DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN

Don’t dream of electric sheep, start the revolution

Snow whips around Capitol Park. It’s a quiet scene as androids go about their menial maintenance tasks. From under a manhole cover Markus and North emerge. They might not be human, but they’re clearly not the same as the other, seemingly soulless androids. Their stealthy introduction means it won’t be quiet for long. They’re here to start a revolution.

Markus, played by Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams, makes up part of Detroit’s playable cast alongside escaped android Kara and police ’bot Connor. He’s also special, with the

Format PS4 ETA TBC Pub Sony Dev Quantic Dream

ability to convert androids and ‘free them’ from their rigid thinking with a simple touch of the hand. Planning an assault on a store that sells their kind – North seems upset by their rigid captivity – preparation is key, with one wrong move carrying the threat of police attention and, potentially, failure.

COMPUTER SAYS YES

After identifying a way to switch the store’s security off, Markus gets caught hacking into the alarms and beats a hasty retreat, abandoning the mission. But he doesn’t have to make a run for it. He could try to fool the cops with the old kiss ’n’ hide routine in a bus shelter with North, or simply take cover behind a car. Or maybe he pre-planned and took out the drone that spotted him?

For fans of director David Cage’s distinctive dilemmas, the depth of permutations in the choices you make are greater than ever. He tells us: “I tried to put in a choice each time it was possible, and see where it would lead me. It was really scary in the writing process, because you end up with charts and diagrams that end up looking like hell.”

At least the pain will be worth it when Detroit brings its nervy vision of the future to PS4.