Heart of the Machine

This game is ruining my life. I haven't left the house in three days. *Do not send help.* The sheer number of decisions with repercussions down the road is staggering and immensely satisfying. You can be exactly the kind of superhuman machine-intelligence you always wanted to be, whether that makes you a benevolent artificial god, the sinister hand behind the face of a friendly corporation, or skynet with extra steps, with all kinds of little flourishes along the way. The cyberpunk sci-fi dystopia atmosphere is spot on, with just the right amount of joyful absurdity, and the writing quickly draws you in, from the mendacious smugness of your corporate overlords to the desperation of the people on the street. Bludgeoning the megacorporation ruining everyone's lives into submission with nuclear bombardment and killbot swarms while defending my city from conventional attack with mechs, terminators and a flight of liquid metal machine-dragons was the most catharsis I've had from a game in years. When I found out one person made this I was genuinely shocked. Give him your money so he'll add more.

I have a hard time relating this game to something else in terms of gameplay. Its turn based strategy only, not. In no way disappointing, the game has an atmosphere and narrative that is truly unique and compelling. Fans of the robot+ai genre will absolutely feel the home turf here. This game is highly intelligent, promotes planning and critical thinking, and has just enough mix of unit and building management to make the whole package function like a well oiled machine. The dev is one of the most attentive, accessible and hard-working ones I've ever seen on an indie IP. If you run into problems or have questions/suggestions - you will be heard, and that's pure gold in my book.

I legit have no hecking idea, what im doing even after playing for 30 hours

This is type of game that I really want to love, but simply cannot. Perhaps it is the result of a mismatch between reality and expectations. With a title like "Heart of the machine" and touting AI, city management etc. you would be inclined to expect a game that simulates how artificial intelligence may work. However, being a RPG with some layers of strategy gaming, you will feel like a very average person/personality being thrown into a robot body that starts to react, not analyze, assess and act, like a real intelligence does. And just like an ordinary person, you will stumble, fall and struggle against events thrown at you without reason, then suddenly the game ask you to do over again several times in "alternative timelines". Other RPG make such repetitive struggle believable by creating great narrative on causes and consequences of your actions, which in this game is mostly lacking. The absence of it make such human struggle meaningless. At the end, you just feel like you are a middle manager with a list of things to do, list of trouble to deal with, list of employees to fire, and then struggle some more. I really liked the ambition of this game, and topics exploring AI and future of mankind are sort of my thing, but alas the game did not deliver that in a meaningful and empowering sort of way. I hope someone can pick up and do a better job at this.

Lemme start by saying: I enjoyed the ♥♥♥♥ out of it. I'll remember that game until the day I die. But honestly, I think you need to be very autistic to enjoy this game. It's the furthest thing from simple action fun I have ever played in my entire life. The introduction is too long; even with tons of information, understanding what is going on takes at least 10 hours, and even then, you only start to scratch the surface of it. So to be clear, this is not for everyone. This is a passion project, a giant mess of UIs and a stack of mechanics that somehow works very, very well. Every time you think you're done, BAM, new mechanics that fit perfectly with the last ones. I don't even understand how this game was made: the level of polish is way too high for the addressable market, and yet here we are. Wanna nuke the town? Go for it. Wanna pet a cat? Go for it. Wanna create a giant living metal dragon to be called a god by the simple organics? GO FOR IT. In summary: pretty nice game, but you'd better be ready to survive the sluggish start. It's not on the dev, btw, there's no other way to make this opening.

Greatly enjoyable, complex yet mostly clear.

C Too much repetition (and UI a bit too clunky)

Crafted with incredible effort and care, from a dev with a long and impressive track record. The writing and game design are exceptional.

A very neat story-focused turn-based strategy game. Spend your time on a mix of infrastructure building, fighting, and exploring the city, with the emphasis shifting wildly as the story progresses and depending on your choices. It has the same sense of "wait, you can do *that*?" as the best incremental games.

Interesting fun game, does what it tries to do well, and does it differently than other games I've played