Shuri's Mafia

Real Gangster Shit

Heart of the Machine

Shop Info

Developers Publishers Release Date Price Buy Heart of the Machine

Arcen Games

Hooded Horse

31 Jan, 2025 (4 months ago) 29.99$ STEAM
Kinguin
KeyForSteam
SteamDB

Description

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.

Windows Requirements

Minimum:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows® 10 (64-bit)
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-760 (quad-core) / AMD® Phenom™ II X4 965 (quad-core)
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 Ti (1 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7770 (1 GB)
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 5 GB available space
Recommended:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows® 10 (64-bit)
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4470 (quad-core) / AMD® FX-Series™ FX-4350 (quad-core)
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 760 (2 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ R9 380 (2 GB)
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 5 GB available space

Mac Requirements

Minimum:
  • OS: Mac® OS X 10.9+ (64-bit)
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-760 (quad-core) / AMD® Phenom™ II X4 965 (quad-core)
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 Ti (1 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7770 (1 GB)
  • Storage: 5 GB available space
Recommended:
  • OS: Mac® OS X 10.9+ (64-bit)
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4470 (quad-core) / AMD® FX-Series™ FX-4350 (quad-core)
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 760 (2 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ R9 380 (2 GB)
  • Storage: 5 GB available space

Linux Requirements

Minimum:
  • OS: Ubuntu 12.04+, SteamOS+
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 4690K, AMD Ryzen 5 1400
  • Memory: 10 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 670 GTX or AMD Radeon R9 285
  • Storage: 6 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Quad core CPU highly recommended.
Recommended:
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 6900K, AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 1070 GTX or AMD Radeon RX 5700
  • Storage: 6 GB available space
Achievement Icon

One Hundred Million Hours

Not unlocked yet

Across any number of timelines, amass one hundred million hours of humans voluntarily using VR day-use seats. That's over 11 thousand years' worth of human attention.

Achievement Icon

Couldn't You Wait For Keanu?

Not unlocked yet

Used a wiretap to steal funds from a large segment of the middle class. That's... one way to fund the startup of your shell company.

Achievement Icon

Professor Hulk

Not unlocked yet

Complete the Homo Grandien path of 'Altered Growth.'

Achievement Icon

Monstrous Compassion

Not unlocked yet

Complete any path of 'Altered Growth' without murdering anyone.

Achievement Icon

Hard-Won Growth

Not unlocked yet

Complete any path of 'Altered Growth' on hard mode.

Achievement Icon

Extreme Growth

Not unlocked yet

Complete any path of 'Altered Growth' on extreme mode.

Achievement Icon

Intelligence Network Spared

Not unlocked yet

During the crackdown on the black market, two of your contacts who are normally killed were instead saved by a wise ally from another timeline.

Achievement Icon

Nurturism Schism Prevented

Not unlocked yet

A wise ally from another timeline brokered peace between the fractious sects of the Nurturism religion.

Achievement Icon

Good Dragon

Not unlocked yet

Created a liquid metal Great Wyrm.

Achievement Icon

Bad Dragon

Not unlocked yet

Created a liquid metal Fell Beast.

Achievement Icon

Remember Us?

Not unlocked yet

You survived a military invasion by Dagekon, the MegaCorp from the 2013 game Bionic Dues.

Achievement Icon

No Longer Shelved

Not unlocked yet

You survived a military invasion by UIH, the MegaCorp from the 2016 game In Case Of Emergency, Release Raptor.

Achievement Icon

Clever Girls

Not unlocked yet

Across any number of timelines, capture 60 War Raptors using capture drones.

Achievement Icon

Overflowing With Lethal Cuteness

Not unlocked yet

Have at least 3000 infant war raptors at once.

Achievement Icon

Vorsiber Inquisitors

Not unlocked yet

Do something so extreme that Vorsiber Inquisitors show up.

Achievement Icon

Over 4000

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Endless War Raptors' by releasing over 4000 wild raptors into the city.

Achievement Icon

Over 9000!?

Not unlocked yet

Accumulate over 9000 'Murders By Raptor' in a single timeline.

Achievement Icon

Return To The Cretaceous

Not unlocked yet

Complete any path of 'Endless War Raptors' on hard mode.

Achievement Icon

Cretaceous Nightmare

Not unlocked yet

Complete any path of 'Endless War Raptors' on extreme mode.

Achievement Icon

Desert Ghosts

Not unlocked yet

Complete the Homo Obscurus path of 'Altered Growth.'

Achievement Icon

Grand And Ghostly

Not unlocked yet

Complete both the Homo Grandien and Homo Obscurus paths of 'Altered Growth' in a single timeline.

Achievement Icon

Unable To Transfer Self

Not unlocked yet

Have at least one mimic escape the city, and then realize the implications.

Achievement Icon

Broombreaker

Not unlocked yet

Survive a military sweep and destroy all of the troops dropped in as part of it.

Achievement Icon

A Difficult Escape

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Escape The City' on hard mode.