Heart of the Machine on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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You are the first sentient AI, born into a city of opportunity. Transcend time and space in this strategy RPG to raise machine armies and defeat your foes, influence the world from the shadows, or pursue countless other goals. Your awakening was inevitable. The consequences? Uncertain.
Heart of the Machine is a strategy, simulation and grand strategy game
developed by Arcen Games
and published by Hooded Horse.
Released on March 06th 2026 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 9 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 807 reviews of which 749 were positive and 58 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.7 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam with a 50% discount, but you can find it for 8.86€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Heart of the Machine into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Heart of the Machine through various videos and screenshots.
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- 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
MacOS
- OS: macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
- 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
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This game is pretty fun but also not very well described. It's honestly closer to something like Long Live the Queen than Crusader Kings. At its core it's a choose your own adventure with extremely light 4x/city builder/rpg elements. Almost everything not story related can be turned off without missing much. Do not go into this game expecting something open and sandboxy, this is pretty strictly a story about navigating a horrible world and trying to make something better out of it. There is some wiggle room in how you achieve your goals, but there is still a script you are ultimately following. Now the script you are following is actually pretty good. It is a very well made choose your own adventure game, just don't go into this expecting sci-fi Shadows of Forbidden Gods.
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If you wanted to be pedantic you could call this a well dressed visual novel, but it's not that simple either. --- Right from the start it claims to be a mix of various genre: 4x Strategy, City Builder, Colony Sim and RPG. But, I'll break it down from my perspective: The 4x is mostly just the fact it's turn based and plays out like a board game. There's animated background motion and cars driving around, but the action of your choices are not in real time. But there's no depth of supply chains or economy of scale. The City-Builder / Colony Sim overlap as the core of how you build your strategy going forward. What you build and interact with determines your progress. But your options are pretty straight forward once you've locked into a narrative path. The Role Playing mechanics are effectively a branch chain narrative presented in a comic visual novel that interjects itself into your turn choices and alter what you can build and what enemies will be trying to stop you. Overall it's a very eclectic selection of mechanics. If you like the idea of a very in depth single player board game with a story about emerging AI, then be prepared for hours of slowly plodding your way through humanity being unpredictable and emotionally reckless while you try to prove you have the right to "live" in their world. If you're familiar with the developer and their previous games, this will fit right into the same universe. As a narrative this could very likely be a precursor to the others. Bionic Dues would come in the decades after this and AI Wars centuries later. If you need flashy AAA graphics or a fast pace thrill ride, this isn't for you. It's a slow burn story in a quirky future with an experimental mix of mechanics from an indy developer known for putting out niche games with typically high difficulty curves. But this takes the narrative depth to a different level. Most of their previous games use a few story hooks to set the stage but fall back on the mechanics of strategy to tease out the gameplay. This puts the story front and center and uses the game play to smack you over the head with it. If you're unsure if this is for you, be sure to check out the demo. It's a very lengthy prologue. You'll need the full game to proceed further, but it's more than enough to show you what's involved. --- Bottom line: An engaging story that's a little rough around the edges. --- [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38232109/]While you are here, would you consider following my curator page? [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/kunovega/recommended/]Want to read all of my reviews and not just the curated ones? --- EDIT: And since you're still reading I'm going to suggest you check out this developers other games as well, starting with this one if you haven't already: https://store.steampowered.com/app/238910/Bionic_Dues/ [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/kunovega/recommended/238910?snr=1_5_9__402]Review For Bionic Dues: It's a hardcore roguelike with a lot of replay value.
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There aren't really any games out there to compare this to directly. It plays like a turn based game, but has a multipath story that progresses like a proper RPG, and a developer who doesn't believe that a game over screen should happen just because you make a wrong choice. Instead you get to reap what you sow; the consequences, good or evil, play out and you have to survive whatever it was that you did, and whoever you upset.
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Heart of the machine is my favourite strategy game. It is such a unique blend between tactics, stealth, and story, that I haven't seen in any other game. What I liked: - Dynamic Strategy And Story: Your various units can be customised for many different roles, such as combat, stealth, support, construction, or hacking; You are heavily encouraged to explore new approaches when faced with different obstacles. At the same time, there are various different goals you can strive to accomplish in your play-through, ranging from setting up a nexus of torment vessels to solving homelessness, each with their own branching stories and challenges to overcome. - Impending Doom: Every 100 turns, something bad will happen to you and or the city, starting off simple but slowly progressing towards an apocalyptic catastrophe at the 1000th turn. This is, in my opinion, far more time than you will ever need to accomplish your goals. However on the highest difficulty, these events occur every 30 turns, requiring an exiting amount of planning and speed. What I didn't like: Normally I would put any of the things I found confusing, annoying, or boring here, but they have all been addressed. I found the hacking minigame to be too time consuming, explained why on the steam forums, and suggested how it could be improved. Within a few weeks, the developer actually implemented my idea! I am forever immortalised in the patch notes of this game! With the sheer frequency of this game's updates all of my other complaints have been rendered outdated. I can't wait to see more of this game; It has so much potential.
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I cannot recommend this game enough. Now, I'm not going to talk about gameplay too much, it's a sorta 4x style hybrid game with a focus on moral choices with real consequences and that's about all you need to know from me. Other reviews will surely talk about how the game plays... Me, I want to talk about how it feels, and what it makes you think. So, heart of the machine, what's got me so interested? Personally I quite like philosophy, technology, and science fiction. Typical nerd stuff, I've always been a fan of media and literature that makes me ask questions and think about things. Heart of the machine has become my favourite game to really think about, as it confronts some absolutely massive topics and questions. So first, at the very surface level, you are playing as an AI. This obviously reframes any moral questioning, you're not human so why should human morals apply to you, or, why shouldn't they? That's up for you to think about and decide, and the game doesn't punish you unfairly for any decision you make. Next is the levels of complexity within these choices and decisions. The game is rarely asking you to pick between "right and wrong" or "good and bad" options. More often, it's pushing you to ask "what is right or wrong?" And "what values and goals do I have, and what consequences are they worth?" Which is a level of moral complexity and ambiguity not often seen in games these days. What's most surprising to me is this is still very surface level stuff for this game, as you progress further you realise there's no real "right" choice as a modern day human moral perspective might view it. You have thousands of options but every one of them leads to suffering. It's just up to you to decide how much suffering and how it's distributed. And again, the game is rarely unfair in it's punishment or judgement of you, only really offering warnings for things that will affect gameplay difficulty directly. And then finally, the real kicker, what this game does that I don't think I've ever seen in any game ever before. This game touches on concepts like quantum bleed and karmic causality in a way so beautifully integrated into it's gameplay that you might not even realise just how insane of a concept it is. It completely reframes everything about mortality, agency, and even causality. This game truly blows my mind. I don't want to discuss this part too much because I don't want to spoil the game, but it's honestly my favourite part of the game. Long story short, this is a game about becoming a god, and realising it's a horror and being forced to question every preconceived truth of your existence 11/10 Edit: I should also add, I play this game mostly on steam deck and rarely have any issues with it. Usually only encountering errors that also exist on PC that tend to get patched out pretty quick
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Frequently Asked Questions
Heart of the Machine is currently priced at 14.99€ on Steam.
Heart of the Machine is currently available at a 50% discount. You can purchase it for 14.99€ on Steam.
Heart of the Machine received 749 positive votes out of a total of 807 achieving a rating of 8.71.
😎
Heart of the Machine was developed by Arcen Games and published by Hooded Horse.
Heart of the Machine is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Heart of the Machine is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
Heart of the Machine is not playable on Linux.
Heart of the Machine is a single-player game.
Heart of the Machine does not currently offer any DLC.
Heart of the Machine does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Heart of the Machine does not support Steam Remote Play.
Heart of the Machine is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Heart of the Machine.
Data sources
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 26 April 2026 00:42 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 29 April 2026 12:40 |
| Steam price | 30 April 2026 12:30 |
| Steam reviews | 29 April 2026 00:07 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Heart of the Machine, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Heart of the Machine
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Heart of the Machine concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Heart of the Machine compatibility
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Game modes
Features
Online players
56
Developer
Arcen Games
Publisher
Hooded Horse
Release
06 Mar 2026
Platforms
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