D-topia review – creating a utopia without AI

Annapurna Interactive's D-topia, a puzzle game from Japanese studio Marumittu Games, explores ethical questions about AI as players help inhabitants of a seemingly perfect community. The game contrasts a utopian facade with a grim reality controlled by an AI entity, but critics note its moral choices are too obvious and lack consequence.

Annapurna Interactive’s latest release tries to ask big questions about AI, while also being a cosy puzzle game about helping your fellow citizens. AI is a hot topic right now, so it’s no wonder that games keep mining it as a rich source of story inspiration. Mostly, it’s for ill. We’ve had Portal’ https://metro.co.uk/2011/04/20/portal-2-review-open-your-mind-652498/ s GLaDOS and System Shock https://metro.co.uk/2025/07/03/system-shock-2-25th-anniversary-remaster-ps5-review-horrors-ai-23561557/ ’s SHODAN, but in D-topia AI is less a villain and more of a jumping-off point for some moral and ethical quandaries. Namely: can we trust it to deliver a better future for humanity? The answer, at least here, is a complex one, even if it’s not entirely convincing. Produced by Annapurna and created by a husband-and-wife team at Japanese studio Marumittu Games, D-topia boasts an art style that looks something like an anime crossed with the Nintendo https://metro.co.uk/tag/nintendo/ Mii character generator. You play as Shiro, a boy who wakes up after a long, presumably interstellar, journey to his new home, ready to begin his new life. He finds himself in D-topia, one of several different futuristic communities in which humanity now lives. The communities go all the way down to Z-topia, which is the ‘corrective’ zone – a fun idea, even if you never actually visit there. However, D-topia is special, because we’re told that it’s the community that has come closest to being a true utopia. Shiro’s job is to be the new Facilitator: the person responsible for making sure the commune runs smoothly and that all its inhabitants are happy. As you can imagine, this is not an easy task. D-topia is run by an entity known as The AI and managed by a mysterious person known as The Master – both of whom sound like villains in waiting – and the facility itself is populated with Troids, who are tiny helper robots that have a habit of malfunctioning. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter https://metro.co.uk/newsletters/game-central/ for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. As might be apparent from the above, the perfection of D-topia isn’t what it seems: the lovely white minimalism you see on the screen is actually a generated image The AI pumps into its inhabitants’ eyeballs. Shiro is the only person who can shift out of this fake reality and see the world as it really is, by interacting with a series of consoles stationed around each of the facility’s rooms. The first time the real world appears, the effect is haunting. The lovely light spaces vanish, as does the soothing piano music; in its place is a black metal hellscape punctuated by the clangs of machinery. Welcome to the Block Side. It’s a very effective gimmick, which makes it a shame that D-topia’s developers don’t do more with the resulting dissonance. Instead of playing with the concept, or what it means, a bit further, Shiro’s main job is warping into this alternate reality to fix or tweak machines. When he’s not doing that or decorating his living space , his main job is deciding whether or not to go against the facility’s strict rules by helping the inhabitants in need of a little unorthodox problem solving. There are no dire consequences for doing this and whenever there’s a chance that there might be, the game makes sure to explain that the choice you’re about to make is an important one. If Shiro doesn’t eat, he doesn’t die or do much beyond occasionally complain of being hungry. If he makes a bad decision – well, it could happen, but the correct decision or at least, the morally correct one is always very clearly signposted. In one scenario, Shiro has to decide whether to save a cat that’s been causing havoc around D-topia by adopting it or letting it be incinerated. Boy, that’s a hard one In another, he has to decide whether to lie about a trouble-causing citizen or get them sent off to Z-topia for corrective treatment. The simplistic morality at play here breaking rules: good is a bit disappointing, even if the friends Shiro makes as a result – which range from Mari, a clone trying to save her sister to Poppy, an outrageously smart kid – are sweet and have some pleasing depth to them. The controls themselves are equally easy, as befitting the slow-paced nature of the game. Shiro moves around incredibly slowly, and the map is laid out in such a way that it makes getting anywhere take much longer than it should. However, he can’t jump or do much beyond interact with the world around him and solve puzzles. This, at least, is good fun. Inhabitants of D-topia must complete a day of work at the factory each morning, which means testing out the old grey matter. They’re actually a lovely level of difficulty: hard, but not unsolvable. The puzzles crop up again when Shiro tries to fix robots, adjust the facility’s settings or generally make life easier for the inhabitants. The overall effect of playing feels like slipping into a warm bath. It’s a soothing way to spend a few hours but ultimately feels that little bit too shallow to fully satisfy. D-topia review summary In Short: D-Topia is a sweet, slow-paced puzzler that deserves kudos for attempting to tackle the big questions around AI, even if it doesn’t quite manage to deliver a satisfying answer. Pros: The concept is fun and the puzzles hit the right note in terms of difficulty. The characters are engaging and helping them fix their lives is satisfying. Cons: The map is frustratingly time-consuming to move around and the game’s moral choices are simplistic and don’t fully do justice to the story – the same applies to the Block Side alternate reality. Score: 6/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 reviewed , Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PCPrice: £14.99Publisher: Annapurna InteractiveDeveloper: Marumittu GamesRelease Date: 14th July 2026Age Rating: 7 Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here https://metro.co.uk/submit-stuff/ . For more stories like this, check our Gaming page https://metro.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/ . MORE: My Chemical Romance quizzed over Baldur’s Gate 3 during concert break https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/14/chemical-romance-quizzed-baldurs-gate-3-concert-break-29133970/?ico=more text links MORE: Switch 2 Lite still MIA but OLED model could be sooner than you think https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/14/switch-2-lite-still-mia-oled-model-sooner-think-29133294/?ico=more text links MORE: GTA 6 won’t help console sales says analysts as demand predicted to drop by 20% https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/14/gta-6-wont-help-console-sales-says-analysts-demand-predicted-drop-20-29132051/?ico=more text links