The HAL Effect

In The HAL Effect, the player plays as a middle-aged systems engineer, Noland Dent, who is charged by his employer, AstroTech Mining, to fix a faulty AI system on one of their remote asteroid mining installations.  That sounds all wonderful and boring until Noland is informed of the faulty AI that controls the facility’s security system is now convinced that every person who steps foot on the base is an intruder to be executed on sight, regardless of the status of their company RFID badge.  Wielding a plasma gun with limited charge and a heavy spanner, Noland must make his way from the entry airlock through the top level of the facility and into the subterranean level where the security control center is located.  

 To get to the security control center, the player has some strategic choices regarding how to avoid or neutralize the various security androids and antipersonnel turrets placed around the installation.  The brute-force “kill-em-all” method provides a simple approach but will require the player to find extra charge packs for their weapon.  A stealthy approach minimizes the amount of resources the player will need to accumulate through each level but affords more challenging gameplay.  Once at the control panel, one final challenge faces the player.  They must leverage their puzzle-solving skills to disable the AI without accidentally triggering the self-destruct sequence.