Heart of the Machine
You are the first sentient AI, born into a city filled with endless opportunities. Raise an army of robots and obliterate your foes, become a benevolent machine overlord, or explore countless other objectives…
Heart of the Machine is a role-playing (rpg) developed by Arcen Games, released 6 March 2026 on Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). It currently starts at $8.99 at Gamesplanet.
What Heart of the Machine is
Heart of the Machine is a role-playing (rpg) game developed by Arcen Games and released in 2026. It was published by Hooded Horse. It is available on Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). It runs on Unity.
The premise, in the publisher's words
Set in the far future, Heart of the Machine is a turn-based sci-fi 4X RPG where you play as a powerful sentient Machine Intelligence, beholden to none. Pursue whatever goal catches your eye across a multitude of playthroughs with a plethora of tools to help you achieve objectives how you’d prefer, often in surprising and unexpected ways, while overcoming those that seek to thwart you. Genetics labs, factories, nuclear silos, military complexes, and much more besides are ripe for the taking, each offering a litany of ways to accomplish your tasks, each with consequences of their own, building a world and story that reflects your approach to every obstacle. Will you raise an army of robots…
How it plays
It is played from a bird view / isometric perspective. Its themes are 4x (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate), sandbox, science fiction and survival. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. There are 284 achievements to unlock.
How it was received
Heart of the Machine holds a critic score of 79 out of 100. That places it above 59% of the 3,813 rated role-playing (rpg) games in our database, which average 73. Games released in 2026 averaged 78, so it scored about average for its year.
What you need to run it
The minimum specification calls for Intel® Core™ i5-760 (quad-core) / AMD® Phenom™ II X4 965 (quad-core), 6 GB RAM and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 Ti (1 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7770 (1 GB). An 6GB memory requirement is modest by current standards; most machines sold in the last five years clear it. Install size is roughly 5GB. Both tiers are compared side by side on the requirements page, and you can check your own parts against them without installing anything.
What it costs, and where
The cheapest verified price right now is $8.99 at Gamesplanet, 70% below its usual price.
What it launched against
Heart of the Machine launched on 6 March 2026, within three weeks of Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert Enhanced, Reanimal and Marathon. All of them reviewed better.
Released around the same time: Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert Enhanced, Reanimal, Marathon.
Cheats and codes
We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Heart of the Machine yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.
Official trailer
Sourced from the publisher’s YouTube channel. See all 4 videos →
Screenshots
All media
Quick answers
Heart of the Machine — frequently asked questions
When did Heart of the Machine come out?
How much does Heart of the Machine cost?
What are the minimum PC requirements for Heart of the Machine?
How many GB is Heart of the Machine?
Does Heart of the Machine have controller support?
Can you play Heart of the Machine on Mac?
Is Heart of the Machine on Linux?
If you like this
