When a game isn’t heavily promoted and slips under the radar, it’s sometimes hard to get a handle on what exactly you’re getting into. There are a ton of fantastic games out there that you’ve probably never heard of and in this incredibly volatile gaming environment, we see more and more games that combine multiple concepts from popular titles and re-envision them as unique new visions.
That’s the case with The Alters, a strange new game from developer and publisher 11 bit studios. You might be familiar with some of their previous work, games like Frostpunk, The Invincible (review here) and Children of Morta (review here). The Alters is a step above previous releases though, with a fully voiced script, high-end graphics, and a unique premise that will hook you from the get-go!
In The Alters, you play Jan Dolski, an explorer on a mission to save the planet by travelling the vastness of the interstellar void to find Rapidium, a unique element with the potential to save the planet from imminent extinction. Jan is the lone survivor of a terrible crash in a strange star system located by the corporation for its mining potential. Mining is hard work though, and Jan is going to struggle to survive. Hostile planets with no air are not exactly the place you want to be marooned alone and about to be vaporized by the inevitable approach of a sun that will cook you instantly. Fortunately for you, Rapidium has some rather odd properties and combined with the proprietary (and questionably legal) tech from the corporation, you can create a clone of yourself…sort of.
Alters are you but different, created from the branches your life takes. Each key turning point allows for the creation of an alternate you, one that made different choices, ended up with a different skill set, and that can help you to survive, as long as you don’t kill each other first. By helping yourself, you can survive the planet, make it off the desolate rock you’re trapped on, and bring back Rapidium, saving the planet and the probably the corporation’s bottom line along the way.
As you were probably expecting, the gameplay in The Alters is a mix of other styles of game systems blended together in a new combination to create a game that’s rather unlike anything you might expect. Naturally, you’ll need to mine resources and use them to escape the planet, but what you might not expect is that you will have to physically go out, find the resources on the planet’s surface, and then mine them. This isn’t a standard star system either, so the day and night is a bit odd, making for some rather strict time limits on your ability to gather what you need. Once nightfall hits, the radiation levels skyrocket and you’ll be forced back into your base, which is kind of reminiscent of the Nazi War Wheel from the old Blackhawk comics by DC.
During exploration times, you can look for new pathways, mapping out the planet, looking for surface and deep mining deposits of fossil fuels, organics, minerals, and of course Rapidium. Mining them requires you to hold a button down while Jan gets to work and time speeds up rapidly, so you’ll have to carefully monitor your time outside. Using probes, you can find deep deposits to mine, build the mining equipment, and run a pipeline back to base, allowing you to remotely send back resources, assuming you can afford the manpower. Sadly, all those things will take resources to build as well, so hunting the surface and carefully utilizing your rather limited resources is the only thing that will keep you alive.
There are three main parts to gameplay in The Alters. First, you’ll explore the planet in full 3D with gorgeous visuals and interesting terrain. 11 bit has done their research too because features like the columnar basalt and lava rivers are highly detailed and noticeably accurate to real life. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome too. Imagine climbing huge walls and running across an alien landscape in a restrictive space suit. Not fun, right? You’ll also have to figure out how to deal with bizarre anomalies and terrain issues that will hamper your progress as the inevitable orbit of the solar system plunges you towards your doom. And all that mining? You can only carry so much stuff until you build the pipelines length by length across each section of the planet you stop on, some of which you can conveniently fast travel to, saving significant time. All the while the days are ticking inexorably down and your stress level is going to be ticking up hour by hour.
While you’ll spend a fair of time exploring you’ll spend just as much at the base managing your resources and spending time with the Alters. Once there are a few Jans around, you can assign them to various duties to keep things running smoothly. You’ll need to make food, additional storage spaces, workshops to produce items you’ll need to progress, and the occasional random invention to move things along or save your skin at the last second. Figuring out how to build, arrange, and rearrange the different compartments of the base as you slowly expand has a strong vibe of Fallout Shelter to it, though there’s a lot more leeway here. If you spent as much time arranging your backpack in Resident Evil as you did killing zombies, you’re going to be right at home with base construction and expansion in The Alters. Just make sure your base doesn’t get too heavy or when it’s time to move on, you’ll be in big trouble!
All this survival is a lot of work and it doesn’t leave a lot of time for socializing, the final key component in The Alters. Keeping your Alters happy and efficient will require you to interact with them. They’ll let you know they want to chat with pink text bubbles next to their icons, then you’ll have to track them down in the habitat and have a chat with them. Of course, if things are tough and you’re on a crunch time, it’s all work and social time will have to wait. Your alters may just want to vent, to share things, or to request additional tasks from you such as building a rec area in the base. Just like the rest of the game however, you simply can’t do everything. Sometimes you can’t fulfill their requests and they’ll be disappointed in you or mad at you. Some requests will make certain Alters happy and disappoint others. Just like real life, there’s no clear path to winning as you scrape by fro survival and every minute you spend socializing is one you don’t spend working to, well, not die. Alters can even become dangerous or suicidal if their interaction needs are not met.
What 11bit has done is essentially create an emergency simulator. Each time you put out a fire, it’s not long until two more start. Oh, you’ve got enough resources? You forgot to make base repair kits and assign a maintenance Alter, so now 5 systems have broken down on the ship and need repaired. Do you do it yourself? Or do you let one of the Alters do it and make the repair kits. How long can you afford to wait? Oh, too late, there’s a radiation spike from the trinary start system and you’re all going to die because you didn’t make enough radiation shields. Now it’s back to 10+ days ago to the auto-saves, knowing what’s coming and allowing you to plan for it.
As interesting as The Alters is (and it’s very interesting conceptually), it’s also incredibly tedious in many ways. Exploring new areas as you move the base to avoid the sun is interesting. Making and interacting with Alters is interesting. Setting up loops of auto-produced goods required for survival and using triage for base repairs is not particularly fun and neither is mining or building supplies. Sure it’s gratifying to make decisions that have unique outcomes in the story and to see where Jan’s life could have led. But you’re only able to create a certain number of alters at a time and managing who you get is tough. Expanding the base is tough too because new modules add weight and you’ll have to build additional resource storage and mine additional fuel as well, sucking up even more of your time as the deadly sun moves inexorably forward.
While you’re slowly suffering as an administrator, you at least get to look at some fantastic scenery. The Alters looks fantastic in every aspect, from the detailed character mapping for the Jans to the expansive alien vistas that you’ll explore for resources and Rapidium. Base design is ultra-detailed as well and each room has many unique and tiny flourishes that you’ll slowly pick up on as you zip around your base. Some corners were definitely cut on the supporting cast, but aside from that, everything is simply beautiful. The GUI design is particularly striking, with pink, black and white patterning, though the text is remarkably small on a 55” TV. Only the main interactions get full cinematic style visuals too, with smaller interactions with the Alters relegated to small voiceovers. Once you get used to the game’s systems, you appreciate how well-designed the interface is as management of resources becomes a stressful struggle against time too.
The audio is key to The Alters and most of that centers around the amazing voice-work that manages to convey the sense of pressure, stress, and dread of the situation Jan and his alters are stuck in. Supporting cast members have excellent voicework too, making up for their lackluster visual appearances on a screen. To accompany that outstanding voice work, we are also treated to a solid soundtrack and excellent sound effects that effectively convey the mining and building in the game and musically align with the increasing pressure to survive. It all weaves together quite nicely and the sound in The Alters is definitely well-designed.
The real question you need to ask yourself with The Alters is “is this a game for me?” It’s definitely not going to be for everyone as every journey of the base results in a tight race for survival based on rapidly dwindling resources, strong attitudes and problems from your Alters, and the rapid degradation of your base at key moments. While the core concept is fantastic, not every player is going to want to be this heavily focused on resource management, especially when the initial portion of the game minimizes how complex and difficult that management will be. Watching the time tick down to your death as you struggle to produce the required elements, skip things you want to investigate, and manage a bunch of conflicting aspects of your own personality is a lot of pressure on players and not something that everyone is suited to. While the production value, interfaces, plot, and design of The Alters is fantastic, it is very much a “your mileage may vary” game.
All in all, The Alters is a unique and interesting concept, though it does require some heavy lifting by your suspension of disbelief. The plot is solid, the moral decisions are compelling, and the game design is stellar. But it also has a lot of busywork that takes away from the impact of those decisions and while giving players significant agency is always interesting, it also can take away from the overall experience of the game by heavily limiting what you can accomplish in each area, leading to a jump in replayability and impact of decisions, but some frustration for players who want to do it all or even solve a few more mysteries in one go. At $35, it’s a very reasonably priced game though and playing it in segments is absolutely a possibility, so for those that stressed out by the decisions they have to make, they can take their time with it as well. The Alters is definitely a well-built and philosophically interesting game that you won’t regret buying, but it certainly won’t be for everyone.
This review is based on a digital copy of The Alters provided by the publisher. It was played on a PS5 using a 55” Sony 1080p TV and on a Playstation Portal where it played equally well. The Alters is also available on Xbox Series X/S, and PC on Steam, GOG, and Epic.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.