Let's Talk: Let’s Talk About: Idle Regenerator

Not The Future We Were Hoping For.

Recently, I got the opportunity to play Idle Regenerator, a game which the developer admitted was created using AI.

And as someone who isn’t anti-AI, and actually sees the potential for AI to be involved with game development, I have to say…

This is not the future we want.

Idle Regenerator is soulless, passionless, and devoid of human creativity. It feels like, from concept to release, it was developed by a machine. While the developer may have had input, after spending around 17 hours playing it for review purposes, I certainly struggle to see that input.

As someone who codes for fun, not for releasing, as someone who’s been coding for almost twenty years, and who now uses ChatGPT for personal projects and fun, I have to admit, I could recognise the touch of AI on every element of the game.

There Just Isn’t Much To Do

And there wasn’t really much to do.

After the first ten minutes, there was never anything for me to do at all. I could just sit there and let it run, burning electricity.

And to be honest, I want more from a game, even from an idle game, than burning electricity.

While I do appreciate that they tried to make it feel like one of those exploitative pay-to-win idle games, with multiple currencies, gacha pulls, and all the usual systems, without any actual online microtransactions, that’s more of a gimmick than anything else, and it certainly doesn’t make Idle Regenerator a game worthy of your time or money.

But it’s not very good, honestly.

The Prestige System Is Completely Broken

One of the greatest giveaways was the save system.

Save files are stored as JSON, which allowed me to export the file, open it in any text editor, give myself gazillions of prestige points, and finish the game in a matter of seconds if I wished.

But even without touching the save file, I was able to manually abuse the prestige system.

Prestige is basically the game’s meta progression. You reset your progress, earn permanent prestige points, then use those points to become stronger on future runs.

The problem is that I could simply click reset, go, reset, reset, reset, over and over again with only two or three clicks.

As a result, I could unlock all of the large prestige rewards in probably less than ten minutes, without even doing the save-game hack.

That completely defeats the purpose of the progression.

AI Should Assist Developers, Not Replace Them

While I have nothing against the developer, and I genuinely believe he tried to make a good game, I have to admit…

It was rather boring.

There’s nothing wrong with allowing AI to assist development.

I use AI myself for personal projects, and I can see the benefit it brings to the table for developers.

However, when AI heads a project, the result is games like Idle Regenerator, which frankly, are not worth playing.

I Am Nobody’s Judge

Now, I’m not going to judge the developer’s motives.

Only God knows whether this was an act of laziness, an act of curiosity, or an act of desperation.

Jesus said:

And I try to live by that.

But honestly, I think saying anything other than “Idle Regenerator is a terrible game” is giving the developer false hope.

This is not the type of game that would only anger anti-AI activists.

This is the type of game that wouldn’t really appeal to anyone.

Even the most ardent AI bro, who passionately believes that AI has a future in gaming, would struggle to like Idle Regenerator.

Final Verdict.

Ultimately, I cannot recommend Idle Regenerator.

While I appreciate the free review key, I won’t be playing it again.

Is Idle Regenerator Worth Playing?

We found Idle Regenerator to be barely playable, meaning it is severely flawed, broken, or dead, and not worth playing for most gamers.

Please Note

"Let's Talk" is a more relaxed review format used for games that we do not feel warrant a full in-depth review. While these articles still reflect our honest thoughts and experiences with a title, they are typically shorter, less structured, and more focused on delivering a direct overall impression rather than an extensive breakdown.

Let's Talk articles should not be viewed as representative of the length, depth, or overall format of our traditional review coverage.