In October, we had the chance to sit down with Pulsatrix’s upcoming Horror game, A.I.L.A., and experience the early levels in the thrilling AI-driven narrative. That small preview had us go through a creepy asylum where we potentially killed ourselves and search for a missing woman in a disturbing farmhouse. The demo ended with us fighting a tentacle being and lake monsters. While the initial story elements and plot seemed interesting, the demo’s bugs and rough combat mechanics made us a bit concerned about its future. So, how did this latest horror game turn out? Find out in our A.I.L.A review.
A.I.L.A
Developer: Pulsatrix Studios
Publisher: Fireshine Games, The Iterative Collective
Platforms: PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X
Release Date: November 25th, 2025
Players 1
Price: $29.99
When we first booted up the game, we were given two options: 1. Start a new game, or 2. Load the game from where we last left off. Curious to see what would happen if we chose Loadgame, we did. The game then loaded us in right before the Dock Boss Fight. In the demo, we experienced a bug where a few enemies would get stuck when jumping out of the water; this time, we encountered a different bug, and all the enemies were frozen after jumping out of the water. This was clearly not a good sign, but was caused the issue. Was the bug caused by us loading the save of an older build, or was there something inherently broken with the game?
In order to figure this bug out, we decided to start a new game. While a lot of the smaller bugs were gone from the demo, there were still some lingering ones that were a bit annoying; most of these remaining bugs were visual issues rather than game-breaking bugs. Fast-forward to the Lack portion once again, and we still encountered an issue with the boss where enemies would freeze and stand still after getting out of the water. This time, the boss was able to move once out of the water and still offered a bit of a challenge.
This brings up some of the major issues in the game. 1. having a universal difficulty vs a tiered one. 2. Bugs in the fight ruined the experience. 3. The boss fights and combat in general felt unbalanced. In most modern-day horror games, the game will offer different levels of difficulty for the player to play through the story; this was not the case, and even small enemies felt like they were a challenge to either run away from and hope you get to the next area or bullet sponges to deplete your resources.
In regards to most of the boss fights, most felt like they had no real strategy planned around them, and that it was up to the player to brute force them. Although we could decipher the enemy’s attack patterns and noises, it often felt pointless to avoid, block, or hide behind barriers. Instead, we found ourselves just spinning around the boss, swinging our melee weapon to deal damage, versus shooting with ranged weapons. Even when aiming with ranged weapons, you have to do so carefully unless you turn down the game’s sensitivity because of how sensitive the aim is.
Alright, now that we have talked about some of the combat and boss fight issues, let’s discuss the overall story. At first, the story seems a bit random, as if the AI is generating stories based on popular horror tropes or different games/themes. As the game progresses, the player starts to realize that these stories are based on different books lying around the main character’s house. If you want an idea of what you might encounter, just explore the apartment, and make sure to pet the cat.
Once you realize that these different stories aren’t just thrilling but horrific adventures, and are being used to teach morals, the game takes on a bit of a darker tone. The AI has connected to the house and now has control of the appliances and the house robot. At first, a unified system does not seem like a bad experience, but after she takes a test a step too far, things turn for the worse. At one point, A.I.L.A. has the robot kill the house cat. While this is a powerful motivator, it feels like it is a step too far, even if it is potentially just in the main character’s head.
A.I.L.A. uses a charmic system to determine which of the four potential endings the player will get. All four endings can be earned during one playthrough of the game if done carefully. Out of the three endings we experienced on our own, none felt that satisfying. The only ending that felt somewhat rewarding was technically one of the bad endings. This left a rather sour taste in our mouths and made it difficult to replay the game, even to see some of the other endings.
A.I.L.A draws inspiration from popular horror franchises Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alan Wake, Outlast, and even The Evil Within. The game features both direct and indirect references within the game, and makes the story feel like it is directly connected to our universe rather than a standalone one. The references go even further than narrative elements, but even some symbology and audio sound effects. At one point, the reload sound and item discovery started to sound identical to Resident Evil. In a way, the whole game is a subtle nod to horror classics while making its own name.
While the story and audio design may be enjoyable, we did have issues with the game graphics, special effects, and visuals. On numerous occasions, the game’s camera would not follow the person talking, and we had to adjust the camera, then the game would move the character again, and we’d have to move it once more. In addition to the camera issue, there would be weird rendering issues with the characters, which caused parts of their body to despawn or render weirdly.
In addition to the weird rendering issues, the game’s visual changes would sometimes impact the enemies’ movements and cause them to be unable to reach us. Now, there is another graphic issue we’d like to address, and we can’t decide if it was lazy design work or was done deliberately based on the narrative world being created by an “AI”. On multiple levels, objects would be weirdly combined with one another in ways that did not look natural. Golden coins float in thin air, barrels phased through walls, and tree branches randomly sticking out of nowhere were just a few of the instances we encountered.
Now, if this was a design choice based on the “AI” creating the worlds, it can be overlooked; however, if it was just lazy design work, then it should be called out for such. Most of the “human world” is well put together, polished, and feels like it is coherent, which leads us to believe that it was a style choice rather than lazy design work.
A.I.L.A. features a ton of settings that the player can adjust. In the Game Options, the player can adjust weapon reload, bloodscreens, reticle color, and interface. In the controls menu, the player can adjust the control scheme, sensitivity, run toggle, and controller vibration. The game features a ton of graphical and display settings that can be adjusted based on the player’s PC parameters. The game’s audio is a bit loud for its base settings, so you will need to adjust the audio.
The game features two voice-over options: English and Portuguese. The subtitled options in the game are English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian; these subtitles can be turned on or off and affect the interface. A.I.L.A. features a few accessibility options, such as showing objectives, aim assist, vignette effects, camera shake, subtitle size and color, reticle size, and colorblindness settings (Tritanopia, Protanopia, and Deuteranopia).
After playing through A.I.L.A. and witnessing multiple endings, the game has to offer, we are left feeling a bit on the fence. Yes, the game does have some good jump scares, adjustable settings, and a decent story, but the combat leaves quite a bit to be desired. The boss fights feel unsatisfying, especially knowing that most are easily dealt with by just hacking and slashing in a circle around them.
If you are looking for a decent horror game, then it is worth picking up A.I.L.A. If you are looking for a satisfying one that rivals The Dark Pictures or Until Dawn, then you might want to look elsewhere. At the end of the day, it just depends on what you are looking for. Hopefully, they will fix more of the bugs in the game, add difficulty settings, and update the visuals in future patches to make the game more accessible to everyday gamers.
A.I.L.A. was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Pulsatrix Studios. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. A.I.L.A. is now available for the PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.
