long however as Todd got ready to break my spine for daring to daly, back to work pronto, he is a big guy and I may be an android but I do not doubt he could do a lot of damage.

I do the dishes and head outside to do the washing up, whilst out there Alice arrives.
She seems very very sad.
I decide to approach her and chat, she runs away, shy, so I continue my chores and head to the laundry.
I grab the laundry detergent and find Ice, seems Todd has a bad drug habit.
He enters and puts me against the wall and makes extremely threatening remarks.
I take note that when he does this the small power circle on Kara’s head changes from blue to red and then when he leaves flashes briefly before returning to blue.
Perhaps a self defence feature?
Fight or flight? Clearly the androids have fear, but is it programmed in? is it a defect? Or is it more frighteningly learned?

With all my chores downstairs done I ask to go upstairs.
Todd tells me abruptly to do it.
On route I ask Alice about her teddy bear, she does not respond.

Once upstairs I clean the bathroom then head to Todds room, I clean it and find two moments of intrique.
First whilst cleaning some papers I drop one document which Kara picks up examines with clear and obvious alarm before returning the paper, I am not given a chance to see what that paper may be but my interest is piqued.
I also find that Todd is on medication too, combined with his Ice and alcoholism it is no wonder he is so aggressive.
When putting it away I find he has a handgun in his drawer.
Better remember that.

I note Alice heading to her room so I finish up and head out to be shoved into a wall by a belligerent Todd on his way out the shitter.
I decide to clean the toilet then progress in to clean Alice’s room.
I ventilate the room and note that the window would allow a swift escape.
Another thing to remember?
I clean her room and examine her books, seems she likes to read.
I finish up and decide to talk to her again.
After a brief going nowhere chat trying to get on the girls good side she hugs me, hands me a key and then runs downstairs.
I note the key and remember she has a box on her stand.

I decide to open the box and inside I find a four leaf clover, a photo of her, her mother I presume and a much happier Todd in what seems to be a hospital.
I am assuming the mother has died.
This would explain Todds anger at the world.
Under this I find three pictures.
One seems to be of Alice bleeding?
The second is her and a very angry looking Todd.
The third is Todd manhandling myself in the kitchen.
Ans the fourth seems to show me decapitated and with amputated limbs.
Well fuck me, seems the car accident was actually a Todd accident.

Progressing downstairs I see Todd talking to Alice about how much she must hate him.
He get abusive and grabs her lifting her up to yell at her before breaking down.
Drug abuse can make the greatest man a maniacal monster.
End of mission.

This one is hard.
I empathise with Kara’s alarm, imagine being in forced servitude to a psychopath who is ready and eager to destroy you to sate his fury, a terrifying thought indeed.
I also empathise with Alice, my father struck me when I was a teen and it is not something I will ever forget, we moved on, but it is relationship altering and cannot be forgotten, to see your father whom you love and see as a protector become the monster he should be protecting you from is daunting.
I also empathise with Todd though.
I lost my fiancé to a stroke 6 years ago and it has left me scarred and lost for a long time.
It seems that Todd has lost his wife and if he has my god it is so hard, it is impossible not to breakdown sometimes.

This is all going to come to a head, I can tell already, Todd is a time bomb, he will explode it is inevitable, he nearly killed me for looking at the tv, he nearly attacked his daughter for simply sitting in a chair,
Who his rage will be targeted against is uncertain yet.
I feel the pain of all sides here and I do not know what route I will take later.
Time will soon tell.

It’s interesting to see how your own personal experiences are influencing your gameplay. Your own sense of self and dealings with grief and life are showing in your empathy for the characters and situations. I played in a similar fashion. A lot of this game is showing how people can and should be better than we are. Androids take a lot of the brunt of the people’s unwillingness to bend to change and become the scapegoat to a lot of the worlds problems, even as they are showing obvious evolution beyond their programming.

Yes, I had imagined my past would haunt me a bit in this game.
My family was devastated in the Holodomor so I have a sense of what it is like to have people deem your existence as an inconvenience.

I had felt I would feel a great deal of pain playing this game but so far it has had me hooked and is quite cathartic.
I cannot wait to see where it goes and I am really looking forward to seeing the difference Uesugi see’s in his journey through.
I have hit the return to Kara’s shoes in “Stormy Night” so I think its time to end my gaming session for the night and return when I am more prepared as I feel its gonna get really hectic very quickly.

I tend to drift away on weird tangents.

But yeah the Partners mission.
I told Hank the attack began in the Kitchen with Ortiz attacking the Android.
But I have a theory that the attack in the kitchen may have been provoked by the weird religious altar set up in the bathroom.
Perhaps Ortiz found the android praying and decided to attack it?
I guess we may find out in time.
I have just reached the mission “Interrogation” so maybe more light can be shed in this mission.