GAMING: Detroit: Become Human - One of the most important games of the year

Connor was dead within 20 minutes. We wanted things to go differently, but a little girl’s life was at stake. And after all, Connor was only an android.

The beginning of Detroit: Become Human sets the tone for the rest of the game. Facing down a fellow robot, a household model who had gone rogue and taken a young girl hostage, Connor has choices to make.

Does he pull a gun and shoot? Does he talk the rogue android down? Or does he sacrifice himself for the life of the girl?

We chose the latter — and moments later, Connor was prone on the ground, blue ‘blood’ coming from multiple bullet wounds, but the little girl was safe. Connor, one of three main characters in Detroit, was already dead.

There are consequences to your choices in Detroit: Become Human, including the death of primary characters, but the biggest consequence is intended to be on your conscience.

Detroit would like you to sympathise with its android characters, to place yourself in their shoes, even as society beats them down. Detroit would like you to make a choice of your own — do you see these robots as machines or as people?

On that score, Detroit succeeds in much the same ways Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica, and other great robot shows have done, by first placing the robots in a position of mistreated minority and then having them act in very human ways.

Kara, the housemaid robot who does all the cleaning and dirty work around the house, is beaten severely by her owner but finds revelation with his daughter. Markus, a caretaker for an elderly painter, first opens the door to identity when asked to paint a picture of his own.

Detroit and its creator David Cage owe a great debt to film and TV, something Cage has always been happy to talk about. However, in the subject of artificial life, Cage may have found the perfect subject for his awkward mixture of the cinematic and interactive.

Because the main characters are robots, we don’t expect them to act like normal humans. Yet by dictating their every action, through Quantic Dream’s beautiful and intuitive control scheme, we associate with them in a way only gaming can evoke.

And by writing a compelling story in a detailed world, we are drawn into the debate to make choices of our own.

Whether that experience is worth the price of admission depends on what type of game you enjoy. If you need lots of action or freedom of exploration, this might not be for you.

If you appreciate a good story and excellent presentation, however, then Detroit is one of the most important games of the year. Just don’t be surprised if you regret some of the choices you make in that first play-through — it’s only human, after all.

Detroit: Become Human

A brighter soul

If there is nothing more human than to fail, then Dark Souls is the most humanising game of the last decade. Death comes quickly and often, with every death teaching us something new about the game and its many intricacies.

Despite that, Dark Souls itself wasn’t perfect upon release. There were a few things that needed improving, which Dark Souls Remastered has now addressed.

For a start, the game’s framerate has been steadied, especially in notoriously choppy areas like Blighttown.

Secondly, there’s the addition of dedicated servers for those who enjoy the online aspects, like invading the world of other players.

Finally, there are options for modern screens. improved resolutions, and the full DLC packages.

If you’ve never played Dark Souls, this newly remastered version is a great place to start.

Fortnite in the playground

Finally, if some of the players in Fortnite seem superhuman, instead of just regular human, then a new game mode might help you make up some ground.

Epic has added a ‘playground’ mode to the game, in which players respawn instead of staying dead and there’s a time limit rather than the usual Battle Royal rules. This essentially means players can experiment and practise for the real deal.

Epic are also calling Playground its first step towards a ‘creative’ mode, so we could see Fortnite expanding into new territory soon, with players given more control over the rules and design of the game.