Is it possible for a game to let you have too much agency? Instances where there are so many choices, you lose track of what decision caused what consequence? I mean like The Wolf Among Us or Dark Souls , where you get the feeling you’ve missed the solution to the mystery by a mile due to the numerous decisions you’ve made along the way. However, in both the aforementioned games, you can go back, play it again, and see exactly which decisions allowed you to find the right area or speak to the right person without offending them. The decision tree shown in Detroit: Become Human ‘s E3 trailer has me worried that the game might allow too much agency and confuse the player.
For example, I’m never going to forget a confusing moment in Beyond: Two Souls, another Quantic Dream game. I hit a memory sequence where some scientists thought it was a grand idea to essentially open a rift and let demons through. Cue poor Jodie having to defeat the demons and close the rift, all with only her specter friend Aiden as backup. At the point where she had to open the door and possessed bodies started coming after them, I totally panicked. My aim was off, and I kept choosing targets that were too far away. I failed the mission, thinking I was going to have go through the sequence again. Nope. I was dropped off at the end like I’d accomplished the mission without any mistakes.
With the new trailer for Detroit: Become Human , I fear that this game might be equally confusing. That decision tree was enormous and, frankly, that was just one person and one event. If there were, perhaps, only a few people with one or two events, this might work out fine. But the idea that a decision you’ll make way back in the first forty minutes of the game effects whether or not your favorite character dies is frustrating to say the least, even with a rewind button.
There is such a thing as too many disconnected choices in a game. It can make a player very confused. Depending on the game, it can be difficult for us to know if a seemingly benign decision, like breaking a tree branch, is going to have an effect on a planet’s very fate. For example, killing Dark Sun Gwyndolin in Dark Souls . It seems like you’re supposed to be punished for slaying her, but even at the end of the game you’re not entirely sure what happened there and if it really mattered.
The amount of gameplay and story that I missed in Beyond: Two Souls made me very upset. I knew there was more, and I had been forced to skip it! It got me wondering what else might be missing, as I also watched my wife play the game, and she didn’t do it perfectly, either. Whether or not that content is actually there, Beyond does try imply that it is for the sake of replay value. Sure, I checked on the internet to fill myself in, but I don’t think the developers intended their players to rely on the internet community, like Dark Souls does. Since I chose not to go back to the main menu and replay the sequence, I missed game content.
I hope Detroit: Become Human doesn’t do the same, despite the implications of the trailer. I also hope it doesn’t make the decision tree too confusing by having disconnected choices like Dark Souls . Most of all, I hope it doesn’t take cues from Beyond: Two Souls and allow certain decisions to cut off parts of the game.