Heart of the Machine lets you rule the world (or destroy it) as a sentient AI

2.4.2025
By Aron Garst, Contributor

In Heart of the Machine, developer Arcen Games depicts a society thats both incredibly evil and ruthlessly competent, an alternate version of our society twisted by a great deal of hardship. World War 3, major corporate cyber warfare, and a mass exodus of people to other planets are just three blips on a timeline filled with tragedy, inequality, and fear.

"I had to design the evilest society I could come up with," said Arcen Games Founder and Lead Designer Chris McElligott Park. "You can blow up a nuclear plant—something that would take out a chunk of the city and kill hundreds of thousands of people—and society would just say 'We'll look into it.'"

Heart of the Machine places you in control of a sentient AI, inhabiting the world through the mechanical body of a droid. Described as a 4X RPG, you'll strategize, sabotage, and murder your way to building an empire of your own—and you'll have an immense amount of freedom in deciding what to do and how to do it.

The ultimate goal, according to Park? Finding a purpose.

"With the way you are put into different positions, it comes down to who you are as a person, fundamentally. Maybe you've decided your goal is to kill all humans, or maybe you want to make the perfect society," said Park. "That's going to be really difficult so we usually see people killing everyone. That's easier."

Heart of the Machine is a melting pot of genre influences. It's got the tactical combat of XCOM, the higher-level strategy of the Civilization series, and some of the management mechanics of Cities: Skylines. It's the ultimate strategy outlet for science fiction lovers, but only if that love includes a genuine fear of what AI could become in the future.
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In real life, we don't yet have anything like this super artificial general intelligence—AI that replicates human cognitive capabilities—but we know the AI in Heart of the Machine is sentient. Why?

"We know it's sentient because it's you, the player," Park said. No matter what you decide to do, you'll have the tools and capabilities to do it as if you were an unrestrained AI playing against a player in a game of virtual billiards.

"Most of the time, the way AI is used in games is like a magic show. It creates a world that reacts to you in a believable way," Park said. "In video games, the AI agents have perfect information. There is no reason why the AI shouldn't sink every shot in virtual billiards."

The player-AI character in Heart of the Machine is god-like. If you want to do something—like unleash an army of robotic velociraptors on some high-powered executives—then you'll probably be able to do it. It's not easy strategizing against corporations that have been at war for years, but Heart of the Machine gives the player a tool that makes the AI even more powerful.

"There is time travel in this game. You can prevent events like assassinations, then the consequences of those events don't happen," Park said. "You can't actually go back in time, you can only travel forward. You can send information back in time—notes that help you make critical decisions that change the direction of your preferred timeline."
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Like different runs in a roguelike or different save files in a traditional RPG, Heart of the Machine gives players plenty of opportunities to change directions and realize their greatest AI-inspired dreams and nightmares.

Heart of the Machine uses this mechanic to emulate the fight-die-fight cycle of Dark Souls and Elden Ring. There is no lose condition or game over screen, if you die in one timeline then you wake up in another with the traumatic death you just experienced lingering in your head. You can choose to make your journey more difficult by limiting the amount of turns you have, but time will almost always be on your side.

"In some ways it's the biggest time loop game in the world," Park said. "You can't lose—but that doesn't mean you're going to win."

Heart of the Machine is available now on the Epic Games Store.