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.
Posted on: February 4, 2025
Early Access review
Heinz-Christian
Verified ownerGames: 40 Reviews: 1
Unique setting
Great if you have always wanted to play a game as an AI. Which I have. It gets 5 stars just for that really. Howerver I would like the game to have more flavourtext and dialoge with characters
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Posted on: October 12, 2025
Early Access review
Shoulael
Verified ownerGames: 244 Reviews: 3
Another Arcen Gem
To begin with, I believe Arcen Games is my favourite dev. All their games require a lot of reading. This game is no exception. I have played about 5 hours of this, puzzling my way through the campaign, and faling badly at least three times I remember - one currently. I do like the entire process of figuring out what needs be done, and then doing it. My patience and attention to detail is not what it once was, so I am by no means good at this game, and likely will not be able to put in the time to change that. I needed to look up info on the internet twice, which counts against the experience, but I hope that is improved once the game id fully released.
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Posted on: February 1, 2025
Early Access review
Dasara
Verified ownerGames: 612 Reviews: 9
Another Arcen Awesome Hit
Unique but extremely satisfying game that you will get your money’s worth 100x over. Arcen Games are different games with of focus on good computer opponents and giving you a wealth of interesting choices to make. Heart of the Machine has a incredible user interface once you learn and you will learn well by just completing the prologue and chapter one. Then the world is yours to do as you please.
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Posted on: February 2, 2025
Early Access review
intreped
Verified ownerGames: 181 Reviews: 4
clever and unique
great blend of genres, 4x / sandbox, good storytelling through gameplay; loving it so far having gone in completely blind
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Posted on: February 1, 2025
Early Access review
maxskyler
Verified ownerGames: 301 Reviews: 1
Original and interesting idea
I like the idea of this game. And the game is keeping its promises so far. I hope it will become even better in the near future!
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