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Hello Sam, I am A.I.L.A, your weird-looking new AI dommy mommy. Together, we will test virtual reality games that somehow take over your entire brain and track every movement of your body, as you sit slumped in an office chair. Allow me to scare the poop out of your pants across 5 hours or so of surprisingly polished content. Survival, Horror, and even Survival horror are on the menu as I break down the walls of reality with surprisingly good voice acting. Enjoy death… I mean, I look forward to working with you, Sam.
V to the R
You play as a game tester named Sam, who lives in an enormous house with a cute cat. This tech house of the future makes shitty tea, tempts Sam’s sobriety with gloopy-looking wine, and is a monument to a man who has seemingly lost it all.
In comes A.I.L.A, a new AI program that takes Sam’s VR video game testing to new insane heights. The game jumps between genres, starting with a crazed cult game, full of gore and running. It serves as an interesting tutorial, ending with a truly horrifying death thanks to nuclear fire.
After this initial game, Sam and A.I.L.A will begin working together, after a new VR PC and headset are delivered. The game enjoys its Resident Evil-style UI elements. Sam will combine items, find areas to place things, and have a fully interactive computer to play with in between game testing sequences.
R to the V
Gameplay-wise, everything is presented in a first-person perspective, running on a fairly clean-looking Unreal Engine. I’d imagine it’s using 5, at this point, and it runs well! A shocker, as most AAA games can’t seem to keep a consistent framerate with this bloated corker of an engine.
A.I.L.A isn’t a long game, with my playtime ending up at just about five hours. As a horror game, with plenty of shooting in the later segments, it’s best not to give away all the plot points and scares. So I would skip watching the game’s trailers, or else some enemy types and jump scares are going to be spoiled.
The movement feels fine. Aiming is where the game needs some work. It isn’t terrible, but the deadzone for the right analog stick is set far too high. There were no options for changing it that I could find. Having to move the stick as much as I did made fine aiming a lot harder to pull off, which hurt the shooting sequences. It made using the computer mouse and clicking on items around the house tougher than it needed to be, as well.
A Human Connection
The big question for any horror game is, is it scary? No, not really. A.I.L.A relies on jump scares, so keep that headset turned up, and your heart will jump. The plot was predictable throughout, though the ending did catch me a little off guard.
The voice acting, especially from your main character and A.I.L.A, does a good job. The main enemies you fight felt goofy in the later segments. I found myself laughing at how they looked and animated more than I felt any real scares.
The first two VR games you test do a better job mixing realistic gore and jump scares, so that I was on edge a few times. I wish it had kept that tone throughout, though I get why with how A.I.L.A is trying to grow through your interactions.
Wrapping Things Up
A.I.L.A is a solid experience, with a strong beginning and end, let down by a weak middle. If this version of VR existed in the real world, then the medium would have taken off far more than it ever did. It’s a good setup for a horror game, and fans of the genre would do well to check this one out sometime.
A.I.L.A
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Looks and runs well
- Good setting for Horror
- VO from both leads
CONS
- Predictable plot
- Deadzone on aiming
