Hands On with the AI LIMIT Steam Next Fest demo

A while back Braden had a hands on with an upcoming new souls-like from SenseGames Co Ltd named AI Limit. We were privy to get early access to a new demo that will be coming out in time for the October Steam Next Fest, so rather than have Braden retread things, I, a casual souls-like player (I can only count Lies of P and Let it Die as part of my resume) took it upon myself to give the demo a try…and these are my thoughts.

The game takes place in a dystopian future where the denizens consume a strange substance dubbed “mud” and monsters roam the ruins of civilization.. You control an amnesic (the Steam Store page states this character’s name is Arisa) human-like creature dubbed Blader. You explore the sewers you awaken in, obtain a weapon and when you make your way to the first “branch”, this game’s equivalent of a bonfire, you meet a cybernetic being on her last legs. She is pleased to see you and urges you to repair the “branches” and make your way to the surface. Other than this, the story is relatively scant in the demo.

Gameplay wise the game utilizes a lot of the core features of souls-likes, brutal combat which require you to react to your opponents’ movements, the revelation of the plot and the lore via environmental storytelling. Life Gems are your Estus Flask analog which replenishes when you visit a branch. The game also has consumables which include projectile weapons, items which gradually heal you and even items which imbue your weapons with elemental properties. The game utilizes 3 classes of weapons, swords, greatswords/lances and dual swords. Each weapon has a special attack and can be upgraded to enhance its stats. What I do find interesting about AI Limit is that it doesn’t adhere to a stamina system…so you run indefinitely and never have to back off in combat to catch your breath.

One of the game’s distinguishing features is tweak on the poise system found in Sekiro. The Sync system determines your damage output, the more you hit enemies the higher your sync increases, the more you get hit the lower your sync gets. Some of your abilities such as your weapons’ specials and your spells require a portion of your sync meter to be used. So you have to balance wanting to keep your damage output and using your special abilities. There will be enemies in the game that will have their sync levels displayed which you will and if you can reduce their sync rating to 0 they will enter a stun state which you can get a couple of free hits in or go for a powerful attack using your inhuman looking left arm.

Exploration in the game is pretty straight forward, there are alternate paths if you are perceptive and going back to an area is as simple as visiting a branch and teleporting to another one. Enemy tips are varied in the demo, you have these demonic looking enemies, robots, scattered remnants of humanity and even deranged bladers. As you progress you will gain the ability to parry and block blows, abilities you would think would be skills baked in, however in AI Limit you can only do one or the other, but you can hotswap using a button combination. Given the perceived difficulty of the genre you would think as a developer you would arm your players with a variety of defensive options and not make them have to choose. There were certain combat situations where I had to actively switch between blocking and parrying and it certainly made those fights a bit more chaotic.

I ended up doing two runs of the demo, my first run clocked in at around 2 hours and 45 minutes and my second run reduced the time to 1 hour and 35 minutes…it really goes to show how much knowledge in these games are a valuable asset. Upon completion of the demo, the Boss Showdown opens up…something that wasn’t available in the demo Braden had access to. This new mode sets you further down the line in the story where you have access to more abilities and weapons. The boss is a humanoid character that has their own sync meter and for a casual souls-like player, boy did this boss deliver non-stop beatings. However, me being stubborn, I persevered after 3+ hours of play…however towards the end of my time with the Boss Showdown Mode I would regularly parry the boss’s attacks as I’ve reflectively learned the parry timing of their attacks.

AI Limit seems like a competent souls-like. While the setting doesn’t quite grab me like the city of Krat from Lies of P did. I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to spending more time in the world. The game has a 2024 release window listed in it’s Steam Store page…however we’re starting to run out of 2024 where this game can land. So hopefully we’ll have a definitive release date soon.

AI Limit will be available on PC and PlayStation.