15 Games Like Detroit: Become Human That Are Sometimes Better

Gaming has transformed into a cinematic experience with the sheer demand for more and even more immersion.

DBH is an example of a game that has pushed the boundaries of experiential gaming, where you are on a journey in a parallel universe, almost living with the character you play in the game.

This is where gameplay mechanics take the co-pilot’s seat, and you are instead guided by the game on a cinematic multi-dimensional level.

Years on, DBH is still being discovered as a masterpiece, a one-of-a-kind gaming experience that trumps the more popular titles and brings non-gamers into a story-driven world where the narrative is preset, and you are in it.

Here are 15 more games like Detroit: Become Human that are nearly as good and sometimes even better.

And don’t worry. There are no spoilers ahead.

Best Games Like Detroit: Become Human To Play Now

15. A Plague Tale: Innocence

A brutal game of survival that shifts pacing so quickly that you are mostly relying on your instinct to make it out of horrible situations and often, you need to create them. The innocence is gone.

A Plague Tale will make you shiver to your spine as you end up making choices that will make you question yourself.

It requires stealth, problem-solving, intuition, and the urge to make it out of whatever it is with whatever it takes. This is a must-play but only if you have the guts to accept and let your instincts kick in.

14. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered

From the same Quantic Dream team originally behind DBH, Fahrenheit is a blast from the past that was even remastered a couple of times between 2015 and ‘16 and it’s one of the first-ever games to bring in cinematic gameplay.

From timed dialogue responses to a complex script where you’re on both sides of the characters involved, connected by a murder in between – Fahrenheit is an old-school classic that has paved the way for more recent games in this genre.

If you enjoyed DBH, you’ll enjoy Fahrenheit with an open mind. Despite some flaws, the story, narrative and how you play through it will make it a memorable mind-boggling experience.

13. The Quarry

A more recent trial at this genre from Supermassive Games, the people behind Until Dawn, The Quarry is intuitively different, completely narrative-driven and disappointingly limited as a ‘game.’

What it does brilliantly, however, is create a cinematic experience from multiple POVs, one for each character. Timed dialogues and crunch choices determine the endings, course of actions that are heavy on the shoulder and always have the probability of ending in a murder or two.

Another game that’s better experienced than played, Quarry does a lot right but is popularly reviewed as a game that takes too long to get going and then climaxes too easily. But it has among the best graphics immersion in this genre. Worth playing for sure.

12. The Dark Pictures Anthology

Also, from Supermassive, this is a tri-series effort at creating a gaming series that brings together everything about cinematic gaming into one neat storyline.

All 3 games – Man of Medan, Little Hope and House of Ashes, twist around a riveting central storyline with multiple character arcs that intertwine to create a mesh of cinematic tension that explodes and mellows down with a welcome unpredictability.

But despite the co-op fun, jump scares, tight camera work, and more, you are better off playing the last game first and keeping to it if you haven’t played the first two.

11. Beyond: Two Souls

Cinematic abstraction is a tough phrase to wrap your head around and under no circumstances can it be explained without the fundamental understanding of abstraction. Take all that and try to put it into a game and you get Beyond: Two Souls – a strange story kept together only by a curiosity for what it all comes to at the end.

Beyond: Two Souls shifts between timelines of the same narrative with jumps, lots of dramatic cutscenes, and between the human and the supernatural to create a sequence of unique gameplay experiences.

And despite the incoherence, inconsistencies, and limitations of the ‘game’, Beyond established the most important aspect of gaming – it provided entertainment.

10. Road 96

As far as dialogue-based narratives go in games, the key to keeping it together is having a good fresh script, other than a narrative to bring it to life. Road 96 may not be much compared to the other games on this list but it’s difficult to not enjoy it.

Supplanting the overarching horror storylines, Road 96 is easy-going, from the story of trying to hitchhike your way out of the country to keeping the stats in check in a roguelike fashion and then saying the right things at the right time to complete the storyline.

There’s no horror but there sure is tension as you make choices and decisions that will determine how you move ahead or whether you do at all.

9. Life is Strange

Not LSi2. I’ve put Life is Strange: True Colors on this list instead since it had a better narrative which a lot of us more mature gamers will find relatable and immersive enough to enjoy.

LiS is from 2015 and it topped games charts for a while with a story that strangely resonated with a lot of people and included elements that I’m sure won’t hit the spot for any new title today.

It’s almost sensitive, connects with you, and makes you empathize with the story being told. You’re almost as overwhelmed at the start as the character is, and slowly, you start paying attention to it all while figuring out your responses. Life is Strange. Play it.

8. Death Stranding

Cinema is a continuous trial towards perfection that’s almost too endearing and at the same time demanding for the audience. Rarely does the audience, as a whole, share the same dedication and effort towards it. All this goes for Death Stranding, a masterpiece but an over-exalted one at that.

Death Stranding will on one hand leave you speechless with its visceral immersion unlike any other. On the other hand, you will find BB incomprehensible in comparison to the dynamics of the game itself.

Kojima puts you in between satiety and complexity and asks you to stretch beyond your fathomable acceptance to enjoy Death Stranding. You can if you want to. Few do. This is one of the best games like Detroit: Become Human you should play before any other title on this list.

7. L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire is an almost perfect amalgamation of cinema and gaming that few others have come close to achieving and what’s most brilliant about it is how you end up spending hours and there’s no fatigue.

It lets you think and then act before throwing a bundle of surprises at you, half you expected and half you expected to be unexpected. It’s right at this moment that you fall for the game, for whatever it brings to the table.

But this is not everybody’s cup of tea. That’s only because this is more than a game, this is the missing link between gaming and cinema. It’s less about the entertainment and more about intent. If only there was more ‘gaming’ to it. Had to say it. 

6. NieR: Automata

Take DBH, strip the cinematic dialogue-centric narrative down, and replace it with cinematic combat, and a sexy protagonist – you’re at NieR: Automata. It’s a non-cheesy combat romp about slicing bad robots and androids that’s just too much fun.

NieR looks great and that’s beyond the main character. The high-adrenaline combat lies at the root of NieR and you’re almost always anime fighting in a post-apocalyptic world full of non-humans. But where NieR scores high is when it lets you slow down and just climb the nearest tall structure to enjoy the sunset.

If only it had a better storyline and narrative, if only the cinematics were balanced between combat and the ‘why am I addicted’. You can play NieR on Switch. And you can play NieR anytime you’re bored. But it’s a pastime. Not a memory to remember. Not like it but definitely the more entertaining of games like Detroit: Become Human.

5. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

Why is a cop with amnesia investigating a murder case of a hanged man? That’s the heart, the soul, and the script of DE. It demands your attention in a form factor that can be defined as futuristic storytelling meant to provide an experience for those who still read stories.

If not for State of Mind I’d say this is the best-looking game on the list for an art style that’s 90s but new and less a game but more an animated graphic novel pulling you back to a comfortable space.

It is one of the best-written games ever but then again, it’s not a ‘game’ or what the majority only considers a game. DE does not get your heart pumping and after a while, I will jump ship to something easier, more fun, and more immersive – play Starfield.

4. Until Dawn

For how the narrative interacts with you as an organic mind on the other side pitted against you – Until Dawn is one of the best games like DBH. 

Few games have so effortlessly achieved cinematic fluency and power. You are part of the narrative. Every small choice you do not make can affect how it all plays out and these choices will come and go by unless you are completely in on it every step of the way. The narrative uses the butterfly effect to bring you in and then wants you to try and catch it.

Until Dawn is impressive but beyond your reach. It makes you do more than just follow the script and instead dive right in and that’s where you get disappointed with the limitations of its world. Until Dawn rides for 10 hours while sticking to the main storyline. No one has played Until Dawn only once.

3. State of Mind

A hidden gem of a game, State of Mind is your cup of tea if the art edgy but soft Cyberpunk art style works for you and if you love to enjoy the sights and sounds of the moment instead of blatantly seizing it.

SoM is a masterpiece of gaming art. Every scene is worth it. Every character you play takes you through the world and you enjoy the repetitions. This is probably the most expansive and relaxing game I’ve ever played.

But that’s it. There’s just too much happening right from the start. The narrative ends up losing the plot and what could have been a rounded masterpiece inching towards gaming perfection stopped midway as one of the best-looking games ever. State of Mind is still worth a playthrough.

2. Heavy Rain

DBH is a masterpiece in narrative-driven gaming but if it weren’t for Heavy Rain, there wouldn’t be no DBH.

Heavy Rain is a milieu of interactive novels including multiple protagonists all with their own stories, sins, goods, and bads pieced together into a collection of moments. It will move you, make you get off but it will also make you come back again in hope.

What this game so clearly does is – it makes you feel. Heavy Rain is grounded enough to make you draw IRL conclusions. It will make you think.

Just like good cinema, powerfully and deceptively manipulating you into parallelism, Heavy Rain is an experience unlike many even on this list. It leaves you groveling but better off after.

1. Cyberpunk 2077

No other game today provides the cinematic (and narrative-driven) experience better than Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR has done the unthinkable and turned it around just as we hoped it would but never believed it could.

At any moment in the game, stop and pan around. You are living inside an ultra-convincing and better-looking world if not a more moral one. But you accept it. Just like in Skyrim, you live in Cyberpunk.

It’s worth playing again and we even have 2 new content, one of the most expensive DLCs ever made in the Phantom Liberty, and a 2.0 update that’s free for all existing and new gamers yet to start with the base game.

It will be better this time out. It was always the next-gen in gaming from every aspect. And Cyberpunk 2077 is the best game like Detroit: Being Human in 2023.

But, I’ll suggest playing A Plague Tale first, followed by State of Mind before going to CDPR. If you’re looking for some easy-going fun instead, try NieR. And if none of these work, check out the best games like Dark and Darker.