The Alters (2025)

11 Bit Studios does what they do best: create an outlandish narrative / resource management game where survival and morality are in conflict. I think it must be something in the Polish water. Or the collective memory based on some historical events, more likely. Anyway, The Alters takes a more personal lens than Frostpunk did, and in my opinion it works brilliantly.

The basic premise: Jan Dolski is part of the crew of space mining operation Project Dolly. The space ship crashes, Jan is the sole survivor, and now he has to set up to escape the planet while living in a wheel-shaped base and continuing the mining operation. But keeping his base running while the rescue mission is underway is not a one-man job. No fear: the mysterious material to be mined on the planet is called Rapidium, the name of Project Dolly might have been a double entendre, and thus soon enough Jan unlocks the ability to clone himself into different variants of Jan, the titular Alters. Each of these Jans has walked a slightly different life path and has a different job expertise, but also a different personality and thus a different outlook on life, the whole cloning and survival situation, and the calls to be made. And thus, Jan has base building and planetary exploration to do, next to the management of both resources and Jans. As one does. Well. As multiple do, in this case.

A minor downside to this situation: you will spend the entire game in the company of a variation of the same middle-aged white man. It's an incredible feat that a single voice actor does all the voices, but it's also.. yeah.

I found this to be a deeply existentialist game. What defines a person? Is our life path set or do experiences and choices define us? What about the tasks forced upon us? The very conditions in which we are born? In the opening hours, Camus is mentioned. The existence of the soul is discussed. Not to scare anyone: the game doesn't get too philosophically theoretical, and the writing strikes a decent balance between tension and fun. But the game touches many thinking points.

There are quite a few narrative branches, some have big impact, some affect one of the Alters, some don't really affect a lot. The choices don't always play out exactly as you imagined, which is in line with the themes. I have to admire the (in my mind) relatively small 11 Bit team in how they weaved a pretty sensible narrative out of the choices I made, and they made me wonder how much content is different across play-throughs. I would consider a second play-through but ~25 hours is quite a lot and maybe the magic is best kept unrevealed. It doesn't have Larian levels of polish, but I found it still impressive what they managed to do here.

I want to add that there are quite a few more things in this game that delighted me but that I believe are better experienced unspoiled.

Also incorporates a Zeal & Ardor song, which automatically means a +1 in score, even if it's not their black metal stuff. Unfortunately I can't rate it 6/5.

The title now lives in rare company. Video Games that have made me tear up:

Final Fantasy X: Tidus and Yuna are made for each other but he's only a dream.

Journey: Sharing an adventure and working together with a total stranger within a masterful crescendo.

The Alters:

In the final conversation with Jan Therapist, the topic of holding on to ones identity occurs. Specifically, whether or not to allow the Botanist to swap lives with Jan Prime and the discomfort within.

Paraphrasing: Jan Therapist asks, why would it be so bad to lose your identity? Jan Prime sputters out, and I'm suddenly untethered at the idea, "because... its mine!". Jan Therapist responds, ' then its yours to keep or yours to let go of."

I'm unsure as to why it struck me so. The sense of holding on or feeling shackled being the same side of the coin perhaps?

This is going to stay with me. The Alters is a treasure.

The Alters continues to climb further into my top 10 games of all time. I'm unsure where it will land and what game it must remove but its presence is soon to be mandatory.

The games pace is a taught string carefully plucked. While the cadence of play fits perfectly in my limited schedule. One or two in-game days to enjoy during a lunch break is a snug, sci fi fit.

I imagine the emotional core of alternate lives may be lost on a younger player. The protagonist and I share a similar age, so it feels to be explicitly made for the pre-mid life crisis crowd.

Every time I get exhausted by modern games, gems like this pop up to prove that people are still being creative, even if not within the AAA space. This year has actually been a pretty solid year of unique and fascinating games from the AA and indy scene. There's Blue Prince, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and now this game. All great games that offer something truly unique and isn't afraid to commit to a unique vision and making an artistic statement. These games are truly rare but a total joy to experience when they pop up. Alters deserves your attention.

I'll not spoil anything because the plot and writing are honestly the best part of the game. But in a nutshell, this is a survival exploration base building narrative focused game. While that may not sound unique at a glance, the way the game utilizes these mechanics is wholly unique and the writing elevates the experience. The game is about regret, missed opportunities and finding your true potential against extreme adversity. It's firmly grounded in emotion and a deeply personal experience of self discovery.

It's a base builder, its a survival exploration game and it's a person management simulator, all in one. The Sci-Fi elements are well explored and the game presents you with a plethora of morally complex decisions. There is a time limit to the game, but honestly you are given plenty of time. I did get a game over once, which was a good learning experience for me, but the game does have a generous re-load system where if you really botch your base and set up, you have plenty of options for how far back you want to go to reset. I did lose roughly 3 hours from my game over, but I had learned a lot from those mistakes and never had a game over again.

The main Sci-Fi element to the game (which isn't a spoiler) is the Alters. Which allows you to clone yourself, but change the life decisions you made. Resulting in a wholly unique new version of yourself. From a gameplay perspective, you pick an Alter based on their profession. You need a scientist to research stuff for you. A botanist is really good at growing food for you, ect. But while you make your decision from a cold calculated perspective of "I need this job," the Alters themselves all have unique personalities derived from their simulated life experiences. You can't select every Alter on one play through, so I haven't experienced every possible option, but the Alters I did pick all had a fully realized and unique personality. Further more each had their own compelling story that I was infested in learning. if you do a bad job of meeting the needs of your alters, they can rebel against you and cause a game over. So it's important for you to monitor and compromise with them. Making them feel real, but also adding more pressure to the gameplay.

The game certainly has issues. There can be small graphical glitches. When using the fast travel system, I got caught on terrain. Combat is nothing to write home about, but these are all easy to look past with how much this game gets right.

So you will be building a base, managing people, collecting and managing resources, progressing your technology, exploring an alien planet and of course surviving. While most individual elements may not wow you, the game is firmly greater than the sum of its parts. With the writing and characterization really elevating the experience as a whole. Do your self a favor and give this game a chance! That all said, it's certainly not a game for everyone, but hey you may like it more than you expected.

I made the surprisingly guilt free purchase of The Alters on PS5 a few days ago.

I thought it would arrive yesterday but discovered the physical release wont be for another month! (July 19th)

Buying physical is more appealing these days, for the sake of resale (when the time never comes). Waiting a month knowing it could be a download away is a strange ache. I saw a comment somewhere saying how this could be a marketing push to prioritize digital sales.

Please lets this not be a thing now. :\

Wow, what a ride. I think this is the first game in a while that had me losing time and playing for hours on end. I also normally reload previous saves when choices I make have consequences I don't like in games like these, but this made me want to see them through (I did reload once... when a certain someone chopped off his arm and died a few days later — lesson learned lol).

I was kinda hoping there'd be an endless mode at the end somehow; I would have to keep playing and help the crew continue to wander the planet with maybe a few more base expansions, gathering more Rapidium and surviving but I guess not. Anyway, good fun!