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Detroit: Become Human – A Musical Masterpiece

            Music has a way of getting into a person’s mind and speaking to them directly, expressing things words or pictures could never. It is often used in storytelling to immerse the audience further into the piece and evokes an emotional response within a person. In 2018’s Detroit: Become Human, music is used incredibly well to engage the audience in its vividly fresh environments and story. Detroit: Become Human is a narrative-based storytelling game, which centers  around a near-future world in which artificially intelligent beings, androids, are quickly on the rise in society. Incidents of what people have started to call deviancy, androids breaking free from their programming and thinking for themselves, is quickly becoming a problem. The game follows three protagonists: Connor, the police force deviant hunter; Kara, the household assistant; and Markus, the revolution leader. The game uses three different composers for its music, one for each character to create contrast between them. Three different composers, coupled with the fact that the score was created more like a film score than a traditional video game score, and the consistency of music throughout the game, help to create the dense musical environment of Detroit: Become Human.

            In the game there are three different characters living completely different lives and embarking on highly different adventures. Each story has a vastly different tone to it.The soundtrack contributes compliments this in a logical way, as it has three different composers that bring to life the story of Detroit.  Philip Sheppard, who composed Kara’s soundtrack, was tasked with creating a familial sounding score, one that highlights Kara’s journey of becoming Alice’s protector. Of the three characters, I believe that Kara has the most straightforward journey of them all and her soundtrack reflects that. Her primary function before deviating was personal caretaking, and throughout her journey with Alice, she returns to that primal instinct time and time again. In a short documentary, Sheppard says that “I had a log fire in the room I study in…and it became the basis for Kara’s theme…Now over the top of that I found a little theme that just seemed to fit over top which is taking Kara’s name Kara, Kara – and doing like, a two-syllable motif.” (Playstation, Detroit: Become Human – Behind The Music) Sheppard goes on to say later in the conversation that one of those two base pieces are present in every track of Kara’s. Keeping her musical pieces relatively the same while still ever-growing reflects Kara’s story deeply, a household care assistant turned mother. While fighting her way through Detroit to make it to Canada, she is learning how to deal with her newly discovered sense of self and feelings. Kara’s soundtrack features various string instruments and piano quite heavily. This delicate sounding score highlights and contrasts the other two scores beautifully. Had Sheppard been in charge of composing each of the three soundtracks, the game would have had a very different musical tone. That is why bringing in both John Paesano and Nima Fakhrara to compose the other two scores was vital. Take for example Connor’s score, which was done with synthesizers and custom-made instruments. This electronic sounding score shows the inner turmoil Connor faces throughout the game - am I man or machine? Fakhrara’s complex knowledge of film scores and instrument making provides the perfect set of skills to compose a soundtrack like Connor’s. Phillip Sheppard is a cellist and brings his unique sounds to Kara’s soundtrack. Each composer uses their unique skillset to come up with three beautifully crafted scores, all sounding unique but combined in a neatly presented package. Hearing the contrast from one chapter to another is what makes you appreciate each one individually.

            Abundant, film score-like soundtracks are one of the reasons why modern-day video games have started to look more and more cinematic. Many choice based, narrative driven games like Detroit have the feeling of playing out a movie. Various YouTube channels, including Andy Gilleand, have edited gameplay of the game to remove button prompts and turn the game into a feature length film (Gilleand, Detroit: Become Human (The Movie)). The lead audio producer, Aurelien Baguerre stated in the musical documentary about the game that the team wanted to make the score more similar to a film score then a traditional video game score (Playstation, Detroit: Become Human – Behind The Music). You can clearly see this in the way the score is formatted. Each section has a particular track that plays, the music will loop within the chapter, but the same track is never heard twice, unlike more traditional game scores where one or more themes will be used in certain areas. Throughout the game, various cutscenes will play, moments where the player is not in control of the action happening on screen. During these scenes, often times particular music is playing over it to enhance the scene playing out. For example, the chapter “Jericho” finds Markus looking for the safe haven Jericho and features a cutscene in which Markus finds himself jumping off a construction bridge into a vat of water below. As he falls, the music swells in an orchestral chorus of voices. In the background of all of this, we see a delicately rendered sky, the sun slowly setting in it. The music highlights the scene in a way that shows the player the importance of this moment. To me, this cutscene symbolizes angel-like figures coming to guide him to the safe haven Jericho. Without the music, this cinematic moment would have fallen flat.

            Back before technology was advanced enough, most films produced were silent. Despite the lack of talking, most silent films were accompanied by some sort of music. Words and dialogue were quite literally swapped for music, and what could not be said was instead represented through music. Now that technology has further advanced, we now have ways of recording speaking for movies, and now video games. However, that isn’t to say that music isn’t still used as a way to supplement the words being spoken on screen. Throughout Detroit, if you stop and stand for a second anywhere in the game, you’ll notice music is always playing. This is true throughout both cutscenes and playable sections. Whether it is a good thing or not, humans always like to be stimulated. By making Detroit both visually and auditorily stimulating works in its favour to create the atmosphere needed. The place I noticed it the most was in many of Connor’s chapters. Searching around an apartment to find clues to an active murder case? Tense, deep music, making you feel constantly on edge and running out of time. Interrogating a deviant murderer? Slow, methodical music with a tone that sends shivers up your spine. Of course, while all of this is going on, the game is showing you similar things to invoke similar reactions. Although the visuals alone could clue the player in on how they are supposed to feel, by adding music behind all the scenes, it gives a deeper understanding of how a character might be feeling at any given time. Humans often rely on multiple cues to alert them as to how they should feel, consciously or not. By consistently having music playing, it gives people a trustworthy second source to base their emotions towards the game on.

            Detroit: Become Human has a soundtrack that creeps its way into your mind. By employing several different techniques, the game creates a vast auditory landscape. Hiring separate composers for each character, staging its score in a cinematic way, and never leaving players in a quiet area made an already emotional game into that of a masterpiece. The score adds an intelligent depth to its game, which sets it apart from many titles in the genre. The music of Detroit will not soon be forgotten.

Works Cited

‌ PlayStation. “Detroit: Become Human – Behind The Music | PS4.” YouTube, 12 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUIUFUC5dsw.

Detroit: Become Human. Directed by David Cage, Sony Interactive Entertainment/Quantic Dream, 2018. Sony PlayStation 4 game. 

Fakhrara, Nima, et al. Detroit: Become Human (Original Soundtrack). Sony Interactive Entertainment, 25 May 2018.

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