The Posthuman Android and the Transhuman Player in Detroit: Become Human

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer a close reading of the 2018 science fiction video game Detroit: Become Human which, despite its promising and novel narrative, offers a simple and otherwise familiar narrative of conscious androids who gradually begin the fight for emancipation from their human creators and owners. However, offering a complex branching narrative with multiple endings affected by the player’s choices, the game encourages the discussion on the relationship between the player and the game system, furthermore drawing on the posthuman and transhuman theories, the concepts of Donna Haraway’s cyborg (1999) and the postmodern identities theories. On the narrative level the android characters will be scrutinized as embodying the humanist underpinning, especially when contrasted with the human characters who are lacking the agency and the self-consciousness. Furthermore, on the non-diegetic level, the game strategies will be shown as influencing the player who, in contact with the game is allowed to experiment with their identities, and, furthermore, to explore the transhumanist and postmodern identities.