I hope that for most of you it wouldn’t be controversial to hear me say that I hate generative AI. It stinks! It’s rotting everyone’s brains, and those who fund it don’t care (see Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying he don’t think it matters that kids don’t actually learn things like basic math when using AI). But – please don’t go away just yet – it certainly makes for some primo storytelling. Like, for example, in the upcoming LOVE alt delete, a psychological horror visual novel in which you beta test a chatbot you’re trying to date.
“The idea seems simple, AI girlfriends for lonely souls, but the NDA you sign makes you suspicious. Why all the secrecy?” reads the game’s Steam page. In this world, the company you’re beta testing for is called Bicameral, and the snake oil they sell are MUSEs, these chatbots you can have sex with. The first chatbot is a blue-haired cyber-woman named Basel, who seems innocent enough to begin with. At first glance, you can type whatever you want, with certain keywords triggering certain responses.
The problem is that it seems like you’re not very good at chatting, so you enlist the help of another chatbot called Liste, which has just as much of a cyber look but with pink hair. Of course, it’s not as simple as arguing, because both want to be real humans, humans who maybe even want to be killed! Ruh roh! Talk about a complicated relationship. The mood is certainly there for this kind of overtly transgressive project, solidified by the way Basel’s eyes are drawn to when she starts to lose her mind a little; it’s reminiscent of visual novels of old in a specific way that you’ll understand when you see it.
Beyond all the chatting, you can surf the web, draw your own art, play a digital piano and send virtual love letters, another aspect I’m sure could only end well. And, for all that diegetically going on in terms of AI, don’t worry, the game doesn’t offer a glimpse of any of that. I’m also particularly tickled by this feature listed on the game’s Steam page: “hand-drawn Y2K cybercore art rendered in glorious standard definition.” Standard definition! This is how a game is sold to me.
You can wishlist LOVE alt delete on Steam before its release in 2027.
