Skip to main content

A.I.L.A

A.I.L.A features an incredible first act filled with psychological horror and clever puzzles, making for one of the better horror games I’ve played. Everything after, however, is just a fine, bordering on boring and clanky action horror game that simply fails to be as good as what came before. Still worth a try if the game caught your interest, you just might find yourself disappointed after the first hour.
A.I.L.A Game Cover
69%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
optimization, music
72% User Score Based on 253 reviews
Critic Score 57%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

Xbox Series X|SPCPlaystation 5XboxSteam DeckWindowsPlayStation
A.I.L.A Game Cover

About

A.I.L.A is a single player shooter game with a horror theme. It was developed by Pulsatrix Studios and was released on November 25, 2025. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

A.I.L.A is a single-player horror shooter that immerses you in a series of disturbing, photorealistic scenarios crafted by an A.I. that preys on your deepest fears. Evade a ritualistic cult, solve gruesome puzzles, and battle medieval undead across multiple intense horror genres, all within a marvelous story and stellar, atmospheric visuals.

Skip User Reviews

72%
Audience ScoreBased on 253 reviews
story46 positive mentions
optimization6 negative mentions

  • The game features excellent worldbuilding and a dystopian atmosphere that immerses players in its narrative.
  • The graphics and sound design are impressive, creating a captivating horror experience.
  • The variety of mini-games and experiences keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging throughout.
  • The combat mechanics are clunky and unresponsive, detracting from the overall experience.
  • The pacing is uneven, with some sections dragging on too long and feeling tedious.
  • The story becomes predictable and lacks depth as it progresses, failing to deliver a satisfying conclusion.
  • story
    148 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its dark, immersive narrative and unique premise, while others criticize its execution and pacing. Although the overarching plot is engaging, the reliance on mini-games and repetitive gameplay detracts from the overall experience, leading to a sense of disconnection between the story and gameplay. Despite these issues, the atmosphere and character development, particularly the AI, are often highlighted as strong points, making it a worthwhile experience for fans of story-driven horror games.

    • “The story is dark and extremely well written!”
    • “The atmosphere, exploration, and storytelling are the game’s strongest aspects, and the combat often drags the pacing rather than supports it.”
    • “The story and voice acting were easily the highlights for me, and they alone made the first playthrough worthwhile.”
    • “The biggest issues I would have to say is: the storytelling of these mini-games is okay to very weak.”
    • “You have to play a bunch of mini horror games to progress the main story, and they all feel like a chore.”
    • “The story takes a long time to move forward, and you can spend over an hour playing through a scenario before the story continues for just a few minutes.”
  • gameplay
    69 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players expressing disappointment over its repetitive mechanics and lack of innovation across different levels. While some appreciate the polished combat and engaging puzzles, others criticize the simplistic combat, predictable story, and a failure to evolve gameplay elements, leading to a sense of stagnation. Overall, the game is seen as having potential but ultimately falls short in delivering a compelling and varied gameplay experience.

    • “The gameplay is smooth, the scares land, and the overall vibe stays haunting long after you finish.”
    • “The gameplay is definitely inspired by Silent Hill, The Evil Within, and Resident Evil.”
    • “The gameplay is fun, very basic Resident Evil or horror shooter game style, and that's okay; I love games like that, and the environments and puzzles were fun to work through as well.”
    • “The gameplay is the most disappointing part, and I thankfully pushed myself to beat it.”
    • “Repetitive gameplay, predictable story beats, and underwhelming horror make this a title that sadly stays stuck in the realm of unrealized potential.”
    • “The combat is garbage—utterly meaningless battles with pointless, joyless shooting mechanics.”
  • graphics
    46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the stunning visuals and atmospheric design, particularly highlighting the use of Unreal Engine 5. However, some players report performance issues, including lag and graphical glitches, which detract from the overall experience. While the aesthetics are often described as beautiful and immersive, there are concerns about consistency and optimization across different platforms.

    • “The visuals are stunning, creating striking scenes; it's not just the usual 'ooh the lighting is nice' that really is just the Unreal Engine doing the work, but this game looks great in its entirety.”
    • “The fantastic visuals are stunning, and the opening sequence is extremely effective (Resident Evil 7 vibes).”
    • “Well optimized, great graphics, beats many of the AAA games out there.”
    • “This game is not optimized very well; it lags even while playing on medium graphics, and I can play Cyberpunk and Red Dead on high graphics.”
    • “Constant graphical issues; you can literally look in the sky and see the player indicator.”
    • “The graphics are glitchy and subpar; sound mixing is a mess, and sometimes ambient noises are way too loud or oriented in ways that make them come from right under you.”
  • atmosphere
    44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and unsettling qualities, effectively blending beautiful graphics, sound design, and varied settings to create a gripping horror experience. Players appreciate the tension and psychological depth, noting that the atmosphere often surpasses traditional jump scares, making it a standout feature of the game. While some critiques mention inconsistencies in later chapters, the overall consensus is that the atmosphere is the game's strongest aspect, enhancing both the storytelling and gameplay.

    • “To be honest, regarding this game, the graphics are very beautiful, the sounds and the atmosphere are perfect.”
    • “This game really did the horror theme justice and managed to create the right atmosphere while keeping you guessing about what happens next.”
    • “There is no real danger, but the atmosphere remains deeply unsettling.”
    • “The amount of combat wouldn't be an issue if the combat was good; alas, it isn't, and the lackluster nature of both how the combat feels and enemy animations/reactions actively acts against the horror atmosphere, making it feel like a bland action game with a horror coat of paint.”
    • “The atmosphere, exploration, and storytelling are the game’s strongest aspects, and the combat often drags the pacing rather than supports it.”
  • optimization
    21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including lag, stuttering, and crashes, even on high-end hardware. While some users experienced satisfactory performance on specific platforms like the Xbox Ally X, others noted that the game struggles with frame rates and stability, particularly on lower-end systems. Overall, it appears that while there are pockets of good optimization, many players are frustrated by the game's technical shortcomings.

    • “Graphics and performance are excellent on the Xbox Ally X.”
    • “Well optimized, great graphics, beats many of the AAA games out there.”
    • “Although it runs on UE5, it's pretty optimized and I don't have any performance issues.”
    • “This game is not optimized very well; it lags even while playing on medium graphics, and I can play Cyberpunk and Red Dead on high graphics.”
    • “The performance is utterly trash - 4K maxed out with a 5090 + 9800X3D, and I get 30 frames without frame generation.”
    • “Huge stuttering when loading new areas with major FPS fluctuations.”
  • music
    13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising the atmospheric soundtrack and its ability to enhance the overall experience, while others criticize the generic fight music that disrupts immersion and the lack of a polished soundtrack. Despite some users enjoying the ambient sounds, there are complaints about audio mixing issues and the absence of a more robust musical score. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's atmosphere but leaves room for improvement.

    • “Absolutely love this game, the concept, presentation, the music, and multiple paths.”
    • “It has great atmosphere and music.”
    • “The music feels like a concept piece that they refused to polish up, and just decided to go with what they got, but other than that the game is really cool, and there is a ton of stuff that happens in this.”
    • “Annoying generic music plays during every fight, which breaks the immersion.”
    • “So many times I heard the music before I saw the enemy, and it just gave the immersion away each time.”
    • “Essentially, the audio mix sounds pretty awful; the music is missing a lot of the time, and the ambient sounds are neat sometimes, but can be overbearing at others.”
  • grinding
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for its poor design and tedious gameplay, with players noting repetitive combat, lengthy boss fights, and a lack of engaging narrative. Many feel that the experience is marred by its overlong nature and incoherent story, leading to a frustrating and immersion-breaking experience. Overall, the grinding elements detract significantly from the game's potential.

    • “A is an overlong, tedious experience that has a great premise let down by incredibly poor execution.”
    • “The resulting narrative logic is utterly incoherent, excruciatingly tedious, and utterly destroys immersion.”
    • “Lots of tedious backpedal combat, and an anthology of horror settings that are just flavors of shooting or slashing lone zombies with too much health.”
  • stability
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is heavily criticized, with players reporting numerous game-breaking bugs, including an inability to progress past certain levels and frequent freezes during the intro. While some users noted minor graphical glitches, the overall experience is significantly hampered by these issues, leading to frustration and disappointment.

    • “Game is extremely buggy with tons of game-breaking bugs where I can't even enter the final room in the improved stage. Choices are incredibly stupid because the whole game is about violence being bad, which makes no sense in any way possible.”
    • “It just freezes in the intro. Specs: 7900 XTX, 32GB DDR5, and a 7800X3D.”
    • “The dev says that they didn't use AI to create this buggy game, then they proceeded to put an alternative version of Ryan Gosling AI video (made with AI) in a transmission with generated AI dialogue.”
  • replayability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the game highly replayable due to its engaging spooky atmosphere and fun mechanics, with many expressing a desire for sequels or DLC that could expand on its concept. The potential for infinite horror scenarios contributes to its long-lasting appeal.

    • “It has a great vibe; it's spooky, fun, and extremely replayable!”
    • “I would love to see a sequel or DLC in the future because this concept can apply to infinite horror game concepts and gives it long-lasting replay value.”
  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is characterized by a satirical take on horror scenarios, where the irony lies in their lack of immersion and excitement, contrasting sharply with traditional survival horror. While the game attempts to blend comedy with jump scares, the execution often feels disjointed, leaving players questioning whether the humor is intentional or a critique of the genre.

    • “You play a game tester whose mind is blown playing these futuristic, wildly immersive horror scenarios. The hilarious irony is that these scenarios are terribly non-immersive and boring and can't compare to the best survival horror today.”
    • “It feels like it's a joke and it's trying to be funny but also 'hey dude you should be scared, here's a jump scare'.”
  • emotional
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional potential of the story is undermined by poorly executed humor, leading to a lack of meaningful connection with the audience.

Skip Critic Reviews
Skip Game Offers

Buy A.I.L.A

10h Median play time
10h Average play time
10-10h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
Skip Videos

Videos

Skip Games Like A.I.L.A

Games Like A.I.L.A

Cronos: The New Dawn Image
The Beast Inside Image
Beyond Hanwell Image
Industria Image
The Evil Within Image
Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

A.I.L.A is a shooter game with horror theme.

A.I.L.A is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, Steam Deck and others.

On average players spend around 10 hours playing A.I.L.A.

A.I.L.A was released on November 25, 2025.

A.I.L.A was developed by Pulsatrix Studios.

A.I.L.A has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its optimization.

A.I.L.A is a single player game.

Similar games include Cronos: The New Dawn, The Beast Inside, Beyond Hanwell, Industria, The Evil Within and others.