Despite the hype from various executives and companies over the past few years, AI isn't exactly well loved at large. The current opposition revolves around job replacement, environmental costs, and general theft of material, but the general idea of AI has always been met with heavy caution. There have been countless stories of a future where the idea of AI started with good intentions but usually spiraled out of control into something bad for humans. A.I.L.A. is the latest game to take on the idea of artificial intelligence going rogue, and it does so in a package that is both flawed and ambitious.

You play the role of Samuel, a game tester in the near future who's working from his apartment in Brazil. His latest assignment is in VR with A.I.L.A, a new type of AI that's designed to craft new and ever-evolving experiences for the player to enjoy. As the testing goes on, Samuel notices that the AI is not only designed specifically for crafting certain experiences, but it also seems to invade more of his digital life than expected.

The story contains no real surprises. A.I.L.A. makes a concerted effort to take control of your real life, and what starts off as something small and interesting quickly turns into something more fearful as the AI's actions start to mess with your mind and general well-being. We've seen this kind of story play out before, and while a game tester is a unique avenue, the premise doesn't feel like it gets used to its full potential since you do more playing and less testing.

One part of the story that feels interesting is the incidental stuff in the world. The ads are always humorous, such as ones for magic mirrors that project makeup to kids' faces or streamers getting actual ads for when they're playing online. The news reports prove to be the more fascinating bits you'll actually listen to because some of the stuff doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore. You'll get news stories about a celebrity marrying an AI and one about an AI possibly taking the mayoral seat after winning an election. Even the newscaster is an AI personality, complete with lip sync that looks slightly off-putting. It's all world-building stuff and has no bearing on the main game, but it is fascinating.

A.I.L.A is set as a first-person adventure title that takes place in completely different environments. The idea is that you're going through different games that are all set in the horror genre. Tying all of this together are the breaks you take between each title as you go through your apartment to take care of routine things before the horror elements start to take over. There are some puzzles, but for the most part, these sections are treated like walking simulators as you go around interacting with various things until it's time to delve back into the real game. These sections can feel a little tedious since you'll rarely do anything of consequence, but they give you a break from the tension while providing more of the aforementioned world lore.

There is one annoyance: the screen brightness. Compared to the rest of the game's other areas, your apartment tends to be darker, even during the daytime hours. It isn't so dark that it is impossible to navigate, but it is dark enough that some of the more ambient cut scenes are very difficult to see, such as you petting your cat. Like some of the tasks you do, the scenes are more for flourish rather than conveying something important, but it would be nice if they were visible without needing to strain your eyes.

Once you put on the game's headset, A.I.L.A presents you with a number of different horror scenarios across different environments. There may be one instance where you'll be on board a haunted ship and another where you're in the medieval era. There's an abandoned apartment complex one moment and a dilapidated house out in the middle of the woods in the next moment. No matter where you are, you'll spend some time fighting grotesque creatures, while most of your time will be spent picking up clues and roaming around trying to solve a variety of different puzzle types.

The puzzle-solving and emphasis on exploration plays out fine even if it's familiar to genre fans. Slide puzzles, key hunts, and messing with esoteric locks or pieces that shouldn't go together are all things that players have done before. However, it is funny to see that every experience ends up being similar to or have things that remind you of other works of horror. The scenes in the abandoned apartments are heavily reminiscent of the Saw movies, complete with limb dismemberment and heavy amounts of gore. Part of the experience with the abandoned house feels like various parts of Resident Evil mashed together, and the list goes on. You can look at this all as a homage to popular works, or you can take this as another example of how AI has a tendency to base its work on something established while trying to make slight variations to feel slightly distinct.

The exploration segments of the horror games are neat, but they're also plagued with a few issues. Like your apartment, there are a few cut scenes are more for ambience than anything of importance. Considering that the scenes aren't followed up by any sort of scare, those ambient cut scenes end up breaking the general game flow. There's also the issue of the action points being finicky at times. You'll sometimes have moments where you need to pick up something, but a button prompt to grab the item won't appear unless you're at the precise spot, resulting in a frustrating experience.

There's also the matter of enemy AI sometimes breaking down in mysterious ways. One example that I experienced was in one of the game's early stages where you're being chased around by a lumbering monster that can't be killed. You can outrun it, but the monster always knows where you've gone, and the only way to keep yourself safe is to hide in a closet. The way the game is supposed to work is that the monster is always patrolling for you, so you constantly have to duck into closets and be very careful while exploring your surroundings. However, after hearing a small sound snippet on repeat, it was discovered that the monster got to a bathroom and got stuck there, and the only way it gets unstuck is if it sees you long enough when passing by. This behavior was reproducible, which means you can save yourself some grief while exploring the house at your own pace if you just wait for the enemy AI behavior to break.

The most frustrating part of A.I.L.A has to do with the combat experience. Ammo is scarce for the levels that feature guns, but this is expected and not much of a complaint if you know the genre. All of the enemies seem to have moves that you don't, such as dodging while your run speed is only barely better than your slow walking speed. Healing yourself can be an ordeal, since the game doesn't pause when looking at your inventory, and the healing animation temporarily disorients you. Countermeasures you may have, such as one-time use knives, only work against certain foes and even then, the game randomly decides when you can or can't use those items to get out of a jam. All the while, minor enemies hit just as hard as a boss, so boss fights are more perilous when you suddenly get a multitude of minions that are more deadly than one boss would be. All of these things add up to a game that isn't built for combat, but the game insists on having it be a prominent element, much to the detriment of the player. The result is a title that goes through a roller coaster of fine puzzle segments punctuated with very bad fighting.

Graphically, the game initially looks fine. The character models for each monster look appropriately grotesque, and each environment looks far from inviting, in a good way. Interestingly, this applies to your own apartment, which looks rather disheveled, especially with the aforementioned perpetual darkness. The frame rate also holds up pretty well, but that's where the positives end. Loading in from a save file sometimes causes situations where every graphical element loads in piecemeal, so you must watch everything be constructed for quite a number of seconds before you can finally move around. Object and texture pop-in do occur in more open areas of the game, but it also occasionally occurs in indoor areas. The particle effects are fairly weak compared to most modern games, especially when it comes to blood spray, and there's a tendency to see sorting issues where things like flames get obscured by water and smoke, even if the fire is closer to the camera.

Meanwhile, the audio fares a little better. The music is fine but not exactly memorable. The soundtrack fits well with each game scenario and situation without standing out for the wrong reasons, but there's nothing that'll resonate after you exit the game. The sound effects are also decent, but there are a few that seem to lack any punch. The voice work is also good enough in places thanks to some good delivery, but nothing elevates the game beyond an average showing.

If you're playing the title on a Linux machine, then you'll find that there's no tweaking needed to start the game. Stick with Proton Experimental, and you'll be just fine. The game hasn't been tweaked to run on the Steam Deck yet, but at the moment, the game runs fine most of the time. The resolution hits the full 1280x800, and the graphics use a mix of low to medium settings across various graphical options. The game defaults to FSR on the Deck, but it doesn't specify which version is being used. The graphics look fine enough, but the images contain telltale FSR signs, such as lots of screen door effect on anything with fine details. The frame rate cap is set to 60fps, but the game hits 50fps most of the time with some extreme dips to single digits for a second or two when new textures and areas load in. On the LCD version of the Deck, the battery life from a full charge hits a little over 90 minutes, so expect to keep your charger close when you're playing. One point of concern is the use of cloud saving, which is pretty inconsistent at the moment. I started the game on a Linux PC and then went to a Windows PC with the same save without any issues. However, the Steam Deck didn't pick up the presence of cloud saving, so I had to start over on that device. Going back to the Windows PC didn't make me lose my save, but it is fairly annoying for those who play on multiple devices to see the cloud saving feature behaving so inconsistently.

A.I.L.A. is a game that has potential but fails with the follow-through. The idea of AI generating experiences meant to terrify you while also affecting you outside of the game still works. The games that represent different horror experiences do a good job of taking something familiar and making it its own. While the puzzles are fine, the combat drags down everything greatly, and the pacing means that the whole game becomes an unenjoyable roller coaster ride. There's a chance for improvement with patches, but at the moment, you'll want to wait and see if things get better before diving in.

Score: 5.5/10