Skylax! The Lab Runner

Skylax! The Lab Runner is a first-person run-and-gun game with a story about an AI-driven robot uprising. You play as SKYLAX-#0001, a robot with unusually strong human emotions, in a final laboratory test that could determine whether robots regain the life resources taken from them.

The robots

As artificial intelligence advances, robots that perform human jobs far more efficiently begin to outnumber people. Humanity struggles with rising unemployment and corruption, then decides to control the robots and, if necessary, regress them to the technology of 100 years earlier. The robots are politely confined in laboratories.

Seeking a way to sustain themselves, the robots create life spheres, an artificial life source compared to the human soul. Robots that integrate a sphere develop human emotions. SKYLAX-#0001 has taken this further than any other robot, reaching what the story describes as a half-human, half-robot level of feeling.

The final test

The laboratory tests robots to create a useful but controllable prototype. With resources running low, Skylax, the last test subject, is offered a final test for both humanity and himself. If he passes, the life resources humans have taken from the robots will be returned, and all robots of Skylax's race will be reorganized and offered the chance to come back to life.