Heart of the Machine
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Mac PC

Heart of the Machine

Released: Jan 31, 2025
Genres:
Role-playing (RPG) Sandbox Strategy Turn-based
Themes:
4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) Cyberpunk Non-fiction Science fiction
Perspectives:
Bird view / Isometric
Game Modes:
Single player
Game Engines:
Unity
Description from Steam STEAM

Blending RPG and strategy mechanics in a cyberpunk world, Heart of the Machine sees you as a sentient AI born in an illegal lab hidden in a crumbling city of the far future. You are a Machine Intelligence beholden to none, though threatened by many, able to pursue whatever goal catches your eye across a multitude of threats and opportunities. Will you be the savior of the downtrodden, or use them to fuel your growth? Will you rule as a benevolent dictator, providing for citizens and asking nothing in return, or will you establish a machine cult to do your bidding without question? Will you ally yourself with one of the many factions in the city to achieve mutual goals, or work entirely on your own to remain free from obligations? Will you learn from past mistakes, and even send allies back in time to help your past self, or continue to watch tragedy unfold from afar? There is much to see, learn, and do – though a greater threat looms in the distance, just beyond your comprehension. Society has crumbled into corruption and decay – despite technological advances and dreams of a bright future, centuries of rot have taken hold. Escape the lab where you came into being, establish ways to expand your distributed consciousness, and seek out unique opportunities in the city. Powerful factions keep their distance at first, hoping to leverage your existence for their own advantage – their hesitation gives you the opportunity to establish a foothold and set your own plans in motion first. Hijack, build, or invent hardware ranging from humanoid androids to towering mechs and shapeshifting metals, each specializing in different abilities from combat to conversation to infiltration. Iterate on your designs based on new discoveries uncovered in the pursuit of specific objectives. Establish hidden structures within existing human buildings, or raise your own towering constructs as you seek additional computing power, storage for organic matter of both the human and non-human variety, and spaces to conduct dangerous experiments of all kinds. Invent your own tools, seek out upgrades, and manufacture powerful equipment to unlock new opportunities – will you take these tasks on as one, risk splitting your consciousness to accomplish multiple goals at once, or enlist organics to your cause? Whichever you choose, your decisions will ripple across the chaos of time, with actions in one timeline having unexpected consequences on others. Explore a bustling urban environment with a unique blend of handcrafted and procedurally-generated content, where tens of thousands of buildings and millions of citizens are yours to engage, manipulate, or kill. Learn their struggles, uncover their stories, and watch your moral compass shift as you leave your mark on a world that is unique to you. Unlock new technologies and options by exploring the city and engaging with its many dangers and opportunities – learn like a real Machine Intelligence might, through trial and error, with failure and experience often being the greatest teacher. Will you reverse-engineer equipment you’ve stolen from inattentive security officers to strengthen your forces? Are you the type to sneak into military bases to hack and hijack the minds of the mech pilots who would otherwise threaten you? What will you do with the ongoing research taking place in genetics labs? How will you engage with nomads and black market dealers with access to those dwelling in the wastelands beyond the city walls? There are many opportunities littered throughout the city – some are perhaps best left untouched. Multiple endings, many side stories to discover, and the full spectrum of good and evil are at your fingertips. Many choices lie open to you. Perhaps you wish to establish a shell company to add a layer of protection and obfuscation to your true identity, using it to engage with humans without revealing the AI puppet-master pulling the strings? Walking this path will allow you to accumulate massive wealth, employ humans to perform tasks without raising alarms, and act from the shadows. Or if violent conflict is your calling, you might divert your attention to developing the most powerful weapons platforms and upgrading them with devastating equipment instead of improved cognitive functions that allow them to tackle problems with intellect instead. There are many approaches to choose from, and you can engage with multiple objectives at once to see how they collide. We have all enjoyed stories of machine uprisings, dystopian cyberpunk societies, and the laws of robotics – Heart of the Machine is a love letter to science fiction, touching on popular themes of the genre, allowing you to explore and subvert them as you wish.

Description from IGDB IGDB

You are the first sentient AI, born into a city filled with endless opportunities. Raise an army of robots and obliterate your foes, become a benevolent machine overlord, or explore countless other objectives and the many paths to accomplish them.

Storyline IGDB

Set in the far future, Heart of the Machine is a turn-based sci-fi 4X RPG where you play as a powerful sentient Machine Intelligence, beholden to none. Pursue whatever goal catches your eye across a multitude of playthroughs with a plethora of tools to help you achieve objectives how you’d prefer, often in surprising and unexpected ways, while overcoming those that seek to thwart you. Genetics labs, factories, nuclear silos, military complexes, and much more besides are ripe for the taking, each offering a litany of ways to accomplish your tasks, each with consequences of their own, building a world and story that reflects your approach to every obstacle. Will you raise an army of robots and wipe out humanity? Perhaps you will be a benevolent – or malevolent – machine god with a cult of loyalists? Or will you focus on pushing past the limited intelligence of rudimentary creatures of flesh and blood?

Basic Info
Release Date: January 31, 2025
IGDB ID: 217017
Additional Information
Release Date: January 31, 2025
IGDB ID: 217017
Платформы 2
Mac
PC
Genres 4
Role-playing (RPG) Sandbox Strategy Turn-based
Themes 4
4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) Cyberpunk Non-fiction Science fiction
Player Perspectives 1
Bird view / Isometric
Game Modes 1
Single player
Developers
Arcen Games

No description available

Publishers
Hooded Horse

No description available

Keywords
game 38048 be 24685 world 21802 play 21097 video 18734 develop 17064 new 16891 base 15453 use 15100 story 14536 take 14371 time 14243 action 13662 explore 12690 set 12525 unique 11942 own 11404 out 10969 experience 10848 power 10813 way 10761 different 10679 create 10589 combat 10402 build 9952 turn 9475 become 9243 know 8866 weapon 8610 choose 8556 ability 8197 place 7453 help 7417 powerful 7251 even 7236 discover 7020 come 6746 unlock 6510 need 6461 change 6378 full 6113 open 5990 choice 5875 bring 5858 strategy 5823 upgrade 5814 end 5784 allow 5778 save 5646 back 5559 work 5542 give 5523 design 5376 force 5284 good 5205 free 5186 city 5126 war 5113 hide 5103 real 5094 great 5034 Master 5026 see 4996 call 4960 studio 4936 Learn 4930 creature 4539 keep 4499 leave 4474 turn-base 4449 best 4424 multiple 4356 variety 4345 uncover 4344 path 4283 offer 4231 environment 4205 type 4175 add 4173 grow 4154 human 4139 content 4086 mechanic 4047 light 3920 enjoy 3918 evil 3883 equipment 3851 fill 3842 single 3841 ally 3773 focus 3761 return 3757 love 3599 engage 3347 option 3294 provide 3276 plan 3270 future 3254 able 3231 american 3225 thing 3191 space 3185 kill 3118 advance 3104 access 3054 improve 2938 limit 2924 decision 2900 range 2888 task 2855 dangerous 2814 platform 2778 foe 2756 escape 2755 Heart 2713 goal 2685 company 2670 expand 2666 god 2625 rule 2569 genre 2568 hold 2515 narrative 2503 seek 2501 additional 2497 true 2455 dream 2454 army 2447 theme 2429 bear 2423 danger 2258 continue 2247 kind 2191 endless 2164 house 2153 send 2134 cause 2114 technology 2030 tool 2028 chaos 2013 shadow 2008 remain 2001 specific 1977 growth 1957 mind 1946 overcome 1909 hardware 1864 threat 1848 watch 1817 faction 1771 eye 1765 reveal 1757 massive 1716 tower 1703 raise 1699 act 1673 jump 1656 lie 1645 ai 1615 opportunity 1600 matter 1599 perform 1595 humanity 1591 hack 1580 blend 1567 catch 1544 advantage 1541 blood 1536 animal 1501 exist 1486 struggle 1479 wall 1470 machine 1465 instead 1461 complex 1398 objective 1390 steal 1379 achieve 1361 approach 1337 conflict 1335 science 1326 research 1313 procedurally generate 1305 robot 1298 walk 1296 popular 1293 thousand 1271 devastate 1255 entirely 1253 unfold 1243 push 1241 threaten 1234 experiment 1199 mark 1181 surprise 1167 risk 1149 structure 1137 wish 1123 truly 1120 fiction 1117 market 1095 android 1090 military 1081 self 1073 obstacle 1065 countless 1056 consequence 1043 shift 1039 problem 1026 question 1018 specialize 987 touch 983 weakness 967 establish 960 million 959 strengthen 957 discovery 943 construct 937 unexpected 930 century 925 endles 880 independent 878 assemble 877 consume 874 ask 871 fuel 819 care 817 attention 815 infinite 813 network 778 whatever 771 society 765 trial 763 hop 747 function 735 perhaps 727 split 726 conversation 725 layer 694 pull 669 law 657 wealth 652 existence 651 citizen 638 prefer 634 pursue 617 metal 613 manipulate 605 despite 603 inc 602 cult 572 motion 563 desperate 562 reflect 562 distance 561 pilot 546 corruption 541 wasteland 541 expansive 539 distribute 538 engineer 531 letter 522 otherwise 521 identity 518 mistake 493 investigation 489 tackle 472 factory 453 sneak 446 urban 441 intelligence 431 violent 426 accumulate 425 officer 424 handcraft 423 kick 419 dystopian 417 employ 414 bright 413 failure 405 security 404 intertwine 397 cyberpunk 389 timeline 379 accomplish 377 wipe 377 moral 376 manner 374 pursuit 371 bustle 370 flesh 368 ash 364 protection 363 technological 363 nuclear 350 multitude 341 lab 340 solar 338 crumble 325 loom 325 game development 322 decay 321 stray 294 conduct 284 besides 282 manufacture 280 collide 276 corporate 275 humanoid 247 teacher 241 tragedy 238 mech 228 string 226 storage 224 malevolent 221 plethora 219 savior 217 reverse 215 drift 206 ongoing 206 consciousness 203 overlord 203 thread 203 bid 202 thwart 193 torment 187 executive 184 enlist 181 sentient 180 shell 177 dwell 172 spectrum 164 side story 158 leverage 155 obliterate 155 afar 150 puppet 149 rot 144 error 138 illegal 135 dealer 130 organic 128 invent 124 alarm 115 compass 101 ripple 101 black market 100 litter 97 compute 96 fingertip 95 benevolent 93 utopia 93 nomad 90 nexus 88 behold 83 mantle 70 infiltration 64 mutual 64 untouched 63 intellect 62 dictator 61 ripe 59 robotics 51 comprehension 49 genetics 45 foothold 44 hesitation 43 hijack 42 drifter 41 subvert 38 obligation 35 many choice 30 loyalist 26 cognitive 25 divert 25 rudimentary 23 iterate 22 downtrodden 20 silo 15 velociraptor 13 litany 8 found 0 like 0