Warning: Spoilers Off applies to these pages. Proceed at your own risk.
For a game set in the future and featuring self-aware androids as the main cast, Detroit: Become Human has some pretty scary moments from time to time.
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Kara's Story
Stormy Night
- The entire sequence of events in the chapter can be a combination of this and Tear Jerker, especially for victims of domestic abuse/violence, and especially as a lot of the actions seen in the different pathways of that segment occur in real life (reported or unreported), including the deaths of family members, accidental and/or deliberate.
- In the bad endings, if you keep failing the quick time events, you'll be treated to a drawn-out scene of Todd brutally beating Kara to death.
- As seen on Alice's drawings, last time Todd apparently tore off Kara's arm and beheaded her.
- You can only hear Alice's screaming when she dies, which is just as bad.
- If Kara takes the gun but fails to grab it in time, Todd pins Kara to the floor and punches her in the face repeatedly until Alice shoots him.
- Todd's story is in itself a source of high octane nightmare fuel (with also lots of Tear Jerker at that) in that he replaced his actual family with android surrogates who can never say no to him, who ostensibly exist to make his life easier and make him happy but only serve as a continual reminder of what he's lost, resulting in a downward spiral of substance abuse and physical violence.
- Todd himself qualifies as a bit of nightmare fuel. Rather then being abusive for it's own sake Todd is portrayed realistically in a way that's just deeply uncomfortable to witness. It makes him arguably more terrifying then any chainsaw wielding lunatic because he's a terrible person for intelligible reasons, his reason for doing the things he does makes logical sense and every person has the potential to end up like Todd under the wrong circumstances.
Fugitives/On the Run
- Ralph, a mentally and physically scarred deviant you find squatting in a house opposite the motel. Upon entering the house, Alice is immediately grabbed by him and held at knifepoint. When Kara either calms him down or threatens him with Todd's gun, Ralph lets Alice go and apologizes, begging Kara not to hurt him as the humans have done enough damage already. Half of his face is severely damaged, implying he was abused by his owners and ran away as a result. He lets Kara and Alice stay for the night, and when Kara goes upstairs to see him later, she sees him etching the letters RA9 on his room wall with his knife. When asked why, he simply tells her he doesn't know. Ralph claims that he hides whenever humans come by to squat in the house, but the body in the bathtub upstairs with its throat slit suggests otherwise. In the scene immediately following this gruesome discovery, Kara returns downstairs to find Ralph still waving the knife around, roasting what looks like a dead beaver in the fireplace, intent on feeding it to Alice.
- Ralph's behavior, from waving his knife around while smiling at the two other androids to his paranoid speech patterns, resemble that of a mentally unstable homeless person. And the way he interacts with them is like the equivalent of a kidnapping, despite his good intentions. Although most of Ralph's behavior can be somewhat mitigated, as he truly wishes the best for Kara and Alice, even if it comes at the cost of his own life.
Zlatko
- Zlatko's mansion. Not only does it look like the setting of horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or a xerox of the Spencer mansion, but the inside confirms this when it turns out that Zlatko's a purely evil man who experiments on deviant androids by turning them into zombie-like monstrosities for his amusement. However, justice can be served if the player manages to escape the mansion and either Zlatko's android manservant Luther shoots him with a shotgun, or he's beaten to death by his own creations.
- Speaking of Zlatko's failed creations, they look like horrendous, disfigured, monsters that are probably mangled and torn apart by Zlatko just for 'scientific purpose'. One of them even had his head almost fully decapitated and hanging by a thread, leaving it to bounce around creepily against his neck.
- If the player had Kara's memory deleted and turned into a mindless slave AND THEN failed to regain her memory and escape the house, a hidden cutscene would trigger after the game credits end, in which it will shows Zlatko, still alive, playing with another helpless android, as the camera pans outwards toward the still-brainwashed Kara... only this time, her eyes are black and she is smiling.
- Imagine, if you will: this nice man claims he will help you escape to a better place, only to have you confined as he starts having your memories erased while taunting you with the fact that he was lying about helping you and after he's done with you, he's going to do the same thing to the girl you're protecting. This is one of the most harrowing examples of Mind Rape in video games.
- Zlatko himself. His mansion is already foreboding enough, but then, during his conversation with Kara, he starts getting a bit... creepy. He claims to need to remove Kara's tracker (which, thanks to Connor's part of the story, we know is a complete lie ... if androids could be tracked so easily, he would've been called upon to do it at least once), so what comes to mind is that he wants to cut her open for some other purpose. As the above entry shows, that's all too accurate...
- Here's another one. After allowing Kara and Alice into the mansion, eagle-eyed players would also notice that Zlatko's fingers are tainted with blue paint of some sort. If you paid attention to what Connor said during the investigation at Ortiz's place, you'd know that the blood of androids, thirium, is blue and disappears after a few hours. That means that Zlatko just recently did something horrible towards an android just a few hours before Kara and Alice arrived.
Battle for Detroit - Recall Center
- Did Kara get captured by the police while escaping from Jericho? If so, then congrats, you get to bear witness to what can only be described as an android extermination camp. At this point, Kara and Alice are forced to strip completely nude (including deactivating their skin) and are forcibly separated immediately after this despite both of their desperate pleas to stay together... not unlike Jewish families in a Nazi concentration camp. If that wasn't horrifying enough, they, along with Jerry and (if he's still alive) Luther are literally lined up to die, and if you don't do something, they'll end up as permanent residents of Detroit's landfill... a not so subtle likening to a mass grave. Even if you do escape, with or without Luther, the only consolation Kara and Alice will walk out with is each other, and literally nothing else. Easily one of the most horrifying scenes in the entire game, if for no reason other than its accuracy.
- If you made no allies or all of your allies are dead, no one will be there to help you escape and all you can do is continue to walk to your inevitable death. And if Markus didn't lead a violent uprising, no one is coming to save you.
Battle for Detroit - Bus Station
- If you have Kara steal the tickets from the couple and their baby, they'll panic about being left behind in the Detroit winter in the middle of the night during a curfew. If you had Markus lead a peaceful protest this whole time, then maybe they'll have a chance and can get this all sorted out (unless you dirty bomb Detroit), but if you have Markus lead a violent protest and successfully take Detroit, hopefully they'll be among the evacuated...
- If you don't take those tickets, at least one person in Kara's group will die.
- Sacrificing anyone at the border patrol or taking too long when the protest is violent leads to them getting mercilessly shot.
- In the final chapter, you can find a store where two androids were hanged to prevent them from attending the protest. It’s incredibly unnerving, and Kara even covers Alice's eyes to prevent her from further looking.
Other/Tech Demo
- Since Word of God Confirmed that, this Kara is the exact same Android as the one in the 'Kara' Tech Demo, this means that, she was self-aware before she was subject to the things she went through in her story.
- Specifically, she was already wondering what would be in store for her if she was going to be "sold". For the Crime of thinking she was alive, she almost get's possibly painfully dissassembled, before trying to appeal to her technicians humanity, and expressing actual raw fear for her life. Fortunately, she succeeds.
Connor's Story
The Hostage
- The scenario itself: a previously completely-loyal android has snapped, murdered his owner, and taken the owner's daughter hostage. By the time Connor arrives, two cops are dead, a third is critically injured, and things are on a knife edge.
- The page picture is arguably the best ending for the scenario: if you talk Daniel into letting the girl go, the police snipers take the opportunity to utterly demolish the deviant with gunfire. And he lives long enough to accuse Connor of having tricked him.
Partners
- The victim in the case was stabbed twenty-eight times. He barely has anything left of his chest. Sure, he brought it on himself, but it's a neat encapsulation of how much control an android can lose when it turns deviant.
- Entering the attic is unnerving. Connor has to move very slowly due to the cramped conditions, and as he moves, you can see flickers of movement just ahead of him...
The Interrogation
- You can examine Carlos's android before you begin questioning him. Check his left arm, and you'll learn Carlos put out cigarettes on it. Every time he smoked. For sixteen months.
- Screw up the interrogation, and the deviant will commit suicide by bashing his own head to pieces.
Public Enemy
- If Connor successfully finds the deviant in the kitchen, said deviant tears a biocomponent out of Connor's stomach before stabbing a knife through his hand and pinning him to the countertop. Connor is left with a minute and a half to save himself, during which he can weakly call out for Hank to help him. Hank doesn't show up until you let the timer run out, leaving Connor to die in his arms.
- Finding Simon on the roof and choosing to charge him results in Connor linking with Simon's memory and finding out about Jericho, right before Simon shoots himself in the head. However, because they were connected, Connor felt exactly what Simon felt when he died, resulting in Connor becoming traumatized. The utter horror in his voice as he tells Hank he's okay is both heartbreaking and terrifying.Connor: [shakily] I was connected to its memory. When it fired, I felt it die... like I was dying. I was scared...
Last Chance, Connor
- One way to find Jericho's location in Last Chance, Connor is to interrogate the Traci model if you killed them. In order to do so, you need to reactivate the Traci that can be reactivated and rip the other Traci's head off to trick the former by thinking she is talking to her beloved. Even creepier is Connor mimicking the beheaded Traci to copy her voice.Connor: [in Traci's voice] Tell me where Jericho is...
Battle for Detroit
- If Markus and North are killed at the Battle for Detroit, but Connor deviates and successfully liberates the androids from CyberLife, he will become the new leader of the deviants. But right before he makes his speech, Amanda reveals to him that he is a Manchurian Agent and intends to have him destroy the movement from the inside. With the last of his freedom, Connor can choose to kill himself. Seeing your new leader visibly contemplate suicide (and possibly go through with it) at a podium with no context probably would not fare well for the morale of newly freed androids that don't have anywhere else to turn to...
Markus' Story
From the Dead
- After being shot in the face by the police who mistakenly believe he's the assailant breaking into Carl's house note , Markus wakes up in a junkyard for androids. His body is incomplete, missing limbs and vital sensory organs. After staggering around half-blind and deaf, he salvages body parts from defunct or dying androids to repair his own body, before leaving the junkyard to find Jericho. What makes this scene creepy is the lack of coherent music due to the character's sense deprivation (which is fixed when an audio component - the equivalent of an ear - is picked up) and the fact that various broken androids can be seen attempting to escape the piles of garbage around them. Another android even asks to be mercy killed by having his thirium pump regulator removed.
- An extra creepiness is added when Markus tries to shimmy across a narrow pathway while dozens of robotic hands attempt to grab him. The upper body of an android succeeds for a few seconds and asks in a scratchy voice "Where are you going?", before Markus shakes him off.
- There is quite possibly the most unsettling Easter egg in the game in the junkyard. Along a wall you can find what is possibly the original Kara from the tech demo that inspired the whole game, softly singing the song she sang in the trailer and staring off into space. And she shuts down as you inspect her. Even if she isn't the exact same android, the scene isn't any less unsettling.
- If it helps, Word of God more or less confirms that, the Kara you see in the Tech Demo? She's not the one in the junkyard, she is the very Kara in her storyline!
- A more subtle bit of horror is at the very end after crawling out of the yard, Markus removes his LED light, stands up, softly says "My name is Markus" and walks off into the night. While definitely a triumphant and badass moment, it also has a strong ominous tone. The android that just crawled out of a metaphorical hell with the parts of its kinsmen in its body, who possibly just killed two of its own down there, is now loose in the world. And considering what Markus might do later in the story, this could even be considered the start of a Protagonist Journey to Villain.
- Even worse, Markus didn't have damaged legs from being shot. There is almost no way that could have happened as a side effect of being put down by the police. No, someone intentionally kneecapped him to keep him from climbing back out of the pit if he turned and based on the number of legs lying around this seems to be common practice. At least it isn't quite as brutal as some of the other androids, but it's pretty clear that the authorities know androids will try to escape this brutal existence and take precautions to stop it. Even more alarming is the fact that he's missing an eye and (the equivalent of) an ear, on top of that.
