Playing a Cybernetic AI

In the here and now, however, we have Lone Echo. It’s a great example of the VR form, and another stab at the ‘killer app’ some have been clamouring for in the VR space. It’s unique. You play a sentient cybernetic AI in the midst of the rings of Saturn. Weerasuriya delights in people’s reaction.

“As soon as you say that people say: ‘What? You play an AI? You don’t play a human being?’ And everybody’s first reaction is that it doesn’t make sense, that [the player] should be the human. That’s a trip for other people who jump in for the first time and realise they’re not the human in the game.”

We suggested that Lone Echo, in a literal sense, is a role playing game. After a moment of contemplation, Weerasuriya agrees. “What better way to actually feel in the skin of somebody else—and especially something that you could never be—so yeah, yeah, you could call it an RPG.”

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Check out our review of Lone Echo to see if being an Echo unit might just be a role you’d like to play yourself. And don’t forget that you can claim Echo Arena for free for a limited time.