A.I.M.: Artificial Intelligence Machine

AIM is the first of the AIM trilogy, all games made by SkyRiver Studios, a Russian company who kinda showed up, made stuff, and then more or less disappeared without a trace. I won't cover the story as someone else already did so quite well, but I have to say that this game utterly reeks of early 2000s 3D video game syndrome. And yes, it is an actual prequel to AIM 2 on Steam. It looks okay, controls like absolute chaos and has that nostalgic clunk in literally everything that takes a while to get used to, but once you get into it you realize that the game actually plays really well. Overall, the game's nothing mind-blowing and it won't be for anyone who only wants the latest, smoothest, most visually appealing game out there, but for many who started gaming in the N64/PS1 era, this is a big shot of nostalgia on visual style alone. It's also pretty fun to play to boot. That said, this game is definitely covered under a lot of grime. The translation is mediocre at best and while it can be understood fairly well, it requires the occasional filling in the blanks in order to make sense of some dialogues. On the subject of bugs and crashes, there's plenty though most can be safely ignored. Things like visual glitches are common on modern systems and there's the occasional audio static sound here and there, but nothing major. There are a couple bugs that can cause crashes, but the fandom AIM wiki has a Troubleshooting section with links to various fixes which can either mitigate or flat out prevent a lot of the game's more disruptive issues, all of which apply to this GOG version as well, since it doesn't seem to have corrected or included any of these fixes. If anyone wants to give this game a shot, I recommend checking out the fandom wiki and grabbing those fixes, just in case. All in all, I love this game. It's rough around the edges but it's one I grew up playing back in the day. For its price tag, I can't recommend it enough to anyone who likes retro games.

Well, here it is - the original AIM game. I've played the sequel AIM 2: Clan Wars and fell in love. Thanks to whomever made this happen.

The game of my childhood. If you like old games, you'll definitely like it.

If you prefer Sandbox RPGs over Open World then this is a great game to pick up. Like, if you prefer Mount and Blade over Elder Scrolls then you might like this game. You can sandbox around and set your own goals. Game was janky but I was able to get it to run pretty smooth after adjusting some settings. The manual is in the game files BTW.