A.I.L.A. Review

A slow burning horror with a twist.

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Title: A.I.L.A.

Release: November 25, 2025

Platform: PS5 PC Xbox X|S

Developer: Pulsatrix Studios

Publisher: Fireshine Games

Genre: Horror

Pegi: 18

Reviewed on: PC

Time Played: 11 Hours

Where it starts

You will be playing from the perspective of Samual, a video game tester who lives alone in an apartment and never seems to live, with everything you need to survive delivered via drone. You focus mainly on VR games, and one day the company you work for sends you their most recent “game”. An advanced A.I. named A.I.L.A., with your permission, looks into who you are and creates a game tailored to give you the most immersive experience. But A.I.L.A. might be a little too invasive, and things quickly take a turn.

Testing A.I.L.A.

The first game A.I.L.A. gives you is fairly simple. After getting through that, she learns a little more and starts creating more advanced experiences for you, with stories that get deeper and larger areas to explore. The stories and areas change, but every single game tends to be geared toward a horror experience full of enemies that want to kill you, constantly barraging you with noise, never knowing if you’re about to be attacked and constantly looking over your shoulder.

Navigating New Games

Mechanically, every game is on the easier side, with a few different weapons you can find to defend yourself. Melee weapons that can be used to attack or defend against attacks, and some form of ranged weapon with very limited ammunition. The only helpful items are a beverage of some sort that will heal 40% of your overall health, and a lily flower that can be mixed with it to increase its strength to 100. Beyond the base mechanics, you will explore different stories filled with puzzles and key items that will slowly bring you to a conclusion.

Karma System

You’re notified very early in the A.I.L.A. testing about a karma system she employs. Depending on your choices and how you progress through the game, your karma score will be affected. You’ll never see your karma score or when it changes, but it will dictate how your overall story will turn out. There was only one item in the game that flat-out tells you it will affect your karma every time it’s used.

Life of A Game Tester

Between testing games, you’ll get to explore the apartment, drink some tea, and manage various chores. Your only roommate is a cat named Jones, who will need to be fed a couple of times. You’ll always be receiving packages and need to place the box somewhere in the apartment so you can open it and mess with the contents. While exploring the apartment, you can find items that help you learn a little more about who Samuel is and some light reading, including children’s books that seem a little too horrifying for kids to read and a big read book missing all of its pages, which can only be filled out by finding hidden collectibles within A.I.L.A.’s games.

Can the kids watch

This game is full of graphic material, blood, gore, and appendages getting chopped off. You will also hear a fair share of curse words. On top of all that there were plenty of scary situations dealing with different monsters. This game certainly earned it’s mature rating of pegi 18. You might want to think twice before letting the kiddos hang out for this one.

Final Thoughts

I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.

A.I.L.A. was an interesting game full of games to play. Although the environments changed, the core mechanics never did, so it was never jarring to start a new game created by A.I.L.A. This is an indie game, but it’s also about advanced A.I. creating games on the spot, so the fact that the games feel indie makes sense with the story, and I got a kick out of that. It’s not the fastest or shiniest game, but it worked smoothly and never crashed on me.

The graphics for the game were pretty good, but it almost seemed like they were a little too much when it came to the people. They were smooth and had an almost high-definition look, but whenever A.I.L.A. came onto the screen, there was a little choppiness as the game tried to catch up with her. Other than that, the environments looked good, albeit a little dark and gritty. I could see where I was going.

The overall story for this game was definitely a psychological horror, with the idea of rogue A.I. having too much power and abusing it. Samuel’s story was very sparse until the end. I enjoyed it, but it felt roughly presented. There were some clues and hints that could be found around the apartment, but in the end I think there could have been a bit more of a build-up to the conclusion. I was surprised, and it felt powerful. It was just a touch contrived.

Movement was very slow throughout the entire game. It all felt the same whether I was in the apartment or in an A.I.L.A. game. Sometimes enemies could move fast, and in those cases I would take a lot of damage if I wanted to take them out without a gun. But if I had enough ammo and was constantly moving, I could avoid most attacks, even with the slow movement speed. There were some clever puzzles in the game that could only be solved if I found certain clues or picked up on specific imagery. Figuring them out felt like an awesome accomplishment. The answers didn’t feel like they were handed to me; they were designed in such a way that I felt smarter than I really am when I got the solution.

There are a few different outcomes in the game, depending on the Karma system and choices made throughout the story. It took me eleven hours to get through the game the first time, and I’m sure it wouldn’t take that long to go through again, but I’m not sure I’d want to go through it all again just to see how it can end. Perhaps after letting it rest for a while, I’d be tempted to go through it and make different choices, but with everything so fresh, I wouldn’t do it with all the other things I could be doing instead.

It had some scary sections, some boring areas, and segments full of noise that could put me on edge and set me up to be startled, or just become too much and overload the senses, making it a nuisance. There were A.I. games that seemed to try to be scary by overplaying a distant noise, making it very redundant, while others set up the perfect jump scare. It was never consistent in terms of being scary and fun, with a lot of ups and downs.

And now it’s time to break these thought down to numbers and place this game on a shelf.

The visuals were great, but felt like they were to much for the game to handle at times, I’ll give it a 3.

The story was very interesting and felt complete, albeit a little forced in the end. That’s another 3

The gameplay was easy to understand and very slow. It wasn’t a chore to play, it just never felt like I was doing anything new the entire time, that’s a 2.

There is a little longevity to the game with the different choices and outcomes, the only thing holding me back is the slow pace, giving it another 2.

I had some bits of fun with the game, between being scared to move forward and solving puzzles, but the majority of it was to redundant, I’m giving it a 2.

Earning A.I.L.A an average score of 2.4 out of 5. Placing it on my Mid-Shelf. If your looking for a tense experience about how scary A.I. can be I would recommend checking this one out. It may have it’s fair share of slow parts, but the story was interesting and it was neat to see the different games A.I.L.A. came up with to play.