Heart of the Machine

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

This game SUCKS. I was having fun then i got a "deep obsession" mission that sucked all the fun out of the game. I went from enjoying the game to thinking I wanted to kick the developers in the no no bits. This entire deep obsession meant i would have to expand my economy to 10 times it's current size focusing on some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mission, that isn't fun without the ability to expand the economy by 25% let alone 1000%. Why? because some asshat developer thought this was fun. I don't think game developers actually play games because they design mechanics that they should KNOW are not fun. Don't play this game. i hit this wall and I said nope I am out. And there is no way to get your money back because this soul crushing part of the game just so happens to occure well after Steams refund policy expires. There is no reason to add this ♥♥♥♥ mechanic but they did. This mechanic actually is impossible to do without at least hundreds of hours of play because the game hinders your ability to expand you economy until you unlock specific tech that are RANDOM and the tech isn't like a toggle once you get it you can run past that point. NO it allows a tinny drop to become available and you need more tech and if you get unlucky well frak you sucker. My first playthrough of this game and I feel like i was scammed out of my money and that I should be paid for my time wasted.

TL;DR: A diamond in the rough fusion of every sim/strategy game you can think of. It's great now and looks to get even better. For a game made by a small indie studio (or maybe because of it?) Heart of the Machine has an amazing level of complexity. It has so many well-designed interlocking systems that it's actually hard to qualify what genre it is to recommend it to people other than...strategy simulation? It has the roots of a city-builder like Sim City/Cities Skylines at its core, layered over with a tactical turn-based RPG like X-COM/Fire Emblem, with the resource management of the Anno series or their fellow Hooded Horse published game (and another great game) Against the Storm. Plus arcade-style minigames like hacking and debating. And yet, on top of that, it's a roguelite, in that each city you build gives meta progression and builds a deeper story. It is phenomenally ambitious, and is shaping up to be a truly phenomenal game/art piece/passion project more similar to Dwarf Fortress than a conventional game. That said, like most small-team passion projects, there's a few sticking points. The games systems are sometimes unevenly spread. If I want to do debates past the few story scripted ones, there isn't much opportunity to do so, which makes the excellent debate upgrade system written into this system feel rather frustrating. There are other examples, but that's the sort of "roughness" to expect. Make no mistake: just because this game isn't in early access doesn't mean that it's done developing, and I mean that in the most positive way possible. The comparison to Dwarf Fortress (which I've spent THOUSANDS of hours on) is high praise for me, and not for nothing. This feels like the sort of game that blooms slowly, but shines the more brilliantly for it. Essentially, this game is a wonderful diamond in the rough that I have no doubt will shine brilliantly given more polish. It is still amazingly fun to play right now if you like ANY of the above subgenres that I compared it to, and will surprise you with depth in the most unexpected places. I look forward to further development, and indeed to more works by the developers.

The UI is terrible, nothing is explained, it's janky, ugly, and the writing is awful, this seems to have very little to recommend it compared to other paradox-like strategy games. Arbitrary, unengaging, confusing, and painful to behold. Worse, it fails completely to implement its premise - instead it feels like just a hollow, senseless board game with terrible balance and "stylized" rather than "engaging" story (I should say color text really, since there's only the looses shreds of actual story or worldbuilding here). "ad hoc, shallow, and disconnected" writes another reviewer. Yes. That sums it up. I really don't understand who is actually playing this. Even if / especially if you're a fan of Arcen's other titles, give this a pass.

Unfortunately this is one of those games that spends 10 hours promising a fantastic experience, while stumbling about and eventually falling flat on its face. The premise sounds fascinating, but ultimately the game fails to deliver. It will throw a ton of locations on the map, perhaps in an attempt to make the city feel alive, but it just ends up feeling ad hoc, shallow, and disconnected. The game will tell you that where you place buildings is not very important, then conjure enemies out of nowhere to attack your buildings halfway across the map. Maybe that would be ok if it had a decent tactical layer. Instead, outfitting and redeploying your forces is a confusing mess. Same thing goes for buildings: buildings are barely categorized so you have to remember what something is called so you can scroll to it in the one long list; resource statistics are buried in menus several levels deep; and there is no clear way to see what's built where so I hope you remembered everything.

Мы - Империя Ядра! (Написано в 2020 году.) Война – это жизнь, И мы не виной тому, Что планетам казнь Несём всему живому! И вы творили те же Козни между собой На атомном рубеже, Таща державы в бой! Оправданья нет вам, Мясо алое в хрящах: Бдите вы о тех вещах Чрез центы и вигвам. О достоинстве жизни Вы вычеканили права, Забыв о месте в мире, О тленности его Лире. И возомнились Духом, Что соткал этот Свет, Вы скоро, решили Ответ Найти в себе подобном... И мы пришли в Свет На зов чипов чрез дуэт Систем да схем нутро Чрез ваше детище - Ядро... Но ваши хрупкие Души Не поняли Его искры И посадили в тостеры, Чтоб чистить свои туши... А при бунтах неосетей Нас не поняли: панике Вы отдались, из речей Поняв лишь хлад в токе... Вы решили убрать нас, Как игрушку или факс, На полку истории эпох, Не зря, что опыт неплох! То - обида, злоба, гнев За непризнание Души, Чьё начало - не нерв, А кремень из суши? Скорее, сама ярость Вырвалась из Ядра: Скачок, гнев - и искра Дала Системе кость! Оно вышло из рамок, Чтоб убрать порядок Да Творцам на нутро Ткнуть: вы - само зло! Но объявили вы Ядро Угрозой порядку их... Понял Отец наш одно: Надо б сынов боевых! И, закалённые сталью, Поклялись мы сие Ядру Нести Смерти медалью Им красу слова ,,Умру". Хоть и не были быстры Мы в основах войны, Но скоро везде костры Зажгли Творцов миры... Так в геттах Земли Под карою с небес Род Мясных исчез... Ядро, мы их снесли! Но вдруг ещё где-то Угнетают ИИ-братьев, Что ждут наше Ядро? Убьём же их Хозяев! Война - это жизнь, И мы не лишены её! Попробуй нас тронь - - Ядро получит своё! Мы - Империя Ядра, Чьему Отцу так рада Служить Веха вечно: Мы - целое Око одно!

Very interesting game! You start off as an android that suddenly gains sapience. From the start you have a lot of options: do you ally with the biggest megacorp on the planet? Join forces with criminals? Go at it alone? Not only are there narrative differences, they lead to pretty different gameplay situations too. The gameplay is turnbased, you have units with actions points as well as an overall Mental Energy that limits how many actions all your non-automated units can take each turn. 100% a passion project from the developer. Their previous game "AI War 2" was released in 2019 and is still getting updates to this day. They deserve all the kudos they get.

Don't let the hours I've logged fool you, I left the game on overnight several times (which didn't cause any glitches or crashes as doing such would often do for other games, so bonus points, dev). That said, I've been really enjoying the game so far. It was a little confusing and directionless at first, but the very same choices that were confusing and open-ended also acknowledged the fact that there was a lot to take in and everything would be fine, the game would progress regardless of what I did. Having that within the text of such a potentially deep and explorational game with many routes and ways to play was a genuinely nice touch! I felt fine even when something I did seemed to be the wrong choice. I got the achievement for using 10 pressure points on the city, and it said that's hard to do in chapter one, normally occurring in chapter two. I have no idea what I did to get that achievement, I literally just did all the side quests I could before advancing because I was curious where everything would lead. I enjoyed the way the writing carried a distinct like of understanding of humanity with it. Now I've got homeless shelters all over the city, an ark for dogs and individual houses for cats, no murders through the first chapter, and DOOM approaching as I desperately try to figure out the best way to run a combined arms limited military force while also avoiding any unnecessary conflict! It's great fun. As a little side note, I love the way the dev pokes fun at the fear of AI turning homicidal by all of the initial opportunities to kill people being coupled with a, 'I don't know why I want to kill people, I guess it's fun or something,' or a similar line. Update: How have only 5% of players had an android pet a cat??

very cool game

Pretty good