Backbone: The Kotaku Review Image: EggNut / Kotaku Backbone so much, a noir adventure set in Vancouver, populated by anthropomorphic animals who live in a strict racial hierarchy. The game acutely channels what it feels like to be a person of color in a racist society as a lifelong balancing act, but its brief length left me wanting for more. Advertisement The game’s hero, private detective Howard Lotor, is a raccoon and thus at the very bottom rung of Vancouver’s societal ladder. In other games with fantasy racism like Mass Effect and most Dragon Age playthroughs, you are an observer or sometimes even a perpetuator of racism. For Howard, it’s an inescapable reality that also forms the core of the overarching plot.