Pulsatrix Studios
A.I.L.A.: a look at a Brazilian title that mixes horror and artificial intelligence
A horror experience that takes advantage of the noise generated around artificial intelligence.
Much has been said in recent years about artificial intelligence: its benefits, its risks, its creative capacity and how it can help us... but also the concerns raised by its applications. What if it could be used in entirely new ways? During our coverage of gamescom latam 2025, we had the opportunity to spend half an hour playing A.I.L.A., a title developed by Pulsatrix Studios from Brazil that seeks to mix artificial intelligence with psychological terror.
What is A.I.L.A.?
A.I.L.A. is a first-person horror game that casts you as the sole game tester responsible for testing a revolutionary AI through a virtual reality helmet. This AI is designed to tailor the game experience to your deepest fears and learn from you as you play. In the demo we tested, this led to an extremely unique scenario.
We wake up crucified in front of a static TV, with a remote control in our hands and several closed doors around us. Using the remote, we begin to “change channels,” which actually allows us to move between different rooms and corridors. This is where the horror begins: sinister voices fill the atmosphere and a strange presence begins to haunt us.
A.I.L.A. presents us with a series of puzzles, using the television as a means of switching between scenarios. Over time, we find increasingly disturbing environments and collect pieces to solve new puzzles: from a finger or an eye used as a biometric key, to extracting a key from the palate of a corpse in the morgue. The mix of gore and unsettling atmosphere kept me on edge throughout the experience. Aside from a somewhat repetitive puzzle that involved channel-switching without much direction, everything was fairly fluid: the horror and challenges were placed where they belonged.
Visually, the game has a great presentation and runs stable at 60 fps. It is important to mention that the demo was played at the Nvidia booth, where A.I.L.A. ran on a GeForce RTX 5090 with DLSS enabled. Even the AI contributes to the improved visual performance of the game.
The little demo achieved its goal of making me feel excited and scared without resorting to unnecessary jump scares. For now, A.I.L.A. is scheduled to be released sometime in 2025 via Steam.
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