A.I.L.A.

A.I.L.A. comes from Brazilian Pulsatrix Studios and is a psychological first-person horror game. The story revolves around an artificial intelligence that gets out of control - and it's both very exciting and quite ambitious, but also flawed, game.

Set in the year 2035, you take on the role of Samuel, who works as a beta game tester from his high-tech smart apartment. One day he receives a package from SyTekk with the brand new and exciting A.I.L.A. VR headset that he's secretly testing. He gets it hooked up to his computer and there's no turning back - he just doesn't know it yet.

The A.I.L.A. (Artificial Intelligence for Lucid Applications) headset is built around the integration of artificial intelligence (manifested on screen as the young woman Aila) and not only is she able to continuously change and adapt the horror games Samuel is testing, but she also ends up invading his privacy more and more.

During the test period, you play a number of different games, each of which can take between 2-5 hours to complete - depending on how thorough you are in exploring the environment. At the end of the game session, you give your feedback to Aila, who, based on this and other data (including your search history on the computer), generates new versions of the game, or completely different games to try out and test.

In the first game to try out, you are trapped in an abandoned apartment and by solving various puzzles, you must escape your captivity and the many narrow corridors of the apartment block. You are exposed to traumatising sights; mannequins suddenly appearing where previously there were none, doors you've just passed through being replaced by brand new corridors, rooms changing when you return to them and the like - and there's just something really scary about staring mannequins that always have their eyes fixed on you, no matter where you are in the room.

This first game is probably the scariest of them all, and from there it really goes downhill. I'll come back to that in a moment. What the games have in common, however, is that they all contain dark and gruesome narratives, and they leave Samuel increasingly confused as he puts down the headset and returns to reality in his apartment. At the same time, the lines between games and the real world begin to blur and the artificial intelligence that Samuel has let into his life begins to manipulate him more and more - I don't want to give too much away, but it's quite well written and exciting.

As mentioned, the first game to test is probably the best, and that's because it's focused on true horror and (simple) puzzle solving. It all starts to fall apart in the other games, where action elements are introduced and more and more enemies need to be fought if you want to have a chance of survival. The battles are definitely not the game's strong point - to say the least! In fact, they're so bad that they drag the rest of the game over the edge and that's a real shame. Let me explain.

The combat system is so imprecise, clumsy and error-filled that I almost threw the controller to the floor in frustration several times. The enemies are very strong and can be numerous at times - and the boss fights are even worse. For example, I spent about 2 hours on the first boss because I was constantly falling over and getting torn to pieces. The worst thing was that the hit detection on the bosses sometimes obviously didn't work, as your shots flew straight through and you got hit in the mouth instead - and the number of seconds it took to load your weapon were seconds you obviously didn't have, so I lost again and again because the hit detection didn't work. Really frustrating.

I also found that the NPCs' artificial intelligence simply breaks down and stops working, so the enemies run around in circles or into the environment until you attack them, then they step out of their unfortunate loop and you get them instead. The smart thing to do is just not to attack them, but that's not the point and it takes away some of the excitement of the game.

You will also experience several graphical errors that you wouldn't expect from a game in 2025, such as enemies' arms disappearing inside walls and there is occasional heavy screen tearing, where it looks like the top of the screen is slightly offset laterally compared to the rest of the screen. There are several other rough edges and it all ends up making the game appear somewhat unpolished and rough - and it almost seems like the developers have bitten off more than they can chew - which is an ambitious project for a smaller developer like Pulsatrix Studio. On the positive side, the graphics are very atmospheric and beautiful in many places and the whole setting can be very scary.

A.I.L.A. is based on a really exciting idea and I could forgive the rough technical side if the combat system was within the disc. It doesn't, and it really drags the game down - and that's a real shame. The game is at its strongest when you're walking around the dark and atmospheric environments, solving puzzles and being exposed to gruesome and grotesque sights. As soon as enemies are introduced, and with them the battles, the whole thing simply falls apart.

I wish I could recommend A.I.L.A., because it really is an exciting game with potential, but I can't. It's been a long time since I've experienced to such an extent that a single part of a game can take pretty much everything else over the edge, but that's unfortunately the case with the combat system in A.I.L.A. - it's that bad.