Here’s a bizarre twist on a familiar problem. Often developers will impose certain restrictions on portions of their games that they don’t want being shared for spoiler purposes. The restrictions will actually block out any kind of recording functionality from the PS4, so that the console won’t even take a screenshot or capture video while in these blocked scenes. Detroit: Become Human doesn’t have these restrictions. You can snap screenshots, take video, and otherwise capture moments from the game to store to your PS4, you just can’t do anything with them from there.
For our reviews, we usually try to upload our own gameplay footage to allow you to see what the game looks like running on a home console, rather than the marketing trailers and gameplay that studios will put out. We feel this helps you make a more informed decision about the game. I usually just hold the Share button down while hovering over a short video file, and set it uploading to our YouTube channel. Anyone who has every shared a trophy screenshot or short gameplay video to Twitter is familiar with the process.
When I attempted to upload some brief gameplay footage from early in Detroit’s story for my review, I was met with a screen that said “Captures that cannot be used with this feature are selected.” I tried screenshots, videos, and even a Share Factory video that had Detroit footage in it, and was met with the same message every time. For thorough testing, I tried numerous other games videos and screens, and was able to upload all of those without issue.
There are ways to get around this. You can toss the captures onto a USB drive (tested) or use an external capture device to get around the restrictions, but you cannot direct upload from your PS4. This includes sharing the captures to Facebook, Twitter, PlayStation Messages, Communities, and even your activity feed.
It’s an odd solution to a common problem. Even God of War, which the developers implored people heavily not to spoil, allowed both capture and sharing of those captures. In many cases studios will opt to block certain portions of their game from even being captured. This is the first time I’ve seen captures being allowed, yet sharing disabled for those captures. I was also struck by the fact that the restriction detected the Detroit capture footage in a ShareFactory edited video, which then restricted that video from uploading.
It’s possible that the restrictions are only in place early in the game’s life to prevent anything too spoilery from getting out. If anything changes regarding the Detroit: Become Human sharing restrictions, we’ll let you know. Meanwhile, be sure to read our review for Detroit. While flawed (just like humans), the story it tells is a powerful one worth sharing.
