A.I.L.A

The world is a scary place, and while technology is becoming more helpful and bringing better immersive experiences. It is also creating vastly expanding scenarios of dread, horror, and suffering that often bleed into the real world. VR is slowly moving towards normalisation, and soon we will be using it more, and the gaming experiences it can offer are unimaginable. There’s not a lot of discussion about the impact of VR via a headset, so it was interesting to see the studio that brought us Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel deliver a new horror venture that promises mind-bending surrealism and vast creativity.


What is A.I.L.A?

A.I.L.A. grabbed my attention since I enjoyed the developer’s previous game, and it also delves into QA, which is what I do. We play Samuel, a game tester for a firm known as “The Company”, who creates dynamic and immersive experiences for the everyday pleb. In a dystopian world, entertainment is all we really have left to distract us from the horrors, and Samuel is about to test out the latest and most impressive bit of kit the company plans to release.

A.I.L.A. is a brand new immersive VR headset that scans the mind and creates terrifying gaming ventures that feel intensely real. As Samuel dives deeper into A.I.L.A., we learn some dark truths and gauge the monumental impact that VR and AI can have on our mind, body, and soul. Players will venture through multiple horror scenarios ranging from disturbing backrooms-style puzzle solving, fending off aliens on a farm, battling their way through a medieval town with the rotting undead, and more.

I found the concept quite fascinating, and the idea of a world-altering VR/AI that crafted horror experiences was interesting. The setup and world-building are terrific, with plenty of small details unfolding to a much grander and darker picture for the world Samuel is in, be it real or simulated. The various scenarios A.I.L.A puts you through do have weight, often bringing forth some neat thematics and visual elements. With the changing pace in tone and intensity it allows for a horror game that feels truly expansive.

A big problem was my lack of investment in Samuel, and ultimately, the lack of impact the scenarios had. I do appreciate the multiple concepts A.I.L.A. brings to the table, but when the general nature of the scenarios isn’t long-lived or fleshed out to be utterly compelling as they can be, it just feels like an empty gesture. The focus was more on quantity over quality, and it’s a shame, and things do start well with a whole segment in an environment that changes by its own accord, and via a remote you have in your possession.

The ideas come through with an alien invasion, or zombies in a medieval town, and on the surface, they’re pretty cool, but playing through them, you start to realise the ideas are thin, and there’s nothing truly exciting or substantial. Too much of a cliché in the grand scheme of things. It all comes across. I do understand what the developers were going for, and if they limited it to 3 locations, maybe have them interconnected with one another in meaningful ways, and push the initial concepts further with better enemy designs, puzzles, and set pieces, then it would’ve worked.  

As for Samuel, I never cared for him. Not in a way where I disliked him, but rather more so, finding him dull and difficult to engage with. No matter how the story evolves, his blank, distant manner with the horrors happening both in the game world and in his flat just came across as odd. There was a great chance to explore the notion of horror through a platform that blurs the line of reality, but instead, it’s handled too safely and predictably.


Death in VR

As I mentioned, I enjoyed the developer’s previous horror game, despite some jank and clunkiness; I found the blend of brain-melting puzzles and tight combat to be enjoyable. And again, like with the themes and changing environments, I did appreciate the blending of core gameplay elements that kept A.I.L.A. feeling fresh. We have segments that focus on problem-solving, others on stealth, and more which blend classic survival horror elements in situations we don’t tend to see much of.

And I’ll say right off the bat, if these guys focused on making a medieval survival horror game … it would have been a win. But the changing nature does lead to some frustration, as some core gameplay elements aren’t as strong as others. The problem-solving, key hunting, and a few set pieces are great, capturing a raw and brilliant sense of creativity, but then mostly everything else is just unimaginative, repetitive, and a bit dull. And while Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel did have some obtuse puzzles, it delivered more with challenging, layered, and rewarding lateral moments that put you through some exercise. A.I.L.A., for a lot of the time, presents a locked door, and the door is in a room or two away, with you going back and forth often, so it feels like you’re running around in a circle a lot of the time.

It doesn’t help that the controls, aiming weapons, and using melee all feel quite restrictive and not in a good, classic survival horror kind of way. But when there was a segment that worked, it worked rather well and provided some neat scares, intense encounters, and dynamic problem solving that made me invested once again until the end. Like with the abandoned section, which alters with a click of a remote, and the medieval town infested with the undead, these are great moments which don’t last very long, and then we’re thrust into something much simpler and more tedious.

However, there is a fantastic atmosphere throughout the levels, good and bad, with excellent sound design, and plenty of genuine scares that had me jumping out of my skin a few times. A.I.L.A. looked and sounded the part, especially in the more diverse sections of the game. 


Overall?

A.I.L.A has a lot of passion, creativity, and an interesting concept that, if advanced, twisted, and was more refined, would be an utter winner for the survival horror genre. But it feels more like a best hits combination that tries and samples a lot of ideas without fleshing most of them out in thoughtful ways. There are some great moments here, which did stick with me, and had me wishing the developers had cut most of the concepts to focus and expand on the ones which truly worked. But much of what we get is cliché, dull, and it never fits into the grand scheme of things.

And this could be because the writing and plot don’t push enough on horrors within VR and AI. There was enough here to dive into, and we get some interesting moments and themes, but nothing substantial, or that left me with buzzing questions or concerns. It’s best summed up as wide as an ocean, but as deep as a puddle.

With some updates to combat and controls, this might be more approachable, and compared to other recent horror games I played, A.I.L.A does stand out. But I was hoping for much more.

++ An enthralling and diverse concept with potential
+ Some great moments of level design, action, and puzzle solving 
+ Intense and rich atmosphere 

-- Story lacks weight and impact 
-- Plenty of clunkiness and awkwardness in the controls and combat 
- Underwhelming use of most concepts