A.I.L.A Review – An Excellent Tour of Multiple Horror Genres (PS5)

Halloween may have ended almost a month ago, but that doesn’t mean horror takes a break. This time, we’re looking at the first-person horror A.I.L.A where players will beta-test a revolutionary new piece of gaming hardware from the comfort of their own home.

Developed by Pulsatrix Studios, you’ll play through unsettling experiences crafted by A.I.L.A that prey on your deepest and darkest fears. However, as you complete each scenario, you start to feel like something’s not quite right with A.I.L.A. You begin to see strange things outside of the experiences. Will you be able to discover the dark secrets buried beneath her source code, or will you become lost in a virtual hellscape?

A.I.L.A is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X for $29.99/£24.99. 

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Story – Can We Trust A.I. With Our Horror Games?

In A.I.L.A, you play as Samuel, a game tester who lives in a very swanky apartment with their adorable cat Jones. Samuel is tasked with using a new piece of AI technology called A.I.L.A. The AI appears in the form of a little girl who reminds me of The Red Queen from the Resident Evil films. She’ll take Samuel on numerous horror scenarios, like a psychological horror involving mannequins, a Sci-Fi tale at a farm infested with aliens, a cursed village during Medieval times and more.

As each scenario increases the immersion and intensity, elements from the virtual world start to creep into reality. Even A.I.L.A begins to take a bigger interest in Samuel’s life, discussing personal topics and taking control of the apartment’s interface. 

Can you trust her?

Almost all of the horror scenarios are good, spooky experiences featuring their own unique stories that have sprinkles of a connected narrative. What helps them stand out is the choices you’ll make through each one. A.I.L.A will take each choice and begin to craft future experiences. You’ll also see hints of future experiences through little clues found in Samuel’s apartment. I do have some grievances, like with the news reports hinting at possible story beats that may occur.

Sadly, they don’t play much of a part in the story, which was surprising considering they made up their own serial killer dubbed the Eye Killer. Just felt like a wasted opportunity overall, but regardless, the main narrative does get more interesting as you begin to notice what A.I.L.A is up to. 

Do you dare change the channel?

Gameplay – Surviving The Virtual Horrors

The gameplay for A.I.L.A seems to be heavily inspired by Resident Evil 7‘s first-person approach. You’re able to explore each scenario, collect items for combat, healing and puzzles. There’s a bunch of weapons at your disposal, like pistols, shotguns, rifles, and a bunch of melee weapons that relate to whatever scenario is being played. You get to play through different horror scenarios where each environment feels completely unique. My favourite to play through was The Woman on the Road and the Impossible House experiences. They both offered the spookiest experiences and fun puzzles to complete. 

Fight creatures from multiple genres of horror

The combat itself can be hit or miss at times. Aiming guns can be a bit stiff at times, and the melee combat gets repetitive pretty fast, especially in the Medieval scenario. Some items are a tad useless at times, like the crossbow in the Medieval scenario and the small knives mechanic that allows quick escapes from enemy grabs was rarely used due to most enemies not grabbing the player.

Luckily, the puzzles are the saving grace of A.I.L.A, with many scattered around. Some are classics, such as finding an item to unlock a door, number locks, and sliding puzzles. Then you have some unique ones scattered around that I’ll let you find out for yourself. 

Who doesn’t love a classic sliding puzzle?

Enemies in A.I.L.A range from extra-terrestrials, the undead, and mutated creatures. They’re all melee-focused enemies that can be a little clunky sometimes, but luckily, nothing game-breaking. One thing I didn’t expect when playing A.I.L.A was boss fights; most levels have one to fight. Each boss has a small arena to fight in, where you’ll use everything you’ve gathered (or have left) to face them. They’re all relatively easy to take down, though the Alien boss committed the sin of having help from their minions halfway into the battle. 

Fight fearsome bosses to complete most of the experiences

Graphics & Audio – Virtual Immersion 

The visual design for A.I.L.A looks good and runs mostly well for Unreal Engine 5. The environments for each scenario are unique and fit the themes of the experience. I found the farmhouse map quite spooky with all the corpses and the creepy barn filled with alien eggs and blood spaghetti similar to the blood vines in War of the Worlds. The character designs are hit or miss; the characters you see in the different scenarios look ok, but don’t have great lip sync. A.I.L.A’s appearance looks the best with her darker side looking quite creepy. 

Do you take the eye?

Cutscenes are simple, though when it focuses on horror, it’s usually pretty good. One weird one I found was in the alien scenario, where flushing a specific toilet would trigger an odd close-up cutscene of a piece of poo struggling to be flushed. You can trigger this bizarre cutscene three times, each more uncomfortable than the last…what did A.I.L.A mean by this?

The audio is fantastic. Pulsatrix Studios has done a great job in creating a spooky atmosphere with each scenario. Whether it’s the sound effects for the monsters or simple things like a light exploding, everything is top-tier. Sadly, the Ghost Ship scenario dropped the ball on this, but luckily, it picked back up with the Forest scenario. Of course, A.I.L.A wasn’t a perfect journey; it had a few visual bugs (mostly in the apartment/flipping through pages) and one game-breaking bug with a late-game puzzle that caused the game to crash. Thankfully, no bugs stopped me from enjoying my time with A.I.L.A, and I look forward to seeing what Pulsatrix has in store for us in the future. 

A.I.L.A was reviewed on PS5 with a code provided by Tinsley-PR.