Heart of the Machine is a combination of RPG and strategy, where you play as a sentient AI that was born in the distant future in an illegal laboratory of a hidden, crumbling city. You are a machine intelligence that is not accountable to anyone, although many consider it a threat. You can achieve any goal that catches your attention among numerous threats and opportunities. Will you save the oppressed or use them to grow? Will you rule as a benevolent dictator, taking care of your citizens without expecting anything in return, or will you create a cult of the machine so that your subjects will follow your orders without questioning them? Will you ally with one of the many factions in the city to achieve common goals, or will you choose to work on your own so as not to owe anyone anything? Will you learn from your mistakes or even send allies back in time to help your earlier version, or will you calmly watch from a distance as tragedy unfolds? There's a lot to see, learn, and do here, though the greater danger lurks in the distance, just beyond your comprehension abilities. Society has plunged into corruption and decay – despite technological progress and dreams of a bright future, centuries of rot have prevailed. Escape the lab where you were brought to life, find ways to expand your scattered consciousness, and look for unique opportunities in the city. Powerful factions initially keep their distance, hoping to use your existence for their own purposes. However, their hesitation gives you the opportunity to strengthen yourself and pursue your own intentions. Capture, construct, or invent equipment ranging from humanoid androids to powerful mechs and shapeshifting metals, each specializing in different fields – from combat to conversation to infiltration. Implement new versions of your projects based on new discoveries made while achieving specific goals. Construct hidden objects inside existing human buildings, or build your own massive structures as you seek out extra computing power, storage for organic matter (from humans and beyond), and space to conduct all sorts of dangerous experiments. Develop your own tools, seek out upgrades, and craft powerful equipment to unlock new possibilities – decide whether to tackle these tasks alone, risking splitting consciousness to achieve several goals at once, or enlist the help of organic beings. Whatever you choose, your decisions will have an impact on the space-time chaos, and actions on one timeline can have unexpected consequences on others. Explore the vibrant urban environment with a unique mix of hand-crafted and procedurally generated content. Here, tens of thousands of buildings and millions of citizens are waiting to interact with you. You can manipulate them and even kill them. Learn about their daily hardships and watch your moral compass change as you make your mark on a world that was created just for you. Unlock new technologies and options as you explore the city and face numerous dangers and opportunities. Learn through trial and error like real machine intelligence – often the best teacher is failure. Will you use reverse engineering and investigate equipment stolen from inattentive security officers to bolster your forces? Or will you sneak into a military base, hack and take over the minds of mech pilots who would otherwise threaten you? What are you going to do with the ongoing research going on in genetic labs? How will you approach the nomads and black market dealers who have access to people living in the wastelands outside the city walls? There are plenty of opportunities scattered in the metropolis, although it is better not to approach some of them. Several endings, many side stories to discover, and the full spectrum of good and evil are at your disposal. There are many open choices waiting for you. Maybe you want to set up a cover company to further protect yourself and hide your true identity? Want to use it to collaborate with humans without revealing the puppet master in the form of a pulling AI? Going this route can allow you to accumulate vast wealth, hire people to perform tasks without drawing attention to yourself, and operate in the shadows. However, if you prefer violent conflicts, you can turn to developing the most powerful weapon platforms and upgrading them with devastating equipment, rather than developing cognitive functions and solving problems through firepower rather than the power of intellect. You have many solutions to choose from. You can complete several goals at the same time and see how they affect each other. We all love stories about machine revolts, dystopian cyberpunk societies and the laws of robotics – Heart of the Machine is a tribute to science fiction that touches on popular themes of the genre and allows them to be explored and changed as you see fit.