Heart of the Machine is deep, fascinating and engrossing to play as a sentient AI

Become a sentient AI in Heart of the Machine, the latest deep strategy game from Arcen Games (AI War 1/2, The Last Federation, Bionic Dues) and it's now in Early Access. I've been running it on Desktop Linux (Kubuntu 24.10) with Proton 9.0-4 and it's been running very nicely. Note: key provided by the publisher.

What exactly is it? A game that unusually blends many different genres together. Mostly fits in within the strategy genre but there's a blend of RPG mechanics, city-building and more with a lot of options and progression systems that make it one of the most unique experiences you can find right now. Everything depends on the decisions you make, what goals you're trying to achieve and it's just thoroughly different.

Even the setup here before you get into the game had me raising eyebrows with a little excitement, with the background lore and how it mentions that the city itself is both your enemy and your canvas. With the rise of all this AI nonsense in the real world, it really feels like a fitting what-if experience.

Check out the release trailer:

YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

It's quite a complicated game to get into but thankfully there's a little Prologue to get you going that will teach you the basics. Not a whole lot though mind you and the game pretty rapidly spreads in more and more features that it can be quite easy to get a bit overwhelmed by it.

The game really asks: what kind of AI will you be? And even from the get-go, you know it's going to be good when it gives you multiple options on how to proceed after your awakening and some of those come with multiple possible outcomes. I went a murderous route which, uh — didn't exactly go particularly well. Good job I'm an AI and can just keep spreading myself around to various Androids.

This is not a real-time game but turn-based, so you get plenty of time to weigh up all your options, which you'll be doing constantly as you try to get a feel for what you want to do. And reading, lots and lots of tooltip reading. There's so much information it will make your head spin.

I have a feeling that much like when Stellaris first came on the scene, Heart of the Machine is going to take over my life while I try various different things and attempt to mess with the city and find out all the mysteries. Can't wait to see this continue to expand during Early Access (which they said should be around 12 months long). This is a real love-letter to science fiction and I couldn't be more pleased.

Don't let the Early Access tag fool you though, this is already packed full of content, they just plan to continue to add a whole lot more possibilities as time goes on.