Category: Xbox Partner PreviewMarch 26, 2026Artificial Detective: Breaking Down the Gameplay Behind This Incredible Xbox Partner Preview RevealMike Nelson, Xbox Wire EditorSummaryArtificial Detective is the debut title from the indie studio Vivix, comprised of talented game industry and sci-fi film veterans.You’ll play as AD 2846, a robot detective who has recently awakened in Conglomerate North, a futuristic city now dominated by rogue machines with humanity seemingly vanished long ago.The world of Artificial Detective is heavily influenced by neo-noir, retro-futuristic cinema, and anime.Revealed today during Xbox Partner Preview with an exhilarating trailer, Artificial Detective is the debut title from indie studio Vivix – a team composed of talented artists who have worked across games and film, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Control, and Dead Space, to the Netflix sci-fi anthology series, “Love, Death & Robots.”.post-template-default .xwsrc-block-content-block .wp-block-column.flex-basis-50.push--25.column--content {flex: 100%;margin-left: 0;}At a high level, the studio describes their game as an action-adventure title that features a mix of companion and survival mechanics, all set in a ‘decopunk’-inspired dystopian future. Naturally, after a mainly cinematic reveal, we wanted to know more about the game itself, so we reached out to Vivix’s CEO & Co-founder Ilya Kuzyuk and VP of Production & Co-founder Vadim Krayevoy to learn more about Artificial Detective’s world, its intriguing-looking combat system, and that adorable robodog.Waking the DetectiveIn Artificial Detective you step into the shoes of AD 2846, a robot detective who has recently awakened in Conglomerate North, a city now dominated by rogue machines, with humanity seemingly having vanished long ago. Well, almost all of humanity, as AD 2846 soon discovers a single human child mysteriously left behind.Ilya Kuzyuk sets the stage for me, describing the city as a multilayered futuristic metropolis inspired by 1930s Art Deco design. This once-bustling, overcrowded city that was nearly consumed by crime has since become a pristine but dangerous place packed with rogue machines.“Those machines were meant to preserve the city for humanity’s return, but something went wrong. Left to their own devices for too long, the robots transformed Conglomerate North,” Kuzyuk adds. “After a global catastrophe hit the planet, it became a shelter for millions of survivors. It grew so quickly that it had to expand upward, with entire districts stacked into layers and connected by skybridges, elevated parks, towering skyscrapers, flying vehicles, levitating streetcars and robots.”Although the game touches on serious themes, we wanted to do something more entertaining than a purely heavy meditation on AI and the future of humanity.Vivix CEO & Co-founder Ilya KuzyukWe get glimpses of this broken metropolis in the reveal trailer, as AD 2846 explores various districts, with giant skyscrapers and a complex train system that seems to cut through the heart of the city that’s completely devoid of human life. And while the circumstances at the start of the game appear dire, that isn’t necessarily what the developers at Vivix are going for here.“Although the game touches on serious themes, we wanted to do something more entertaining than a purely heavy meditation on AI and the future of humanity. We want players to feel engaged and curious, not weighed down by existential dread,” Kuzyuk tells me. “As we developed the story and characters, we discovered an interesting chemistry between the two main protagonists: a naïve robot detective who dreams of becoming human, and a little girl who believes she is a robot. In many ways, the game draws on the classic archetypes of Pinocchio (“The Adventures of Pinocchio”) and Mowgli (“The Jungle Book”). Those references helped shape both the narrative and the gameplay as the project evolved.”Three Unlikely HeroesWith only fragmented memories to guide him – we’re told at the start of the game AD can only recall that he once served as a sidekick to a human detective – he finds himself caught up in an epic journey to piece together what has happened to the world and potentially find a way to save it. To aide him on this quest he comes across two other characters who will become his loyal companions on this adventure.That includes the robodog and Mowgli, a human girl who has been raised by machines. “AD isn’t your typical superhero,” Kuzyuk tells me when asked to elaborate on the characters we see in the reveal trailer. “He carries an electric taser gun, but its power is limited. He can scavenge weapons and parts from defeated robots, but ammo is scarce, so he relies just as much on his wit, resourcefulness, and humor as he does on force. You can think of AD 2846 as a mashup of RoboCop and C-3PO.”Mowgli is a human girl who was raised in isolation by rudimentary bots and is later revealed to be deeply tied to the larger secrets of the world. “She’s a tech prodigy who plays a major role in hacking, crafting, upgrading, and repairing. Emotionally, she’s just as important, because her bond with AD turns the story from a straightforward action-investigation into something much more personal,” Kuzyuk adds.Finally, there’s my favorite: the Dedicated Artificial Weaponized Guard, aka D.A.W.G., a robodog with a damaged battery. She accidentally awakens AD at the beginning of the game, which sets the story in motion, becoming bound to him from both a narrative and gameplay standpoint.“D.A.W.G. represents pure, brutal force,” Kuzyuk says. “She can attack enemies, destroy and activate environmental elements, scan and identify important items, and provide practical support, including utility functions tied to inventory and exploration.”The emotional dynamic between AD, Mowgli, and D.A.W.G. is just as important to the experience as combat or exploration.Vivix CEO & Co-founder Ilya KuzyukI’m told that one of the core ideas of the game will be how your companions are integral to your progression. They’re more than weapons or tools. They also unlock new ways to navigate the world of Artificial Detective through exploration, survival, and combat. “As the story progresses, AD, Mowgli, and D.A.W.G. will travel across Conglomerate North aboard a flying streetcar that serves as the group’s hub,” Kuzyuk tells me.This streetcar is also where you can upgrade your companions, piece together clues you’ve learned about the world and receive mission briefings. We get a glimpse of this in the cinematic trailer, when AD is standing in front of a large computer console before the group is attacked by a mysterious force. Hearing Kuzyuk talk about the larger exploration elements, it sounds like Vivix is aiming for Conglomerate North to become an incredibly dense and diverse world to discover.“When you leave the streetcar, you explore a range of distinct biomes, including a futuristic Police Station, a hidden underground Corporate Lab, a RoboZoo, and more. It’s a game about improvising, surviving, and investigating, whether that means fighting, hacking, sneaking, or using the environment as a weapon. Artificial Detective is not just a robot action game – at its core, it’s a story-driven action-adventure about companionship, curiosity, and survival in a world where the rules have outlived the people they were built for. The emotional dynamic between AD, Mowgli, and D.A.W.G. is just as important to the experience as combat or exploration.”Coming back to that mysterious attacker from the trailer, we see transforming cubes that are trying to attack our heroes. “Those cubes are connected to one of the game’s major threats: Bishop,” Kuzyuk tells me. “In our world, Bishop is a powerful, unstoppable robotic entity composed of multiple morphing cells known as Monks, and those modular, cube-like forms are part of that larger concept. They’re not random visual noise – they reflect the kind of unnatural, adaptive machine intelligence that has taken over parts of the city. Without spoiling too much, they show that the danger in Artificial Detective goes far beyond broken service robots wandering the streets. There are more advanced, coordinated, and deeply unsettling machine forms operating behind the scenes.”Tools of the TradeIn the trailer we see AD has both a sneak attack and the ability to effectively use the environment to defeat enemies, like electrocuting the floor, which seemingly hints at an open-ended approach to combat. “A big part of the game is giving players multiple ways to solve a situation,” Vadim Krayevoy tells me. “AD can use electromagnetic weapons, hacking, stealth, and the physics-driven environment to deal with rogue robots. Sometimes that means direct melee combat, sometimes it means setting traps, and sometimes it means staying hidden and letting events unfold in your favor.”I’m told the team wants you to feel like you’re constantly reading the room and improvising, like using the environment to disable groups of enemies, sneaking past danger, launching a surprise melee attack, and more. On top of that, you’re able to tap companion abilities, like having D.A.W.G. attack an enemy robot. The intent here is to make you feel integrated with your surroundings by giving you the tools, weapons, environmental interactions, and companion abilities that reward experimentation. Which feeds into one of my bigger questions for the team: What’s the detective stuff like?“Yes – investigation is a big part of the experience. Players search environments for clues, connect the dots, and gradually uncover what happened to the city and why humanity disappeared,” Krayevoy elaborates. “You’ll interact with the world to uncover the backstory of both your character and the setting itself. You might chat with a fare collector bot on a flying streetcar or a robot bartender in an abandoned bar, read holographic newspapers, or study posters and signage to gather information and push the mystery forward. You also gradually recover fragments of AD’s lost memory. The more clues you uncover in the present, the more of the past you unlock. Some of those moments play out as flashbacks, allowing players to revisit the same locations decades earlier and discover new story layers.”One of the game’s core features is that your companions are effectively part of your progression system. As your relationship with them develops, you unlock new abilities and new ways to interact with the world.VP of Production & Co-founder Vadim KrayevoyAnother element I wanted to learn more about is how progression in Artificial Detective feeds into the game. Krayevoy tells me that it’s less about a traditional numbers-heavy XP grind and more about unlocking capabilities through companions, relationships, and upgrades. “One of the game’s core features is that your companions are effectively part of your progression system. As your relationship with them develops, you unlock new abilities and new ways to interact with the world.”“Players make progress in their investigation, unlock and select new missions, upgrade themselves, their weapons, and their companions, and take on bosses that push the story forward. Mowgli opens up crafting, repairs, and upgrades, while D.A.W.G. expands your combat support, scanning, and utility options. Progression is designed to feel both systemic and character-driven at the same time.”A World of MachinesThe world of Artificial Detective looks both foreign and familiar, which taps into some of the deep inspiration that the team leaned on to craft it, influenced heavily by neo-noir, retro-futuristic cinema, and anime. “Films like ‘Blade Runner’ and the atmosphere of ‘Cowboy Bebop’ helped shape the tone of the world – a future that feels both technologically advanced and strangely worn down.”Perhaps most impressive of all, considering Vivix is a small team, is the AAA-quality looks Artificial Detective is already showing off. “Our goal has always been to create something that feels ambitious and premium while staying focused on an engaging story, strong gameplay, and memorable visuals, rather than trying to become an endless open-world game. So, we focused on less, but better.”When asked about the scale of the project, which has been in development for two years now, Krayevoy is honest with me when he says they still have a lot of work ahead and need more people to help finalize and polish the game. “Over the last two years, we’ve been iterating on the core gameplay and making sure our pillars are in place so we can move into full production speed. Last but not least, we work closely with our art partners in crime, Team from Earth , which gives us access to highly skilled game artists. That setup allows us to stay lean while still aiming for a very high production bar and moving fast.”“And that combination is what really defines us. We have talent from AAA and AA game development alongside artists and storytellers from high-end animation and cinematic projects. That mix is especially important for Artificial Detective, because the game sits at the intersection of action-adventure gameplay, companion-driven storytelling, and a distinctive visual identity.”Everything we’ve seen and learned about Artificial Detective has us incredibly optimistic that the team at Vivix can offer something very new, and very unexpected. And it combines some of our favorite elements (robots, noir, and dogs). For now, we’ll keep our nose to the ground, waiting to unearth the next batch of clues around this potential gem.Related Stories for “Artificial Detective: Breaking Down the Gameplay Behind This Incredible Xbox Partner Preview Reveal”Category: Xbox Partner PreviewHades II Comes to Xbox Game Pass on April 14 – Here’s How It Builds on the Iconic OriginalCategory: Xbox Partner PreviewS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope – First Details About the Major Heart of Chornobyl ExpansionCategory: Xbox Partner PreviewAlien Deathstorm: Sci-fi Survival and Action Combine for a New First-Person Horror HybridThe post Artificial Detective: Breaking Down the Gameplay Behind This Incredible Xbox Partner Preview Reveal appeared first on Xbox Wire.