Review of D-topia – an exciting sci-fi mystery based on AI | Sports

Men the distant future, on a planet that isn’t Earth, AI is in charge. This organization is not a Skynet-esque robot but a machine that takes care of people. Visually represented as cute droids, the technology is pervasive – incorporated into everything from beautiful architecture to beautiful, often sunny weather. The so-called Optimization System has only one responsibility: to ensure the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

In the hands of less skilled people this game can serve as an academic seminar on the limits of utilitarianism. But the Japanese studio Marumittu Sports He elegantly marries his philosophical concerns with strategic decisions. You play as a young, unnamed Leader who is responsible for taking care of the city’s bots and residents. Every morning you wake up, only to get out of the bathroom before sitting down to eat a well-prepared breakfast, and then start your day’s work. Like everything else that has been done in the future, the work is designed to cause as little frustration as possible, which boils down to simple mathematical calculations in this group – nothing too taxing, but enough to keep you busy.

That’s D-topia in a nutshell: its daisy-like design, seamlessly transitions you from one slate-blue interior to another (with one simple task to another), disrupts the future. During the break between work and sleep, you can socialize with people who are not paradise but a very pleasant thing. The gentle giant Tot has a computerized device attached to his brain to help control his mood and appetite; Eebie wants to express herself through zany fashion, popular in a world where everyone else wears Arket’s obscure but oh-so-chic clothes.

You develop your relationships with these people through open communication, and in some cases, you decide how to help when given other options. At one point, in an attempt to ease Tot’s mood that was clouded by the fake rain, I tampered with the weather system (another simple picture) to bring back some fake sunshine.

This is a simple game of deception told with skill, whose bite continues to the edges of its story (as in an episode that recalls Kazuo Ishiguro’s harvest dystopia, Don’t leave me). It comes at a time when AI has never been more controversial, praised by AI industry executives as the savior of the terrible troubles of the world, followed by those who are rational as a pilot other problems. But Marumittu Games isn’t scary: it’s smarter than that, dropping the perfect traps to stay hidden, letting its existential questions linger in the unscented atmosphere of D-topia.

The result is as terrifying as, in actual gameplay, brilliant: the AI ​​not only controls the culture of D-topia but also disrupts its environment and people. With its quiet environment, well-kept greenery, and temperature control, the game resembles a nursing ward. The decline of people is carefully managed, its end is created. When the kiss of death comes, we don’t even realize it.