AI Limit

Sometimes it feels like no matter where I go or how hard I try to avoid it, Artificial Intelligence is everywhere. It’s there to give you the wrong answer on Google, to suggest nonsensical video topics on YouTube and, worst of all, to annoy fans of Studio Ghibli. Let me tell you, I have just about had my limit with this A.I. slop. Apparently, Sense Games was able to, well, sense my frustration with the trend, because their debut game is appropriately named AI Limit, and it’s a futuristic action/adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world where everybody is fighting for power. Will it solve the impending AI problem we’re facing? Probably not, but it did feel good to smack around chainsaw-wielding robots. Come see what else I uncovered when I review AI Limit.

In the future, after all the wars have been fought and humanity’s greatest creations have been toppled, the few remaining survivors scavenge the once- prosperous world for food and materials. When a mysterious black mud begins to pour through the streets, along with it comes a new batch of monsters, forcing the survivors to swarm the last bastion of humanity – Havenswell.

Our hero, a blonde-haired young woman with a green thumb and red arm, was born out of that mysterious black mud. Her name is Arissa, and she is a Blader with immortality and a real penchant for slicing and dicing. She’s here to explore the city ruins, uncover the truth and ultimately find the hope of a new life. Oh, and she’s also going to need to nurse back to life the destroy branches, which is where she’ll upgrade her stats and weapons.

Yes, this is a game that was clearly inspired by Dark Souls and Elden Ring. I know that people hate when critics compare every action/adventure to the types of games made famous by From Software, but the inspiration is obvious here. The good news is that the game is more than a collection of familiar gameplay cliches, and even people who normally don’t like this type of game (or have tired of the imitators) may find something to like in AI Limit.

Right off the bat, there were a few things that sucked me in. A big one of those things is the post-apocalyptic setting and all of the world building this game is doing. We start the game with very little information, and the scraps we discover along the way are genuinely interesting. It forgoes the usual fantasy world or gothic setting for more recognizable cities, complete with cars and skyscrapers. It’s just futuristic enough to feel foreign, yet not so much that it’s hard to relate.

Another thing I like, especially early on, is how each part of the city we explore is controlled by different types of creatures. For example, the sewers we start out in are full of those mud monsters that scared away the humans, while the nearby graveyard is full religious zealots with guns. Deep in the toppled city, we come face-to-face with a robot army. And what’s cool about all of these different groups is that they don’t get along. There were so many times when I would just sit back and watch the monsters and the humans and the robots fight it out amongst themselves, all while collecting the experience points that come from defeating your foes.

It helps that the different parts of the city are a lot of fun to explore. For the most part, the stage layouts are pretty linear, usually with an obvious path you should be taking. Thankfully, there’s a lot of side paths along the way to explore, which is where you’ll find a lot of the best equipment and items. Sometimes you’ll buy or find keys that will open up even more of the stage, or unlock shortcuts that will help if you need to go fight through the level again. This, along with a varied mix of stage types and level-specific enemies, will keep you on your toes looking for new paths and shortcuts.

Now, the reason you might need these shortcuts is because some of the levels can be a bit challenging, especially the first time you enter them. You may need to avoid certain enemies or take them out individually, as it’s never good when our hero is being swarmed from all sides. The good news is that she’s a nimble little fighter who is good with a sword or whatever weapon you throw at her. She has both light and strong attacks, along with special moves and a magic spell that also acts as a long-range strike. We get the usual roll move to dodge attacks, along with a shield, which you can use to parry and stun opponents, assuming you can get the timing right.

As a game that was inspired by Dark Souls, the goal is largely to travel from one resurrected branch to the next without dying. You’ll find these different branches on the linear path, though they aren’t always close together. These branches act as both the checkpoint and the place where you spend the experience points you’ve amassed. But watch out, because if you die, the game is going to deduct a percentage of those points, so you’ll want to spend them whenever you have a chance. And just in case you’re wondering – yes, resting at the branch resets all of the enemies, and no, you don’t have to go back and collect your dropped goodies when you die.

AI Limit does try to add a few new wrinkles to the formula, such as the seal system, which will let you add certain perks to our hero. The seal also controls the mud gauge, which is what powers your magic, parries and special abilities. While this sounds like it adds an extra layer of complexity, it really isn’t that different from other games. Even when the game does a crummy job of explaining why each new part of the game was important, I had no problem putting them to use. Everything else, like leveling up your character and enhancing your weapon, is intuitive and simple.

That is also a good way to describe the combat. While I like being able to change between different types of shields and the spells are pretty cool, the basic combat is pretty straight-forward. In other words, there’s not much to it. In fact, I killed most of the enemies in the game by mashing the light attack button. Each section’s enemies will start out challenging, but they usually drop better items and more experience points, allowing you to quickly level-up and enhance your sword, making them much more manageable. Plus, you’ll quickly learn their patterns and be able to dodge most of their more powerful strikes.

Of course, all of this will be put to the tests when you go up against the game’s many bosses. These fights can initially feel hopeless, especially if you’re up against one of the more aggressive ones that is constantly rushing our hero. But like every other enemy in the game, these bosses have predictable attacks that you can parry to gain the upper hand. I also found that a few of them buckle the moment you rush at them. There were a few surprisingly easy bosses that I could just trap in the corner and kill through pure button mashing.

Even beyond a few easy boss battles, the problem with these fights is that they don’t feel as big and epic as what you get from other Soulslike games. Even the biggest and nastiest foes are small and lame in comparison to what you saw in both Dark Souls and Elden Ring. Part of the problem is that AI Limit simply doesn’t have the budget of those triple-A titles, but it’s also that it doesn’t have the style and artistic eye. That’s true of the level designs, as well. While some are ambitious and do a good job of world building, many are bland and a little unpolished. A good example of this is the toppled city, which looks great from a distance, but once you get close to the demolished buses, you’ll see how dated the graphics are.

Speaking of being unpolished, this game is littered with technical issues. For example, I found that sometimes when I would try to teleport, Arissa would disappear and I would get stuck to at the branch. I could still look around, but couldn’t move or interact with anything. It also has loading problems. There were two different times when the game got stuck in an infinite loading screen. I let it run for way longer than I should, and it never stopped rotating through the same few slides. I had to exit out of the game completely in order to move on. That’s annoying.

But even though it’s a little buggy and never quite rises to the same heights as other games in the genre, I’m still going to recommend AI Limit. It’s a fun game with an intriguing setting, great gameplay, well-crafted stage designs and a compelling story that kept me going, even through the tougher sections. And even though she hasn’t been a big focus of this review, I also really like Arissa as an action hero. It doesn’t exactly break any new ground, but it’s a fun action with a likable lead, and sometimes that’s enough.