Neo-Zero

Neo-Zero is a role-playing game set in a high-tech, dystopian world inside a computer simulation. You play as Apollo, an aspiring junior scientist at Oxylabs, who is caught in a military-enforced shutdown of the company while testing its Propulsion Gun Prototype. With Aela overseeing your tests, you must escape the facilities and keep the government from taking Project Foxtrot, an artificial intelligence that could destroy the simulated world.

The simulation

In the 1990s, a scientist created Neo-Zero Simulation Software to model a real world with real people and conduct experiments on them. The simulated world became a dystopia under an abusive government. When the world began developing an AI that could break out of the simulation, the scientist shut the project down. Two decades later, the now-broke scientist sold Neo-Zero as a video game, and starting it places you inside the abandoned simulation.

Oxylabs researchers concluded there was a 99% chance their world was a computer simulation. They created Project Foxtrot, an AI designed to exploit a glitch in it, but leaving Foxtrot powered on for more than five minutes has caused the simulated world to fall apart. Ferdinand, the Oxylabs coworker who led the project, may know how to stop it. Bonnie, a young entrepreneur who runs a chemical factory, may help you find Ferdinand; she is unaware of how strong her connection to him is.

Characters and conflict

Aela assists you as you try to escape Oxylabs. Along the way, you meet scientists, some of whom take their careers less seriously than Apollo, and soldiers trained to capture any scientists they encounter. Brobots are friendly devices that offer corny jokes, though their software is fragile and they need careful handling.

As characters develop, some seek control of the artificial intelligence. Your choices shape whether you align with or oppose the government, whether you save your family from impoverishment, and whether you stop the rogue AI from destroying the simulation.

Tests and battles

Oxylabs' tests include puzzles involving bridges, locked doors, teleporters and occasional riddles. In battles, you press the WASD keys in time with the music to deflect enemy projectiles.

Jimmies

You can spend the world's currency, Jimmies, on snacks, lavish dining and phone calls with your little brother, Vlad.