D-TOPIA works towards the theme of man’s imperfection to create perfection, but in the process may not be able to capitalize on how it tries to actually get there
Players take control of the sector’s new Facilitator, a resident whose job it is to help facilitate the smooth operation of facility resources and the happiness of the residents. In doing so we develop a certain rapport with a number of them that leads to a deeper connection and understanding of why that person is in D-TOPIA and what sort of problems that might cause them.
Relationships unfortunately don’t develop much further than learning what trauma these citizens have, helping them with it, and then them being thankful for our kindness. There is a large variety of people to befriend, like a clone of a girl created as spare parts for the girl she is a clone of or a robot who has an obsession with the convenience store’s many offerings. But nearly all of them feel less like friends and more like checklists we need to complete to make them happy again. The conversations don’t feel rewarding and often aren’t worth the running around it takes to complete.
D-TOPIA tries to say a lot about AI and the future, but it comes across as “baby’s first activism.” AI bad and corporations do anything to society for profit. Wholesomeness is a selling point for the game and I’m worried because of it; everything ‘deep’ has to stay surface level. It’s less “can you hear the people sing?” and more “like this post to tell corporations we are serious.”
The puzzles also unfortunately don’t have much depth to them. We lead a line around a maze, hitting nodes and completing simple math problems to complete the puzzles. This is actually forced work in D-TOPIA because it is part of the human experience to work. We get rated on how well we do, which decides how much pay you get. These puzzles can later be completed in our room, and we are handed enough money throughout the game that any time a purchase is required it’s essentially a non issue. This makes the actual doing of the puzzles feel like work the developers have put in between us and the part of the game that they were actually passionate about creating.
The pursuit of a perfect civilization is often a theme for sci-fi to show how the imperfections of man can never create it. D-TOPIA wants to tell that same story while having its cake too. Its wholesomeness and shallow logic puzzles are not a satisfying replacement for actual relationship building and consequence-causing decision making. It feels like it’s just surface work, and never gets deep enough to break through.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. This video first appeared on The SideQuest Live for July 19, 2026.
No Comments