Quantic Dream recently released an interactive demo of Detroit: Become Human designed to generate interest before the game’s upcoming launch. The studio’s previous two games, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, received praise for their technical achievements. Digital Foundry carried out a technical analysis of the Detroit: Become Human demo to see if Quantic Dream’s new game maintains the studio’s reputation for technical sophistication.
Character models
Character modeling has always been exceptional in previous games from Quantic Dream even if, at times, the models appeared to have come straight out of the uncanny valley. Based on what we see in the demo, the valley may as well be on another planet as far as the playable character Connor is concerned. It’s ironic, really, because Connor is Quantic Dream’s first non-human character – he’s an android.
High quality textures, high polygon counts, light reflection from the eyes and subsurface light scattering combine to create extremely realistic faces. Hair modeling and animation are particularly well done with almost no visual reminders of yesteryear’s hair as a painted-on helmet. (If some technical terms are unfamiliar, check out this guide.)
Resolution, graphics and performance
Digital Foundry concluded that the base PS4 and PS4 Pro versions of Detroit: Become Human use the same assets and the same rendering pipeline. HDR is used lightly in the demo segment and appears to be the same on both of Sony’s consoles. It looks like you get the same graphics package on the Pro and the base PS4.
The consoles differ on resolution. Detroit: Become Human does not use dynamic resolution scaling so you get a full native 1080p (1920 x 1080) on the PS4, and a checkerboarded 4K (3840 x 2160) on the Pro. You can see the difference in the image above.
Performance is very close to identical on both consoles. Frame rate is capped at 30 fps and both consoles hit it with occasional, brief 1-to-3 frame drops. Frame times are correct except when the frame drops occur. These failures to keep a 30 fps lock are likely to go unnoticed because Detroit: Become Human isn’t a fast-paced action game.
While you shouldn’t draw firm conclusions from a demo released for promotional purposes, what we’ve seen thus far indicates Detroit: Become Human may well be another eye-pleasing game from Quantic Dream. Whether the studio has overcome some of the narrative weaknesses that have plagued its previous games remains to be seen.
Detroit: Become Human is scheduled for release on May 25th.
If you found this article interesting, here are some others you might enjoy.
- ‘Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’ Looks Good (For Different Reasons) On Both The Xbox One X And PS4 Pro
- ‘The Witcher 3′s HDR Patch For The PS4 Is Not Quite Right
- Comparing The Enhanced Versions Of ‘The Division’ On the Xbox One X And The PS4 Pro
- Ubisoft Turned ‘The Division’ From A Disappointment To A Winner With More To Come
- ‘Red Dead Redemption’ Raises The Bar For Xbox One X Enhanced Xbox 360 Games
- ‘Far Cry 5′ Xbox And PlayStation Console Comparisons: Ubisoft Shows How It Should Be Done
