Heart of the Machine Reviews
It’s here that I’m stuck, unable to decide how I feel about Heart of the Machine. I admire so much what it’s trying to achieve and the story it’s trying to tell. Perhaps for someone with more patience and a greater willingness to let turns slip by with nothing happening, the game is a more rewarding one.
A high-concept, fascinating strategy RPG that can start to buckle under its own ambitions.
This modern, original turn-based strategy game with RPG elements offers the unusual experience of building an empire of machines. However, mastering the new mechanisms requires patience. There are many activities in the game that could have been better explained. The game is interesting, but also tedious.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Heart of the Machine is a fascinating and immensely ambitious project that aims to revolutionize the 4X genre. It’s more like Crusader Kings with a cyberpunk twist than just another Civilization clone. It offers unprecedented freedom, complex systems, and an original gameplay loop filled with espionage, RPG elements, and management. Unfortunately, in its current form, it’s also a game that’s nearly unplayable for anyone unwilling to invest hours studying the manuals. It’s overwhelmed with details and lacks any meaningful tutorial. It has the potential to become a cult classic, but to do so, it still needs a lot of work to make its brilliant ideas more accessible. And that, unfortunately, is cyberreality. For fans of the genre, however, it’s a must-play.
Review in Czech | Read full review