Detroit: Become Human received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the setting, visuals, story, main characters, the quality of motion capture and voice acting, the impact choices had on the narrative, and flowchart feature, but criticised the motion controls, mishandling of historical and thematic allegories, and aspects of the plot and characters.

In addition to being Quantic Dream's most successful launch, it is also the company's best-selling game, at over 10 million units sold as of October 2024.

[19] The playable characters are: Obtaining clues by highlighting and analysing the environment with augmented vision allows Connor to reconstruct and replay events that occurred before.

In confronting the perpetrator, Markus bypasses his programming, thereby becoming a deviant android with full autonomy and sentience, leading the police to shoot him at arrival.

[28] Markus awakes in a landfill of broken androids and, after escaping, discovers Jericho,[29][30] a derelict freighter and safe haven for deviants.

[36] If he survives, Markus and the others set up a final march to an android recycling centre, resulting in either a war breaking out or the president opening peace talks.

Kara also learns that Alice is in fact an android, replacing the daughter taken away by Todd's wife who left him due to his drug addiction.

[36] They can reach Canada by bus or boat, survive an android recycling centre in which Markus may attack if the player chooses to fight a war, or in either case die trying.

[54] The game is based on Quantic Dream's 2012 PlayStation 3 technology demonstration Kara,[55][56][57] which received strong reactions and an award at the LA Shorts Fest.

[58] Writer and director David Cage wanted to make the demo into a full game, despite not originally having planned to, because he was curious as to what would happen next.

[64] The developers travelled to Detroit to conduct field research,[65] taking pictures, visiting abandoned buildings, and meeting people.

[67][68] Cage's script – between 2,000 and 3,000 pages[69] – was first relayed to the design team while programmers created the graphics as well as a new game engine with advancements in features like rendering, dynamic lighting, shading, bokeh, and physical cameras.

[6][70][71] Quantic Dream improved their game engine's depth of field after Mark Cerny, lead architect of the PlayStation 4, came to evaluate it.

[3] Cage used charts and diagrams to see where the choices would end up;[74] penning "five or six thousand pages of notes", he likened the story to a Rubik's Cube.

[69][70][77][78] Detroit: Become Human was worked on by the 180 staff members at Quantic Dream and also outsourced to the Philippines, China, Vietnam, and India.

[24][80] Clancy Brown, Lance Henriksen, and Minka Kelly portray supporting characters Lieutenant Hank Anderson, Carl Manfred, and North, respectively.

Sheppard's cello sequence in Kara's theme was inspired by the flames of a log fire, whereas the motif layered over it came from the two syllables in her name.

[86] Songs by Detroit-based musicians The Whiskey Charmers, Emily Rose, Thornetta Davis, Rocket 455, Model 500, and White Shag were also featured.

[94] After the 2017 Paris Games Week, a new trailer was criticised for its portrayal of child abuse, specifically a scene in which a 10-year-old girl named Alice is attacked by her father.

[107][106] Destructoid's Chris Carter said that, despite tiring of Quantic Dream's penchant for detective stories, he enjoyed its execution and Connor's "calm demeanor and android origin".

[12] Michael Goroff of Electronic Gaming Monthly favoured the fact that the playable characters were androids because their second-class citizenship status created an "effective viewpoint".

[26] Paul Tamburro at Game Revolution wrote that Detroit: Become Human boasted a "compelling world ... enriched by fantastic performances and state-of-the-art motion-capturing".

[16] GamesRadar+'s Andy Hartup praised Quantic Dream for making "an interactive story capable of provoking genuine, honest, and varied emotions".

[18] Lucy O'Brien at IGN wrote that the game "manages to be a frequently moving melodrama that bends to your choices with meaningful results".

Like Goroff, Wallace, Tamburro, and Hartup, O'Brien found the "branching paths to be multiple and deep", while also complimenting the flowcharts,[109] a feature Colm Ahern of VideoGamer.com singled out as one of the game's few redeeming qualities.

He blamed the weakness of Kara's story on Cage's writing, called the portrayal of domestic and substance abusers "cartoonish", and complained about occasional "wooden acting".

She suggested that the narrative suffered "heavy-handed" attempts at historical parallels, and noted, as Carter did, that its representation of abuse seemed "exploitive due to the over-the-top antics".

[26] Tamburro faulted the opening act for its "slow" and "dull" interactions, the quick-time events for their abundance, and occasional story paths for being "highly questionable".

Though it sold fewer units than Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain in that region, Cage and executive producer Guillaume de Fondaumière claimed Detroit: Become Human was the studio's most successful launch yet.

[117] It was the third best-selling video game overall, generating the third-most revenue in the United States, and sold the most out of any title on the PlayStation Store in May 2018, having been available for six days.