Fieldnotes is a weekly column where I drop into a new (or old) game and report back with raw notes, sharp takes, unfiltered, and sometimes unhinged thoughts. This week, I begin my journey in 11 Bit Studios’ The Alters.
The Alters wasn’t really on my radar till a few weeks before it officially dropped. The second I saw it, though, it shot up so high on my priority list. The game looks so aesthetically pleasing. Survival elements? Base-building? Pretty artwork? And it’s from 11 Bit Studios? Hell yeah you just know this is gonna be peak depression.
Mickey 17, This Ain’t
So full disclosure: I just watched Mickey 17. Loved it. Loved Robert Pattinson acting out different versions of himself and just being a handsome goofball. Coming off the Mickey 17 high, The Alters seemed it’d be right up my alley, and so far, it totally is.
If you’re just looking for a Mickey 17 clone (ha) though, this isn’t it. The Alters is much more interested in diving into the science behind the cloning tech and its implications. While I loved the larger scale of Mickey 17‘s fascinating world, the solitude of The Alters feels much more intimate and I’m into it.
Crash Land
My journey in The Alters begins with protagonist Jan Dolski waking up from a spaceship crash. He was sent here on a mission by Ally Corp, but everyone else on his crew is dead. It’s revealed later that there was some oxygen leak, but only Jan was unaffected. Hmm. Strange.
I spent some time wandering around the surface of the planet we crashed on, climbed up a few ledges — y’know, classic game tutorial stuff — and eventually found our mobile base. And when I say mobile base, I mean mobile base. It’s literally a Fallout Shelter-esque base but encased within a giant tire. That’s how it goes mobile. The tire just, like, wheels around. It’s pretty cool.
Anyway, after getting into the base, I get a call from a mysterious figure who tells me to go explore my surroundings. I eventually come back with some metals and Rapidium, which is apparently the big resource that we were sent out to find in the first place. The mysterious caller then tells me to test out the Rapidium using some DNA that’s located in a room in the base called The Womb.
First off, can I just say that The Womb is a fantastic name? I mean, it’s a little bit on the nose because the premise of the game is about birthing clones of yourself, but I love it. It’s succinct, does what it says on the box, and it’s terrifying. I think it’s because I’ve been scarred by a lot of birth-related horror things. You say the words “the womb” to me and I’m immediately thinking of chest-bursters from Alien or, more recently, a truly disgusting birthing scene from The Pitt that I was not ready for. It doesn’t help that the thought of birthing a child has always been terrifying to me. Maybe I need to unpack this in therapy.
Anyway. The Womb. Incredible name. I get Jan to test out the Rapidium, and hey presto, out comes a sheep! The Rapidium works! It was able to birth a thing out of some DNA data or something.
That’s That Me, Depresso
The Alters doesn’t waste any time in throwing its first big crisis at Jan and me. Something’s breaking in the Quantum Computer room and we need a technician to fix it. The problem? Jan ain’t a technician. He’s just a builder. The solution? We create an alternate version of Jan who has those technical skills and make him fix it.
This is where 11 Bit Studios finally flexes its writing chops and show what the team has always been so good at: provocative artwork and sharp writing.
As we look for a way to clone Jan, we learn that Ally Corp has been keeping something called Mind Records of the entire crew. That is to say, the corporation has all of Jan’s data and DNA, and we’re able to revisit key moments from his entire life. Here, I flip through Jan’s life, and it hits hard. Here are the highlights:
- Jan had a sweet mom and an abusive dad.
- Jan never found it in him to stand up to his dad, so he studied hard and eventually got into a college far away from home, leaving his mom behind.
- Jan told himself he’d visit but never did, and his mom passed away and he never got a chance to say goodbye.
- Jan gets himself a girlfriend named Lena. Girl’s rich and he’s insecure about his background. He wonders if he can give her a good life.
- Jan graduates and chooses to take a corporate job that gives him more money.
- Jan and Lena get married.
- Jan absolutely hates his soulless 9-5 corpo job, but he tells himself it’s for Lena.
- Eventually, an economic crisis hits and Jan gets laid off.
- Lena gets an overseas work opportunity, but decides to stay with Jan.
- Resentment builds — naturally — and they eventually get a divorce.
- Jan’s a mess, he’s all alone, but he stumbles upon this builder job for a space expedition from Ally Corp. He takes it out of desperation. Maybe he can finally turn his life around.
It’s a miserable life, and even the little moments of brightness get snuffed out so quickly by things that are out of his control. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking or earth-shattering about Jan’s story, but again, it’s all about the delivery. The music, the art, the short but punchy excerpts. I felt for Jan in those moments. I really did, and that might’ve been the point where I realized that, yeah, I’m invested and I wanna see this through.
The First Branch
After going through Jan’s entire life, we find a key moment where we can branch into an alternate version of him. This version of Jan is one that never went to college. Instead, he stayed behind, spoke out against his dad, and protected his mom. This version of Jan — hilariously referred to as Jan Technician by the game —never got a formal education, but at least he got to say goodbye to his mom. He then falls into bad company after getting an engineering job at a workshop, and that path eventually leads him to Ally Corp too.
Both Jans manage to resolve the technical crisis, but what’s left? One man and a cloned, alternate version of him who was forced into this world and to lead some sort of weird half-life that technically never existed. There’s a lot to unpack in Jan Technician’s feelings. Anger, of course. But there’s also resentment, loneliness, anxiety, insecurity, loss. His life never happened. Is he just doomed to forever lead some sort of subservient life in a timeline where none of his history matters?
I really hope The Alters is able to answer some of these questions satisfactorily.
NPC Watch
I’m going to try to pick an NPC of The Week for every installment of Fieldnotes. No promises, but I’ll try.
This week’s NPC is none other than… the sheep! I was worried that I’d just be stuck with a bunch of Jans for the entirety of The Alters. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but having a pet in the base is certainly a nice touch. For now, the sheep just hangs out in The Womb. I wish it would get out of The Womb so I didn’t always have to go into a room called The Womb just to visit it.
At least you can pet it.
