This new immersive sci-fi horror game perfectly depicts the dangers of AI, bringing a whole new meaning to horror in games

A.I.L.A., developed by the same studio that brought you the indie survival horror Fobia St. Dinfna Hotel, brings a fresh take on the horror genre by looking at the dangers of the application of AI in our society.

The game is set in a futuristic world where you are a game tester trying out a revolutionary AI called A.I.L.A., which tries to curate the “perfect” game through human experience. After getting my hands on a short preview that includes the first two chapters, I dove straight into the convoluted reality AILA has in store for me.

AILA throws you into an endless nightmare like a futuristic R.L. Stine novel (Goosebumps)

AILA’s whole purpose is to create a horrific experience for you to survive. She’ll curate random scenarios where you’ll have to solve puzzles and hopefully survive while doing so.

As you go through these intense experiences, AILA asks for feedback on how the experience went. Through your feedback, AILA works on another simulated experience more horrific than the last. Continuing your work as a game tester starts to blur the virtual and the real world. This is compounded as AILA slowly seeps into your life.

AILA offers a unique horror experience, which oddly reminded me of the old R.L. Stine series, Goosebumps. Since each playtest is completely different from another, the developers have complete freedom to explore unique situations to create a horrifying experience for everyone, but there’s a catch – they have to perfectly intertwine with AILA’s main goal to make sense of everything.

When the plot revolves around AILA curating horrific experiences for you to test and gather data to create an even scarier situation, it’ll always be a challenge to keep up with an increasingly higher standard with each playtest. I love the tiny details of how AILA adds something to the game, but mainly just to test out behavioral instincts, as if you are really playtesting the game, such as adding a weapon that doesn’t really mean anything. It definitely added to the immersion.

While I have only played the first two chapters of the game, there’s a lot of potential here. There were some cheap scares, but the eerie and unsettling atmosphere was present throughout. I was left with a lot of questions, and AILA seems to be a fantastic horror game that could end the year strong for horror game fans.

If you’d like to check out A.I.L.A., be sure to wishlist it on Steam so you don’t miss out.