Automaton Heart is an adventure game set in an esoteric world. Uncover the history of the place you find yourself trapped in during an expedition to find your creator, learn about your origins, and stabilize the planet's chaotic ecosystem.
Wander through ancient ruins, natural environments, and colossal structures built by the 'constructs', a group of synthetic beings that live forever.
What genre / type of game is this exactly?
Automaton Heart has been going by the 'RPG' label at this point in time due to an emphasis on leveling, upgrades, story, etc.
To be more specific, Automaton Heart fits more closely to an ARPG with third-person shooter elements. This game does not feature turn-based combat in the traditional sense. Instead, players will 'lock-on' to a target enemy and exchange fire while avoiding enemy attacks and using the terrain to their advantage.
Periods of action are punctuated by stretches of pure exploration and rest areas where the player may choose to deal with their equipment and upgrades.
Organs
Upgrade a variety of different organs in your body to improve your stats, unlock new movement options, increase your built-in navigation abilities, and more using the organ management system.
WIP Organ Management menu showing the player upgrading the 'mind' organ with recent unlocks displayed.Â
Characters
Play through the stories of the automatons Uma and Alma, experiencing their unique abilities and traits.
Uma and Alma each illicit different interactions with NPCs and the world environment, eventually meeting to converge the story-lines.
World
The world of Automaton Heart is wide open but will require careful planning during travel.
Players will need to assess their equipment and stats, make hidden item stashes, and plan to bring an adequate bundle of supplies for an excursion into the unknown.Â
Story
Automaton Lung (this game's predecessor) featured a very minimalist story structure, relying on environmental cues at times to convey what might have happened at a particular location.
I consider Automaton Heart distinct from that project and while it shares some stylistic and story-based themes with Automaton Lung I will ultimately be focusing on a story that features more for players to uncover.
Automaton Heart imagines a future world where humans have followed the integration of technology with their bodies to its logical conclusion, and a confused yet powerfully organized religious system has formed based on word-of-mouth concepts from the last 10,000 years of human spirituality.Â
