AILA Review – A Clumsy, But Heartwarming Horror

AILA is set in a near future where AI is ready to provide anyone with their own personal nightmare. Blending reality with fiction, the game invites you to consider what a soulless machine is capable of if given complete freedom. We share our impressions of the game in our review.

• Developer: Pulsatrix Studios
• Publisher: Fireshine Games, The Iterative Collective
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X|S
• Release date: November 25, 2025

In AILA, you play as a tester for fully immersive VR games. An innovative AI named AILA creates scenarios, sending the player character on a journey through nightmares based on their fears. Gradually, the line between reality and the virtual blurs, and the struggle for survival becomes frighteningly realistic.

One thing the project definitely has going for it is its commitment to variety. The developers are mixing up not only the locations but also the gameplay mechanics. References to popular horror games like Outlast and Resident Evil VII are unmistakable. The monsters are quite terrifying, and the combat system allows you to fight back against some of them. But AILA tries to be a multi-tasker: it’s a survival horror game with monsters, a psychological nightmare with a shifting reality, and a philosophical meditation on AI.

It’s hard to say the game achieves all its ambitions. For example, the combat is too simple and awkward, gunshots have no recoil, and melee attacks don’t always work as intended. It would have been better if the developers had abandoned combat altogether and focused on creating engaging puzzles . The latter aren’t particularly good either. For every engaging puzzle, there are three or four mediocre ones.

Furthermore, AILA fails to truly scare the player. The title certainly tries to do so—with intentionally violent scenes, jump scares , and a heightened sense of dread—but the haphazard plot and frequent scene changes make it a stretch.

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However, I don’t feel like criticizing the project too much. Yes, it’s ungainly, buggy in places, and just a bit awkward at times. But it’s clear the developers poured their heart into it, working diligently on every scene—and it’s not their fault that they lacked either experience or budget. The studio’s potential is obvious; AILA’s level design can rival any AAA horror game, and the script at least strives to offer something new and unusual. If Pulsatrix Studios moderates their ambitions a bit and doesn’t try to make a hodgepodge out of one game, then perhaps their next project will be more highly regarded—it has all the makings of such a project.