From the very moment I started playing Frostpunk, it was made clear to me that 11 Bit Studios had a penchant for creating immersive worlds with characters that you could get invested in. The problem with something like Frostpunk, however, was that it was too big, too macro. You’re managing an entire city and putting people to work. At some point, your dictator brain takes over and you stop caring about your faceless citizens. What if 11 Bit Studios took that same concept and executed it on a much smaller scale? You get The Alters, a much more intimate, personal story about isolation and difficult decisions.
The Alters puts you in the shoes of Jan Dolski, a builder who’s been assigned to a space colony expedition under the command of a company called Ally Corp. Things don’t go to plan, as the ship crashes, killing Jan’s entire crew. He’s the only survivor, and it’s up to him to find his own way home.
The good news is that the crew’s mobile base is still intact. Jan’s job, then, is to gather resources, build up the base, and move to a safe location before the sun rises and burns him to death. However, he can’t do it alone. It’s a big base after all. Within the opening hour of The Alters, you’re introduced to a special resource called Rapidium, which allows Jan to create Alters of himself: alternate versions of Jan who made different choices during key moments in his life. Things get complicated quickly as you might expect, as Jan is forced to grapple with the ethics of what he’s done while also trying to survive.
What Ifs?
The Alters doesn’t pull any punches. Right before Jan starts cloning himself, you’ll get a chance to read through his entire life story through a quantum computer. As you might expect from an 11 Bit joint, Jan’s life is downright depressing. It has everything: abusive dad, dead mom, avoidant tendencies, romance gone wrong, you name it.
By the time Jan joins this expedition, he’s already at his lowest point, which should give you some idea of the headspace he’s in. So when he’s forced to clone himself, it’s a moment of catharsis. Now, Jan is able to see what would’ve become of him had he chose to do things differently. In some cases, the changes are minimal — even if he hadn’t abandoned his mom for college, for instance, she still would’ve died. In others, the Alter version of him is almost unrecognizable.
Jan’s life paths and stories are told through little vignettes that you click through. Each slide is accompanied by a short paragraph of text and a single piece of artwork, but that’s all you need to grasp Jan’s sense of ennui and isolation. 11 Bit has always been very good at this. Even in Frostpunk and This War of Mine, the most striking moments from those games came from its provocative artwork that never failed to instill that feeling of dread in the player.
Within the first couple of hours, I was fully invested in Jan’s story. I felt for him, and just like Jan, I was curious to see what the rest of his Alters were like, even if it was morally wrong to birth these beings into existence and force them to live some sort of half-life.
Clone Management
11 Bit Studios has always thrived in the survival/resource management genre, and that continues to be the case here in The Alters. You’ll always have a set number of days before sunrise, and your goal is to move your mobile base away from your current area and closer to the designated location where Ally Corp is supposed to pick you up.
To do this, you’ll need to explore the planetary surface to gather resources, but also manage your Alters so that they’re able to work efficiently and help you manage the base. As the story progresses, new obstacles come up, including magnetic storms and radiation zones that make the game that much harder.
This is where The Alters shines. You’ll start off with just up to three other Alters to manage, and they all have their own areas of expertise. One of them is great at mining for instance, while another is a big brain scientist who can do research for you. As you explore the planet and look for resources, you can set up mining outposts and have Jan Miner work it for you. Back on the base, you can build new rooms like a greenhouse for Jan Botanist to help generate raw food, or assign Jan Technician to base maintenance operations.
There’s always a catch, of course. The Alters need to be managed carefully or they might rebel against you. Truly, my game ended prematurely because I wasn’t able to keep them happy, and one night, they all just straight up banded together to murder me in my sleep. Horrifying stuff.
But if you play your cards right, The Alters really manages to capture a wholesome dudebro hangout vibe that’s so rarely seen in video games. As you progress, you’ll get to do things like watch movies together with your Alters, play beer pong with them, or just hang out and have meals together. Over the course of the game, Jan gets to learn more about his Alters’ lives, their philosophies, and their shared memories. This helps to create a constant sense of melancholy throughout the story, just because you’re always entertaining hypotheticals and notions of “what ifs”, wondering if you could still turn your life around to get on another path.
Management-wise, The Alters is easily the least challenging game I’ve played from 11 Bit Studios, at least on the standard difficulty. It makes sense, considering this is a very story-driven game that’s meant to focus on Jan’s struggles in space. This isn’t to say the game won’t punish you for being too lackadaisical, but you have a lot more margin for error here.
Lackluster Planetary Exploration
The one part where The Alters does fall short is in its third-person exploration bits. Every day, you’ll have the chance to leave the base and explore the surface. Your goal here is to look for mining deposits and other resources that can help to sustain your base. There will also be obstacles, such as rock formations blocking your way, which you must then drill through.
That’s all well and good, except the actual gameplay mechanics can feel rather obtuse at times. The vertara drill, for instance, is meant to help you drill through rock formations, but trying to use it to interact with said formations won’t do anything. Instead, you’ll need to place it on a set location on the ground, then use it to shoot lasers to break the rocks, which isn’t really explained at all.
These are small nitpicks that you’ll grow accustomed to over time, but they add up and mar an otherwise very enjoyable game.
Having said that, The Alters is hands down 11 Bit Studios’ strongest outing yet. The developers have proven that they’re not just a one-trick pony that specializes in resource management and city-builders. They’re capable of crafting truly moving stories that will keep you hooked from start to finish.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on PC.
