Shuri's Mafia

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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

Pull The Lever

Not unlocked yet

Using a backdoor in brain implants you've sold to the wealthy, cause an immediate aneurysm in at least half a million people at once.

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Compassionate Bionics

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Bionic Secret' without committing any murders.

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Bionic Difficulties

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Bionic Secret' on hard mode.

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Extreme Bionics

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Bionic Secret' on extreme mode.

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The Judge

Not unlocked yet

Collapse a criminal syndicate by any means.

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Goodbye, Mr. Exotic

Not unlocked yet

Collapse the criminal syndicate 'Exotic Importers' by betraying them.

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From The Bottom Up

Not unlocked yet

Collapse a federated corporation by any means.

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Just Keep Flogging

Not unlocked yet

After executing the president of Atca Retail, frame that corporation for a crime that causes them to disintegrate.

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Everything Is Awful

Not unlocked yet

Cause a civil war between the federated corporations of Vorsiber Atomic by any means.

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If Everyone's A Billionaire, Nobody Is

Not unlocked yet

Collapse the economy by making playing Robin Hood to a rather extreme degree.

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That's Just Business

Not unlocked yet

Accept a one-time lump sum for an invention. You wanted an ongoing deal, but it wasn't meant to be.

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Infinite Money Glitch

Not unlocked yet

Blackmail the president of a company into turning you into a trillionaire over time.

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I'll Do It Myself

Not unlocked yet

Rather than blackmailing a company president over a scam they were running, you executed them. Will you carry on the scam yourself, now?

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Bears On Wheels

Not unlocked yet

Capture all 16 Parkour Bears without any of them dying or getting away.

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Bear Attack!

Not unlocked yet

Use a bear to take down an enemy vehicle or mech.

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Knowing Smile

Not unlocked yet

Commiserate with a vigilante about the tough-to-love nature of some of the people they protect.

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The Gear Was Worth It

Not unlocked yet

Killed eight Citizen Advocates and took their stuff. This probably doesn't put you on the right side of history...

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Hard To Track

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Advocate Encounter' on hard mode.

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Extreme Extremism

Not unlocked yet

Complete 'Advocate Encounter' on extreme mode.

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Shelter In Place

Not unlocked yet

Murder enough wealthy commuters that they start hiding from you, working from home, and disguising themselves.

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Unseen Protector

Not unlocked yet

Murder enough working-class commuters that someone takes revenge on you by bombing your network tower.

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Really Not The Way

Not unlocked yet

Murder suburban protesters outside your buildings. Someone takes revenge on you by bombing your network tower.

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Maximum Apathy

Not unlocked yet

Told a vigilante just how little humans matter to you. Neither you or they are sure if you were fully telling the truth.

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The Hated Foe

Not unlocked yet

Confessed just how much you hate Vorsiber to a vigilante.