AILA (stylized as A.I.L.A) is technically not a horror game. Rather, it’s a science fiction game about horror games. Set in the not-so-distant future, you’ll play through a series of cutting-edge VR horror scenarios designed to trigger something deep inside you. The first experience in AILA (The Impossible House) is meant as a homage to classic survival horror games. If you’re having trouble getting through it, this guide will help you finish it.
AILA First Game: A Complete The Impossible House Guide
Once you set up the AILA Dev Kit in your room, you’ll get the opportunity to try the very first scenario. While it is officially named The Impossible House, let’s call it the survival horror scenario for the sake of simplicity, since it’s the genre that inspired it. In this guide, I’ll walk you step by step through how to survive the first experience in AILA and complete the first game.
AILA TV Room
You’ll wake up crucified to a wall in a small room containing only a TV and a desk. The space is derelict, filthy, and blood-stained, lit by a single flickering light. The key to completing this experience is the TV. By changing channels, you’ll trigger subtle shifts in reality, allowing you to access different parts of the scenario. To start, do the following:
- Open one of the desk drawers.
- You’ll find a box inside.
- Open the box and take the Remote.
- It will now be assigned to hotkey 1 in your inventory.
- Aim it at the TV screen and press the left mouse button.
- This will change the channel and trigger a shift in your surroundings.
The first time you change the channel, a locked door with a fingertip scanner will appear, along with the name Paula Meire displayed on its screen. We’ll come back to this door later. For now, change the channel again. This time, the previously locked door beside the fingertip scanner will be open (the scanner is no longer there). Go through it and head all the way down the hallway to the door opposite where you came. Ignore the locked door to your left and the one requiring a retina scan to your right; they aren’t important right now.
Fridge and Water Drain Room
The room on the opposite side will be mostly empty the first time you enter, with two exceptions: a single fridge and a red pipe next to a sign that reads “Water Drain.” Open the fridge to find a pair of rusty Garden Shears. Press F to add them to your inventory. Move over to the red Water Drain pipe. You’ll be able to interact with it, but you’ll notice it’s missing a Valve, which means your next objective is to find one.
Head back to the TV room and switch the channel once using the Remote. You should now be in the flooded version of the area. Leave through the same door and return to the hallway, where you’ll see a hanging cage with a Gun suspended in the middle.
The game warns you that you can take the Gun, but doing so will “influence your karma.” From what I’ve seen, taking it doesn’t actually affect gameplay. I didn’t encounter a single moment in the first experience where using it was necessary. Keep in mind that the warning about “karma” is deliberately ambiguous. It may apply only to this particular experience, or to the game as a whole (since you’re effectively playing inside a game).
You can take the Gun if you want; it will cause a bit of blood loss, but it doesn’t really matter. After that, keep moving straight down the hallway. You’ll spot a Valve on the door opposite the TV room. Grab the Valve. A mannequin will briefly appear, floating in the water on the other side of the door. Just ignore it. Then return to the TV room and switch the channel three times, until the hallway doors are open again and the water is gone.
The Bald Guy With an Axe
After switching the channel three times and reopening the hallway door, head back there. This is where you’ll encounter the antagonist of the first AILA experience: a big, bald man wielding an axe. He’ll rush toward you. You can try to run, but you can also just let him hit you. You’ll fall, lose a bit of blood, and then continue from where you left off. And the axe guy will be gone.
Now return to the fridge room and attach the Valve to the red pipe. Turn it, and a short cutscene will show something opening in the floor. At this point, there’s not much else you can do in this version of the world, so you’ll need to go back and change the TV channel again.
But before we move on, here’s a warning about a couple of misdirections in this experience.
The Red Herrings
In the first AILA game, there are a few things deliberately designed to throw you off without actually having any real importance for the gameplay or the story. I understand this is a walkthrough, so if you’re reading it, you’re probably not too worried about spoilers. But just to be fair, the following section contains minor spoilers for the first scenario. The red herrings are:
- Gun & AMMO - It doesn’t actually serve any purpose in the first AILA experience. You can shoot it, but I’ve tested it on various things, and it doesn’t have any effect, neither on the story nor on the puzzles.
- Mannequin - The head-turning doll is purely there for scares. It doesn’t affect the gameplay or the story at all.
- The Second TV Room Door - The second door in the TV room will occasionally open, but aside from a few jump scares, there’s no real reason to go there. You won’t be able to fully unlock it anyway.
- ALWAYS BEHIND YOU - There’s a message on a locked door past the fridge room, after a series of other doors. At first, I thought it was some kind of puzzle you needed to solve, but it turns out it serves no real purpose. Don’t waste your time on it.
- The Hooded Lady Mural - You'll see this imagery on several doors and walls, but it has no impact on the gameplay.
Bodies on the Floor (Fridge Room)
Let the bodies hit the floor! Drowning Pool reference aside, now that you know what not to waste your time on, let’s continue with our AILA first experience walkthrough. When you return to the TV room after turning the Valve, switch the channel only once. Ignore the jump-scare mannequin behind the second door in the TV room. That door leads nowhere.
After switching the channel once, the hallway door should remain open, and an ammo box will appear next to the TV. You can take the ammo and load your Gun, but it won’t be necessary; you won’t actually use it in this scenario. It’s just there for show. Head back to the fridge room, where you’ll now find it painted red and filled with corpses in body bags.
Remember the Garden Shears you picked up earlier? And the name on the fingertip scanner: Paula Meire? You probably see where this is going. It’s a bit gruesome, but here’s what to do: check the labels on the body bags and find the one named Paula Meire. Interact with her exposed hand and use the Garden Shears to obtain her finger. You’ll need it to use on the scanner and open the final door.
Where to Find the Retina
You’re almost there. Just a few more steps and you’ll complete the first AILA experience. Now that you have Paula Meire’s finger, head back to the TV room. As you approach the door, the antagonist will split it open with his axe, Jack-Nicholson-in-The-Shining style. Don’t panic, keep your cool, and turn around. Remember the locked door across from the retina scanner door? It’s now unlocked, so head over there and go through it.
You’ll pass through a series of doors until you eventually end up back in the fridge room. Head out into the hallway. The entrance to the TV room will now be fully open, with the bad guy nowhere in sight. Enter the TV room freely and switch the channel twice until the fingertip scanner appears. Interact with it, and the previously locked door will finally unlock.
In Regione Caecorum Rex Est Luscus
Go through the now-unlocked door and return to the fridge room one last time. The fridge will be closed again. Open it, but be prepared for a minor jump scare. A rather… shroomy character will be waiting inside. Don’t worry, though, he’s not there to hurt you. Instead, he’ll give you a Human Eye socket. Take the eye and head to the retina scanner door. Use it on the scanner to unlock the door and complete the first AILA experience.
And with that, our step-by-step walkthrough for the first AILA experience, The Impossible House, is complete. We truly hope this guide helped you out. If you run into any other issues, be sure to check out our other guides covering the remaining experiences in the game. In the meantime, remember: ALWAYS BEHIND YOU.
A.I.L.A First Game FAQ
The first AILA experience is called The Impossible House.
The first game in AILA can best be described as a survival horror experience.
Yes, you can use it, but it serves no purpose, and the bullets don’t interact with anything.
It doesn’t seem to have a fully coherent story, but rather a mix of elements inspired by popular survival horror games. For example, the tall man with the axe is an homage to Resident Evil 7.
The Latin phrase In regione caecorum rex est luscus translates to “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” It conveys the idea that even a slight advantage can make someone seem powerful or superior when everyone else is at a significant disadvantage.
Completing the full game (all experiences) will take you approximately 10 hours.
Nikola has been playing video games since his father bought him an NES and a Sega Mega Drive in the early 1990s. Over the years, he has mainly become a PC gamer with a love for narrative-driven RPGs, real-time strategy games, and psychological/survival horror titles. Still, he enjoys any game that’s worth his time.
