AI.VI

I went into AI.VI expecting a novelty act - something that bolts an FPS skin onto a tower defense skeleton and calls it a day. What I found instead is a game with genuine mechanical identity, the kind of small release that Out of Time clearly poured a lot of care into. You play as AIVI, a retired war machine dragged back to the front lines when the P.A.S.C.A.L. Gigacorporation rolls onto his desert moon Sohot with an "entirely voluntary merger" enforced by wave after wave of combat drones. The setup is pulpy, a little silly, and works precisely because the game commits to it with a cel-shaded comic book visual style and an electronic soundtrack that fits the mecha-western world without overstaying its welcome. The core loop is tighter than you might expect. Each of the 12 missions plays out on a track your enemies follow, and your job is to stop them from reaching the exit using a combination of direct FPS combat and placed traps. Some missions flip the geometry on you - multiple spawning points funneling into a single gate, or a single entrance feeding a maze of exits - and the better levels layer in stage hazards that reward spatial thinking. Knocking an elite drone into a pit feels genuinely satisfying when you have engineered the angle. The weapon selection leans into the game's personality: a pump-action camera, a pickaxe-crossbow hybrid, and a Jack-in-the-box packed with explosive plush toys all sit comfortably in the same loadout. Four elemental forces - fire, ice, acid, and electricity - combine against enemy resistances and create chain reactions, which is where the strategy actually develops depth. The between-mission shop lets you upgrade the weapons and traps you use most, and crucially, you can refund purchases for full cashback, so experimenting with builds carries no permanent penalty. Permanent upgrades also layer in over time, unlocking stronger defenses, shields, and a strange mechanic that lets AIVI glimpse the final thoughts of enemies before they hit the scrapyard. It is a small touch, but it is the kind of intentional weirdness that tells you someone at Out of Time was paying attention to the feel of the world, not just the spreadsheet behind it. Two NPC companions, TCP and IP, handle the mission briefing and upgrade shop duties, and while the dialogue tips into cliche occasionally and carries at least one grammar slip that reviewers noticed, the characters are light enough that they support rather than overwhelm the pacing. The rough edges are real and worth naming. At launch the game had stability issues - crashes and enemies wandering off their tracks or getting stuck near exits. Post-launch patches, including a hotfix that reworked waves in early missions and fixed a crash tied to enemy movement logic, show the developer is actively addressing these. Difficulty progression is uneven; some missions spike harder than the surrounding content suggests they should, and a handful of traps have niche uses that make them feel like loadout dead weight compared to the reliable staples. None of this is fatal, but players who bounce off a mid-run crash may need a little patience. For a singleplayer indie with a clear aesthetic and a hybrid genre concept that actually functions, AI.VI earns its place. The cel-shaded visuals and electronic score give it a personality that most genre-mashup releases forget to develop. If you have any patience for tower defense routing and enjoy the tactile satisfaction of a first-person shooter, the two halves here speak to each other rather than talking past each other. It is a compact experience that knows roughly how long it wants to be, which is rarer than it should be. Kai, Scout Team