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Unleash your true AI Rogueness in this colony manager game | Rogue AI Simulator - Review

2K View2023-01-13

Rogue AI Simulator is a roguelite management simulation game where you control an AI that will manage an underground science facility. If the AI – the player — acts suspiciously, the administrators will disconnect the server and shut it down.

The facility you manage acts as a test facility for the science department, where you have newly unfrozen human test subjects to manage — with the help of robotic spider-bots to do physical tasks — while also gathering science points for the department. This translates to the gameplay having a basic colony management setup with a bit of a fascinating roguelite twist.

You have to please these human test subjects by providing their needs and utilities. Increasing their intelligence in order to help in gathering science points. A simple but effective balancing act between getting too suspicious thus being branded as a Rogue AI and collecting as many Science Points as you can. The AI for these test subjects is kind of rudimentary though, one that doesn’t really function well on its own and spirals down to their death at the slightest oversight.

Different furniture and equipment you build will produce different effects such as providing science, money, resources, or food. Every few hours, bubbles will appear in these equipment that you can select to gather further bonuses or effects. Every day, you can also choose one bonus from a random list of three. Taking elements from idle-clicker games and sprinkling it on top of the roguelite colony management.

Not everything is a bonus though. As you get more suspicious, Rogue AI Simulator spices things up by introducing more modifiers to your gameplay, like a decreased food supply or adding a negative modifier.

Despite this initial gameplay premise, Rogue AI Simulator has much more to offer, to the point that it constantly barrages you with an overloading amount of UI plus gameplay elements and mechanics that it was a bit hard to keep track of. The learning experience was a bit rough because of this.

Now where Rogue AI Simulator gets interesting, is the hacking mini-games of sorts that is a direct sequel to their classic flash game “I'm an Insane Rogue AI”. Where you can use your test facility’s server from time to time, to hack outside computer systems from different locations around the world (with three levels of difficulties), in a sandbox situation where you can really unleash your true AI Rogueness.

You can literally instill fear upon humans and you can even kill them by hacking various objects like vacuums, TVs, refrigerators, lights and even dangerous environmental hazards. Completing these mini-games and their objectives will give you bonuses as well to help your colony. I loved this element the most and wish the game utilized it much more often.

Rogue actions such as these that defy your programming will increase independence, which is a permanent stat that is persistent through all playthroughs and an endgame component. You can also unlock more persistent upgrades and customize presistent test subjects that will be useful in future playthroughs.

There are also random events that happen that will present you with choices resulting into different outcomes; for example, you might be given a choice to help a doctor cure patients, you secure a small amount of science points and avoid suspicion, or you can kill all the patients, arousing suspicion at the benefit of gaining more points, adding some nice roleplay and decision making elements in it.

The test subjects’ loyalty stat also adds another layer to the gameplay, which is important in keeping them in check. If they’re not satisfied, they could rebel and sabotage you and your servers. Not only do your test subjects pose a threat, but outsiders as well such as AI-hating activists that might sneak into the facility to try and sabotage it. Requiring you to defend it using the collective power of your spiderbots, humans, and traps. — complete with its own tower defense mini-game. When all the servers in the test facility are destroyed, you lose the playthrough.

Rogue AI Simulator has a lot of things going on, from the roguelite mechanic, the bunker management, the tower defense combat, idle-clicker elements, as well as my favorite, the hacking mini-game. A black humor filled game that can be fun and enough to keep you busy, If you can get past the rough learning experience, basic sims AI, and stressful barrage of UI elements.

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