Detroit: Become Human becomes a PC game on December 12th

Quantic Dream have announced a release date of December 12th for the PC edition of Detroit: Become Human, their sci-fi story about sentient androids which clumsily cribs from America's history of racism and the civil rights struggle. This is Quantic's newest game, released on PS4 in May 2018, and the last of their former PlayStation exclusives we were missing after Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls earlier this year. Detroit is ha-ha-hilariously clumsy but it does have one fun character path about good boys.

So, it's the future and androids are used as slaves even though they're developing sentience. We dip in and out of three story strands starring androids coming to terms with all this, one a maid who's caring for a kid, another a carer who's forming a rebellion, and the third, well, the third is different. This good boy is Connor, the interesting branch of the game, who's investigating 'deviant' robots and has a great buddy cop bit going on with his human partner. Connor can lick substances to analyse them and it's a terrible shame that the game does not give options to lick everything. Connor and Hank are fun, the rest is awful.

David Cage has insisted that Become Human is nowt to do with racism, it's simply "about androids who want to be free." This game is about an underclass who are treated as property, work menial jobs, are blamed in society for "stealing our jobs", and have to stand at the back of the bus. It's set in Detroit, a predominantly black city with a troubled history of racism. One protest march sees the androids raise their hands en masse and give a speech with the words "We have a dream." It has an underground railroad helping androids escape to places where their lives are respected (run by a black woman who explains her ancestors suffered similarly). There's a big lump of the Holocaust in there too. To copy and cludge all this and so much more together into a bad story without thinking what that means then insist it's just about robots is classic David Cage.

Detroit: Become Human is headed to the Epic Games Store on December 12th, priced at £30. A demo with the first wee bit is due to launch alongside it.

Quantic say the PC release has a redesigned interface, can run in 4K resolutions and at 60fps, and has support for both gamepad and keyboard/mouse controls.