Ever since I walked away from my stationat The Alters preview event, I couldn’t stop thinking about those ‘what if’ moments the game had presented me, despite only playing snippets of the game’s story, and in some cases, adopting Alters from pre-made saves that were not my own choices.I still held this unwavering duty of care to help every Dolski I could.
However, upon heading back into The Alters, I wanted to immerse myself in the experience with no stopgaps or off-ramps. I wanted to make tough decisions and live with the consequences. I wanted to work efficiently to stay on top of every spanner the game threw into the works. But, most of all, I wanted to get all my doppelgängers off that planet.
It’s this passionate duty of care response that perhaps shows just how excellent of a job The Alters does at offering a narrative-led survival experience. But, having played this one from crash landing to credits, it’s worth discussing whether the holistic experience holds up.
From the moment you wash up on the shore with water lapping at your heels, which makes you consider whether BP operates in the area, you get a sense of what kind of world the game has dropped you into.
It’s alien, oppressive, bleak, barren, and, most importantly, in terms of your survival, hostile, which is a big green tick from me, because, after all, the last thing you want from a grueling survival game is sunshine and rainbows. You know, unless those rainbows are toxic, or toss throwing knives at you.
This is largely achieved by the incredible soundtrack composed by the legendary Piotr Musial. Their work to create a blend of sci-fi swells, ominous tones, and an overall sense of dread is palpable. But this is one of two pillars that help raise that feeling of hopelessness and isolation, as world design plays its part perfectly.
From the desolate landscapes, to the surreal anomalies and environmental effects that occur in each area, the game is always keen to remind you that you’re an unwanted guest on this planet, and it doesn’t take too kindly to strangers.
Sophisticated Yet Silly Sci-Fi
The Alters is a game that manages to do something rather impressive that not many other games in the survival field can do. Like most contemporaries, it manages to offer a gritty side to the action, offering a wealth of sci-fi geek speak, modules and research that can help you survive in these harsh conditions, and, of course, you have a big, bad corporation that is always looking at the bottom line rather than the beating hearts manning the machines.
It tells a traditional sci-fi story while also bringing a unique perspective into play, and throwing enough curveballs to make each decision one that warrants pondering for longer than a split second. However, what sets this game apart is its ability to provide levity and what we would call ‘the human touch.’
A lot of survival games are quite binary in that most decisions boil down to head or heart. Or will spark a conversation about ‘the greater good’ which will make you feel like you’re a cop on the beat in Sandford. But, The Alters bravely makes decisions less black and white, makes you care about the characters, and then routinely asks you to make tough decisions that will cause immediate friction.
Not to mention, the game is bold enough to acknowledge that you haven’t stepped into the shoes of Captain Kirk. You are just an unfortunate individual who was named captain by default, and in that position, many of us would falter, procrastinate, or attempt to find ways to lighten the situation. As the saying goes, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
This is why these moments between acts, where all the Alters come together, are so special. Why those nights spent playing Beer Pong and watching stupid movies are so fun, and why the hard-hitting moments knock the wind out of you more than they would otherwise.
Taking Self-Care To A Whole New Level
Before we even discuss the gameplay, it’s only right that the narrative takes its moment in the spotlight, because honestly, while this is a good survival game at its core, it would be nothing without the story that underpins everything you do in and out of your base.
The premise is simple. You are Jan Dolski, the last of your crew left alive on a mission to recover Rapidium for Ally Corp. By default, you’re the captain of this mission, and it becomes very clear, very quickly, that alone, you’re as good as dead.
The ability to take one character and riff on their timeline to such an extent that you can create entirely new and distinct versions of the same man is superb.
So, you’ll need to head out into the world, mine some Rapidium, and use it to create Alters. Duplicates of you with one life-defining change that splits your life path from theirs.
In a lot of ways, they are you. They share a lot of the same memories, and they look, walk, and talk like you. But it’s when this chaos theory is brought into play that you realise just how unique each of them is. Each with their own moral standards, interests, skill sets, and more.
There are other NPCs that you’ll interact with via a communications module, and they play their role, but the true brilliance of The Alters' writing lies in the heart of every Dolski.
The ability to take one character and riff on their timeline to such an extent that you can create entirely new and distinct versions of the same man is superb. But what’s more impressive is that you grow to care for your brotherhood of Jans. Even if they are hard work, and even if some of them are Poindexter know-it-alls. You can’t help but want to save them all.
That’s why you’ll take the time to go and find cargo items that help improve their mood. That’s why you’ll build a greenhouse to cook real food instead of mush rations, and that’s why you’ll agonize over every dialogue choice as you try to keep your group as cohesive as possible.
Know Your Role & Shut Your Mouth
While I have mainly only positive things to say about the narrative that is woven throughout your time playing The Alters, I do have one issue with the storytelling setup, and that’s the fact that the survival and narrative-driven aspects of the game are routinely at odds with each other.
It’s very challenging for these two approaches to coexist, as survival is a rather binary concept. You either have enough rations to avoid starving, or you don’t. You either get the base moving and avoid being turned to ash by the sun, or you don’t.
So, when given so many branching paths in the narrative, it means that one school of thought is always going to win, and that’s the one tied to self-preservation.
You see, every interaction with an Alter has the capacity toaltertheir mood, and I found that despite the fact that there were a number of options I wanted to choose for role-playing purposes, I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it out of fear that my Jan would be downcast or revolt upon hearing my response.
Basically, the problem is that you’re always trying to make the diplomatic choice rather than the one that leads to the most interesting plot point or outcome, and this will stop many from role-playing and getting unique outcomes.
Death Blanding
I mentioned in my preview that I felt that the gameplay was genuinely excellent when the player was inside the base. This is when you get hit with the most narrative. This is where you can manage your base modules, akin to how you would move around buildings when playing Spiritfarer, and it’s where you can make strategic decisions with your resources and time per day to keep on top of things. It’s essentially the formula that made This War of Mine so appealing, albeit with some modern tweaks.
However, despite my love for the base management side of the equation, even after playing the game in full with no interruptions, I still couldn’t find much to like about the exploration, resource gathering, and traversal.
The exploration and resource gathering really just feels like a dull and mindless means to an end.
The positives I can credit this aspect of the game with is that the tight map designs for each act are very well crafted. Additionally, I appreciated the Metroidvania-esque approach, which requires exploring, deciphering the necessary tools to navigate a climb or an anomaly, for example, and then gathering resources to craft this apparatus. This forces players to actively balance the two sides of gameplay, which, on paper, is what you want.
But, to make this a marriage made in heaven, both sides of the coin need to shimmer, and one of them is sadly pretty dull and scuffed.
You see, the exploration and resource gathering really just feels like a dull and mindless means to an end. You get very few narrative plot points from the world outside your base, aside from roadblocks you need to overcome.
Plus, the gameplay itself is merely a blend of mindless pylon-based chores, boots on the ground traversal, and often holding a button to gain resources until the Geiger counter starts ticking, and you need to head indoors.
I firmly believe that the game took a lot of notes from Death Stranding when it comes to these aspects of the game, even if the developers claim otherwise. But, unlike that game, the tasks don’t feel rewarding or meditative. They feel like chores that impede you from getting back to your base and getting to the good stuff.
This even translates to the research, which is the pseudo-skill tree within The Alters. All these unlockables are helpful, but when you take a step back and look at them for what they are, they are all just assets that make the gameplay less of a slog.
It’s part of the reason why games like Metroidvanias are hard for curious fans to get into. As these games start you with very little and effectively backfill all the cool powers and perks so only those that play to the end game see the best their character can offer.
But, in this case with The Alters, you don’t even get this thrill, as all you’re getting come the end game is a reprieve from the headaches of earlier chapters rather than skills that actually elevate the experience.
I Wouldn’t Change A Thing
This leads me into a dilemma that The Alters creates for itself. Narratively, the game offers a wealth of missable details and optional paths that simply can’t be seen in one Playthrough alone. In fact, there will be some Jans that you simply won’t meet at all unless you go around for another lap.
However, despite the fact that there is a lot of rewarding lines of dialogue hidden away behind Rapidium branches and butterfly effect decisions, I simply can’t recommend it as a game that warrants playing over and over again.
To the game’s credit, it has a lot of neat features that facilitate replaying, such as little markers to show you the conversational paths you have taken in previous playthroughs. Not to mention a wealth of daily save states, allowing you to hop back in at any point that is convenient to you.
But, purely down to the rather straightforward, mindless exploration and resource gathering, it feels like far too much of a slog to do over again, mainly because there is no variety to the action at all unless you dial up the difficulty and create some awkward hoops for yourself to jump through.
As a one-and-done experience where you simply live with the choices you make, The Alters is a well-worthwhile experience. But, if you think it’s going to offer the same replay value as, say, its sister game Frostpunk, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
Somebody Get The Technician!
Before we wrap up, just a little footnote, as I’m always wary of the egg that routinely splats on my face when a day one patch comes along, but, it bears mentioning that the tech issues I expected to be quashed post-preview are still very much there.
The game will still lag tremendously if you don’t cancel your scanner pylons after locating a mining spot. You’ll often see your Alters hovering around the base and clipping through all sorts of stuff. Or, you might encounter the occasional dialogue line with no accompanying audio. Additionally, we experienced occasional crashes here and there.
But, it’s more of a PSA than a criticism here, as The Alters is a very ambitious project that gets a lot right. All the technical issues are minor, perhaps detracting from immersion for a spell, but they never detract from the experience in a meaningful way.
I do still have some more aggressive, personal gripes about the trajectory of beer pong shots in the game, but that could just be because I’m a sore loser.
Closing Comments:
The Alters is a unique and atmospheric survival game that riffs on the existing 11 Bit Studios blueprint in a meaningful way. Offering a superb sci-fi story that is equal parts somber, surreal, and silly. The economy, base building, and Alter Management are the highlights, which are somewhat dragged down by the rather mindless exploration that feels like a means to an end. But overall, The Alters is a brave and bold step forward within the survival genre, and one that will make you question your life decisions more than any other.
The Alters Interview: Mastering Survival Storytelling One Jan At A Time
In a sea of infinite base builders with minimal narrative, The Alters dares to be different.
