System of Souls now operating on PC and PS5

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Portal-style transhumanist physics puzzler available for download on Steam and the PlayStation Store

Is AI the future of humanity? And if so, what form will that take and what will that mean for us as a species? These questions have never been more relevant, and Chaotic Lab's System of Souls offers one particular vision of what might lie in store.

The year is 2155, long after climate change has left life on the planet's surface unsustainable. To ensure their survival, people have begun to "transfer their souls into a robotic body developed by the large neurotechnological company ION." Players control just such an android named L-064N, waking in an ION facility in a "pitiful" state after an accident, with no memories or means of communication but "with other functions technologically far superior to those of [your] human body." In order to recover your memories, you must undergo a series of trials that will challenge both your mental and physical acuity, conducted by a "super-developed" AI named Aura. As you progress, you'll not only gain and master new skills, you'll also begin to unravel just what ION is up to and explore "the feelings and experiences of other robotic beings" that will make you question everything you thought you knew.

Inspired by the likes of Portal and Q.U.B.E., System of Souls is described as a "first-person platforming puzzle game" that touches on timely ethical and technological themes. To succeed you'll need to make your way through many different test chambers, solving "mind-bending puzzles in a hi-tech environment." There will be plenty of running and jumping required to reach the exit to each room, but ultimately your success depends more on making strategic use of the various different play mechanics introduced throughout, encouraging experimentation.

Created as part of the PlayStation Talents initiative promoting game development in Spain, System of Souls was originally released for PlayStation 4 in June 2022, exclusively in Europe. Now the game has been ported and launched on Steam for Windows PC, along with both digital and physical versions for PlayStation 5.

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