Gaming: New Heart Of The Machine Review 2026

A high-concept, fascinating strategy RPG that can start to buckle under its own ambitions.

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What is it? A cyberpunk strategy RPG you can shape as a sentient AGI

Reviewed on Ryzen 7 3700X, RTX 4070 Super, 32 GB RAM

It's difficult to imagine a world in which AI might actually be a net good for humanity, but when Heart of the Machine slotted me into the role of a newly sentient Artificial General Intelligence and allowed me to mostly do whatever I wanted, I started to see some merits.

Several hours in, I was sending a small army of Terminator-like death droids into the streets to kill slumlords and relocate their tenants into free public housing I built out of inorganic slurry. And what negative consequences could there possibly be for that?

This cyberpunk near-future tale of corporations run amok fits into the elusive niche of the strategy RPG, controlled through a turn-based interface that allows you to send mechanical extensions of your machine consciousness around a huge city to fight, investigate, interact with the human population, and even save feral cats to place into an animal sanctuary.

It's all to support an unfolding, branching story made up of dozens of small anecdotes with multiple endings. I'd almost compare it to something like Sunless Sea in terms of narrative structure. And typically, these parts work together quite well.

The writing and scenario design really stand out, with a believable explanation for why an AGI that builds megastructures and murders people would be allowed to continue to exist up to a certain point: the corporation that unleashed you wants to watch and see what you become and figure out if they can make any money on it. I can buy it, you know?

Obviously the city will push back against some of your actions, though. If you try to steal corporate secrets, for instance, you'll have to fight off their security teams with a variety of upgradeable vehicles, mechs, and combat androids.

Source: PC Gamer