Set the Scene/Narrative
Honestly, I didn’t go into The Alters knowing a whole lot about it. I saw the trailer, read the description, and decided I was in. I’m a sucker for a good narrative-driven sci-fi game, and even though I’m not particularly great at survival games, I have a soft spot for base building, resource management, and developing relationships with the characters who accompany me on an adventure. When a game promises to combine those elements with the kind of high-concept science fiction that I love, it’s hard for me not to be interested. The Alters also has that double-A production quality that I appreciate in games from independent studios, offering an ambitious premise and a distinctive presentation without needing the scale of a major blockbuster release. I figured I would give it a shot, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much I would end up loving this game.
Developed by 11 bit studios, the team behind This War of Mine and Frostpunk, The Alters puts players in the role of Jan Dolski, a worker stranded on a hostile alien planet after a disastrous space expedition. With survival becoming increasingly difficult and his options running out, Jan turns to an extraordinary solution: creating alternative versions of himself, known as Alters, using a technology that allows different life choices to produce entirely different versions of the same person. Each Alter has a different set of skills, personality traits, and personal baggage, meaning Jan’s survival depends on more than simply finding enough resources to keep his base running. He must also learn to live and work alongside people who are, in a very real sense, versions of himself.
What makes the premise so appealing is that it gives the game two equally compelling questions to explore. The first is a straightforward survival question: how do you keep yourself alive on a planet that wants to kill you? The second is much more personal: how different would your life be if you had made different choices along the way? Those questions inform nearly everything you do, from deciding which Alter to create next to figuring out how to keep your crew productive without letting their personal problems tear the group apart. I went in expecting a science-fiction survival game with some interesting management systems, but what I found was an experience that made me think about my next move even when I wasn’t sitting in front of the television.
By the time I finished the game, I had spent roughly 20 hours managing my base, searching for resources, and getting to know the various versions of Jan. I had also spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about what I needed to accomplish the next time I played. There were other games I wanted to get to, including Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which had been receiving an enormous amount of praise, but The Alters kept pulling me back. I wasn’t just enjoying the game; I was obsessed with it. And while I can point to plenty of games that I believe are better in terms of their overall mechanics or production quality, few have connected with me quite like this one did.
One Jan, Many Possible Lives
The central concept behind The Alters is what immediately separates it from other survival games. Jan can’t simply recruit a collection of interchangeable workers to help him operate his base. Instead, he creates alternate versions of himself, each shaped by a different decision or turning point in his life. One version might have pursued a scientific career, another might have become a miner, and another might have followed a completely different personal path. They share Jan’s origins, but their experiences have shaped them into people who can feel surprisingly different from one another.
What fascinated me most was the freedom to choose which Alters I wanted to create, particularly after the game introduced the initial mandatory characters. The available options gave me an opportunity to think about what my base needed from a practical standpoint, but they also encouraged me to consider the kind of person I was bringing into the crew. Did I need a doctor to help with the team’s health? Would a miner or refiner be more useful for the resources I needed? Perhaps a botanist would improve my ability to sustain the crew over the long term. Every choice had a strategic component, but the backstory attached to each potential Alter made it feel like I was choosing a person rather than selecting another upgrade from a menu.
I found myself wondering what kind of personality each version of Jan would bring to the group and how his different life experiences might affect his relationships with the others. Some of these characters seemed as though they would be easier to get along with, while others appeared to carry baggage that could complicate the already difficult task of keeping everyone alive. I was fascinated by the possibility that a version of Jan who had made better decisions in life might be easier to manage, only to realize that a more successful alternate life doesn’t necessarily produce a person without problems. That’s a clever way of reinforcing the game’s central premise: there isn’t one perfect version of yourself waiting to be discovered, and every life comes with its own compromises.
The Alters aren’t just variations on Jan’s appearance or a convenient excuse to introduce different abilities. They have personalities, emotional needs, insecurities, and perspectives shaped by the lives they lived. They can disagree with Jan and with one another, and their individual experiences influence how they respond to the situation they’ve been placed in. The game asks you to recognize them as people even though their existence is built around the idea that they could have been you. That tension gives the premise its emotional weight, because the more time you spend with these characters, the harder it becomes to think of them as expendable copies created to do a job.
I became particularly interested in understanding why each Alter had turned out the way he did. One version of Jan might have developed an abrasive personality or become consumed by a particular pursuit, while another might be dealing with a deeply personal struggle that affects how he sees himself and the people around him. These aren’t simply character quirks designed to make the dialogue more colorful. They are consequences of the different lives each Alter has lived, and the game uses them to explore how our decisions shape the people we eventually become. It’s a fascinating concept for a science-fiction game, and 11 bit studios does an excellent job of turning that philosophical question into something you can engage with through the act of playing.
Gameplay: Base Building, Surviving, and Resource Management
I went into The Alters expecting to enjoy its base-building mechanics, but I didn’t anticipate how much time I would spend thinking about them. The game revolves around a daily cycle in which you explore the planet, gather resources, maintain your mobile base, assign work to your Alters, and prepare for whatever dangers the next day might bring. You have limited time and energy, and every decision competes with something else you could be doing. Should you spend the day searching for a particular resource? Is it more important to expand your base, research a new technology, or build a facility that will improve the lives of your crew? Which Alter should handle a particular assignment, and will they be able to complete it before the day ends?
These questions sound relatively simple when described individually, but they become surprisingly compelling when everything starts competing for your attention. The base needs resources to function, the crew needs appropriate facilities to remain comfortable, and the expedition’s survival depends on making progress before the planet’s environmental dangers become overwhelming. Assigning an Alter to one task means they aren’t available for another, and using your own time to solve a problem can leave you with less opportunity to explore. The satisfaction comes from finding a rhythm that allows everything to function more efficiently, even if that rhythm is only temporary before the next problem appears.
I also discovered that I have a particular weakness for management games that let me optimize a process after I’ve learned how it works. There were plenty of times when I finished a day and decided to reload an earlier save because I knew I could do things better. Perhaps I had spent too long searching for a resource deposit, placed a mining outpost in a less efficient location, or assigned an Alter to a job that another character could have handled more effectively. Once I understood the problem, I wanted another opportunity to get it right. I would go back, repeat the day, and try to squeeze a little more productivity out of the same amount of time.
That habit might sound tedious to some players, but for me it became part of the appeal. I wasn’t reloading because the game had made me miserable or because I couldn’t accept a mistake. I was doing it because I had figured out a better approach and wanted to see how much more efficiently I could execute it. The game had turned the process of improving my own decision-making into something rewarding, and that kept me engaged even during the routine parts of the survival loop.
This is also why The Alters arrived at such a perfect time for me. I’ve been wanting a management game that could scratch the same itch as the city-building and strategy experiences I enjoy, and I’ve been waiting for other games in that space to reach a state that better suits my expectations. The Alters gave me something different but satisfying: a game where I could plan, organize, build, and constantly refine my approach while still progressing through a narrative-driven adventure. It wasn’t just another game I happened to be playing. It became the game I wanted to play whenever I had the opportunity.
The Daily Race Against the Planet
Of course, the management side of The Alters wouldn’t be nearly as compelling without the pressure created by its hostile environment. Jan is stranded on a planet where exposure to dangerous radiation can turn an otherwise productive day into a desperate race back to safety. Exploration requires careful planning because time spent gathering resources is time that could be needed to return to the base. You can’t simply wander around indefinitely, collecting everything that catches your eye, because the consequences of staying out too long can be catastrophic.
One moment that captures the tension particularly well came when I realized I had very little time left to make it back to the base before radiation levels became deadly. I could see the safety of the base ahead, but I still had a significant distance to cover, and the environment between me and shelter was filled with floating, translucent blobs of dangerous radiation. I ran as hard as I could, trying to avoid the hazards while watching the remaining time disappear. With roughly 15 seconds left, I still wasn’t comfortably within reach of safety, and I knew that failing to make it back would mean facing the consequences of the planet’s most dangerous period of the day.
That kind of moment makes the survival mechanics feel personal. It’s one thing to read a warning about environmental radiation or see a timer telling you when you should return. It’s another to realize that your base is right there, your crew is waiting, and a single mistake could undo the work you’ve put into the day. The tension comes from knowing that you have brought this situation upon yourself through a series of decisions, whether you stayed out too long, took a detour for one more resource, or underestimated how much time you would need to get home.
The game repeatedly puts you in situations where efficiency and caution compete with curiosity. You might spot a resource deposit that would be incredibly useful for your next upgrade, but reaching it could leave you with less time to return safely. You might decide to push farther into an unexplored area because you want to know what is waiting beyond the next obstacle, only to realize that you have spent too much of the day away from your base. Those decisions give the exploration a purpose beyond collecting materials, because the planet is not a passive backdrop that exists solely for you to harvest.
I wouldn’t necessarily call The Alters a traditional hardcore survival game, and I appreciate that it doesn’t demand the same kind of mechanical expertise as some other games in the genre. However, it still creates pressure through its interconnected systems, requiring players to consider time, resources, energy, and risk together. The result is a game that can feel tense without making every minute miserable, and those moments when you barely make it back to safety become some of the most memorable parts of the experience.
A Game I Couldn't Stop Thinking About
I like to juggle a few games at once, moving between different genres depending on what I’m in the mood to play. Usually, I have one game that I gravitate toward when I have free time, even if I still make progress on other titles. The Alters became that game for me in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. When I wasn’t playing it, I was thinking about playing it, and when I was doing something else, I would catch myself wondering how I could approach the next day more efficiently.
That kind of engagement is difficult to manufacture. A game can be technically impressive, have a great story, or offer dozens of hours of content without necessarily making you want to return to it whenever you have the chance. The Alters managed to create that desire through the combination of its management systems and its narrative. I wanted to see what would happen next, but I also wanted to make sure the base was running properly, the crew had what they needed, and I had a plan for the resources I would need to collect. The gameplay gave me a constant stream of small problems to solve, while the story provided a reason to care about the people who depended on my decisions.
Even the act of reloading a previous day became part of that relationship. I would finish a session knowing that I could have done something more efficiently, and instead of accepting the result and moving on, I wanted to go back and improve it. I might have found a better mining location or realized that another assignment would have made better use of an Alter’s skills. Those are relatively small adjustments, but they gave me the feeling that I was gradually learning how to operate more effectively in a world that initially seemed overwhelming.
What surprised me most was how much the game took priority over everything else I had available to play. I was putting off other games I was genuinely excited to experience because I wanted to spend more time with Jan and his crew. That doesn’t mean I suddenly believe The Alters is mechanically superior to every game I postponed, but it does mean the experience connected with me on a level that goes beyond a conventional checklist of strengths and weaknesses. I was invested in the process of playing it, curious about its story, and emotionally attached to the characters in a way that kept bringing me back.
I finished the game several days before writing these final thoughts, and I still find myself thinking about it. That lingering feeling is a major part of why I hold The Alters in such high regard. There are games I finish and immediately move on from, even when I think they are excellent. Then there are games that leave something behind, whether it’s a character, a question, a moment, or a particular feeling that returns to you when you’re doing something completely unrelated. The Alters belongs firmly in the latter category for me.
Pros
As much as I love the base management, The Alters would not have connected with me so strongly without its story. I’m a science-fiction nerd who loves exploring new universes, whether they involve the political conflicts of Dune, the sprawling adventures of Star Wars, the futuristic world of Cyberpunk, or the character-driven storytelling of Mass Effect. I enjoy games that introduce an unfamiliar setting and give me a reason to understand how that world works, and The Alters does exactly that while keeping its focus on a relatively confined group of characters.
The premise gives the game plenty of mysteries to explore. Jan has survived a disastrous expedition, but the circumstances surrounding the crash, the fate of the original crew, and the nature of the planet raise questions that gradually become part of the larger narrative. The anomalies encountered during exploration reinforce the sense that the environment is more complicated than it first appears. You’re trying to survive, but you’re also trying to understand what happened and why the situation has become so desperate. That combination of immediate danger and unanswered questions kept me invested in discovering what would happen next.
What I appreciate most is that the game doesn’t use its science-fiction elements as an excuse to avoid meaningful character writing. The central mystery gives the adventure direction, but the relationships between Jan and the Alters provide its emotional foundation. The characters have conversations about their circumstances, their pasts, and their feelings about the lives they have been forced to inhabit. Those interactions gradually establish the crew as a group of people dealing with a situation that none of them fully chose, even if their existence is the result of choices made in alternate versions of Jan’s life.
The writing also explores ideas that extend beyond the immediate survival scenario. Questions about nature versus nurture, personal responsibility, and the influence of our decisions run through the relationships between the Alters. If one decision had gone differently, would you be a better person? Would you have avoided your worst mistakes, or would you simply have developed a different set of problems? And if an alternate version of yourself exists with different memories and experiences, what do you owe that person when their life is now tied to your own?
These questions give the story a philosophical dimension that I found genuinely thought-provoking. The game doesn’t need to turn every conversation into a lecture, because its central premise already gives the characters a reason to embody different answers to those questions. Their personalities and struggles demonstrate how different life experiences can produce people who share an origin but have very different ideas about what matters. I love when a game gives me something to think about beyond its immediate plot, and The Alters does that without losing sight of the fact that Jan still has a very practical problem to solve: he needs to get off this planet alive.
Companion Conversations That Feel Meaningful:
One of the strongest elements of The Alters is how it blends the companion relationships of a traditional Western RPG with its base-management systems. Anyone who has spent time talking to the crew of the Normandy in Mass Effect or getting to know the companions in Dragon Age will recognize the appeal of building relationships through conversations between major story events. The difference here is that your companions are alternate versions of the protagonist, which makes their disagreements and personal struggles feel like different perspectives on the same life rather than the opinions of unrelated strangers.
I found myself wanting to speak with the Alters regularly, partly because I wanted to learn more about their histories and partly because I wanted to understand what was bothering them. Their personal needs are not simply decorative elements attached to their character profiles. Keeping the crew happy requires attention, and their relationships with Jan can be affected by how you treat them and whether you take their concerns seriously. The game asks you to balance the practical demands of survival with the emotional needs of the people helping you survive, creating a connection between its management systems and its narrative that feels natural.
That relationship is one of the reasons the game works so well. Building a facility or changing an assignment isn’t always just a matter of improving efficiency; sometimes it is also a way of accommodating the person who will use it. The Alters have their own interests, preferences, and specializations, so the decisions you make about the base can reflect the kind of environment you want to create for the crew. A purely efficiency-focused approach might help you meet a short-term objective, but ignoring the people who keep the base running can create different problems later.
I also appreciated how much curiosity the characters inspired in me. Even after learning a little about an Alter, I often wanted to know more about the experiences that shaped his personality. Why had this version of Jan developed a particular trait? What had happened in his alternate life to make him approach a problem differently? How did his circumstances affect the way he viewed the other Alters, who were technically versions of himself but had grown into different people? These questions gave me a reason to keep returning to conversations, even when I could have spent that time focusing on the next upgrade or resource deposit.
The game isn’t perfect in how it handles every interaction, and the management systems sometimes make the process of keeping everyone happy feel like another task on an already long checklist. However, the overall approach works because the relationships are tied to the central premise rather than feeling like an unrelated companion system grafted onto a survival game. The Alters are the people who make the mission possible, but they are also the heart of the story. By making their well-being part of the player’s responsibility, the game gives its narrative stakes that extend beyond whether Jan can complete his mission.
Cons
For all my enthusiasm, I don’t think The Alters is a flawless game, and some of its mechanical shortcomings become more noticeable the longer you spend with it. The exploration and resource-gathering loop is addictive, but it can also become repetitive as you move through familiar routines. You’re often returning to the planet’s surface to collect resources, manage mining operations, and make sure you have enough materials to keep your base functioning. That repetition is part of the genre, but there are times when the game leans too heavily on the routine without introducing enough variation to make every excursion feel distinct.
The third-person exploration is functional rather than exceptional. The game gives you a reason to venture outside the base, but the act of moving through the environment isn’t always the most engaging part of the experience. Some of the traversal mechanics can also be finicky, particularly the grappling hook, which requires you to be in a fairly specific position during certain climbing sections. When a game places so much emphasis on planning your route and managing your time, small frustrations like these can become more irritating than they would be in a less demanding adventure.
Combat is another area where I think the game could have done more. When Jan encounters certain environmental hazards, the process of using his tool to direct a beam of light toward a pulsing radioactive orb is functional, but it doesn’t provide the same level of excitement as the management or narrative systems. It serves its purpose within the survival loop, but it isn’t the sort of mechanic I would highlight as a major strength of the game. I didn’t come to The Alters expecting a deep action system, and I don’t think it needed one, but these moments can feel like interruptions between the parts of the experience I find more compelling.
The presentation is also more serviceable than spectacular. Although the game has an appealing visual identity and a strong atmosphere, I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as a premium-looking production that competes with the most technically impressive releases. Its environments and character models do enough to support the story, and the overall presentation serves the experience well, but the game’s strongest qualities are not its graphical fidelity or the complexity of its action mechanics. The writing, management loop, and central concept are what make it special.
Fortunately, these weaknesses never outweighed my desire to continue playing. In fact, the contrast between the game’s relatively ordinary mechanics and its extraordinary ability to hold my attention is part of what makes my response to it so interesting. There are plenty of games with more polished traversal, better combat, or more impressive graphics, but I wasn’t thinking about those games when I finished another day on the planet. I was thinking about which resource I needed next, which Alter I should create, and how I could improve my base before the next major obstacle. The Alters succeeds because its systems work together to create an experience that is more compelling than any individual mechanic might suggest.
Is This a Good Single Player Experience?
Absolutely. The Alters is an outstanding single-player experience for anyone who enjoys narrative-driven science fiction, resource management, survival mechanics, and companion relationships that give the story an emotional core. Its central concept is original, its characters are compelling, and the combination of base building and personal relationships creates a gameplay loop that feels meaningfully connected to the narrative. You’re not simply collecting resources because a survival game needs you to collect resources; you’re trying to keep a group of alternate versions of yourself alive, productive, and emotionally stable while working toward a shared goal.
The game also has a lot to offer players who enjoy thinking about the implications of a story rather than simply following its events. Its exploration of alternate life choices, personal identity, and the consequences of our decisions gives the adventure a philosophical dimension that makes the characters more interesting. At the same time, the management systems provide a practical layer of engagement that can appeal to players who enjoy planning, organizing, and improving their approach over time. That combination makes The Alters feel like a distinctive experience rather than a collection of unrelated mechanics.
I would caution players who want a deep action game or an especially complex survival simulator that those aren’t the areas where The Alters shines brightest. The exploration and combat are functional, but the real appeal comes from the interplay between its management systems, narrative, and relationships. Some of its routines can become repetitive, and its traversal mechanics occasionally create unnecessary frustration, but those shortcomings didn’t prevent me from becoming deeply invested in the experience.
I also hope this isn’t the last time we see this universe. The central concept has so much potential for further exploration, whether through a sequel or another story that examines different aspects of the same science-fiction premise. Even if this ends up being a standalone experience, I think it has earned a special place among the games that demonstrate what a new intellectual property can accomplish when its developers are willing to take creative risks. The Alters is a game I would recommend not just because it’s good, but because it offers something that feels genuinely different.
The Alters is a brilliant example of what can happen when a developer combines a compelling science-fiction premise with gameplay systems that reinforce the story rather than compete with it. Its base-building mechanics are addictive, its survival loop creates genuine tension, and its alternate versions of Jan give the narrative a level of personality and emotional depth that few games manage to achieve. The exploration and combat are not its strongest elements, and some of its mechanics could use more polish, but the overall experience is far more compelling than those shortcomings might suggest.
What makes The Alters stand out is the way it turns resource management into something personal. You’re not just trying to survive a hostile planet; you’re trying to keep a group of people alive who share your origins but have lived entirely different lives. The game uses that premise to explore identity, regret, and the choices that shape who we become, all while giving you a satisfying set of management systems to engage with between story developments. I finished the adventure feeling that I had experienced something genuinely special, and the fact that I was still thinking about it days later says more about its impact on me than any individual feature could.
I would recommend The Alters to anyone who enjoys narrative-driven sci-fi, base building, and character-focused storytelling, particularly players who appreciate games that give them something to think about after the credits roll. It’s not perfect, and I can easily imagine some players finding its management routines or survival mechanics less appealing than I did. But for me, it arrived at exactly the right time and delivered the kind of experience I had been hoping to find. I love this game, and I sincerely hope 11 bit studios gets another opportunity to explore the world and ideas it has created.
Why This Passion Score?
My Passion Score of 83/100 reflects just how much The Alters connected with me on a personal level. I’ve played plenty of games that I believe are better in terms of technical polish, combat, or overall production quality, but few have occupied my thoughts in the same way. This is one of those rare experiences where I found myself thinking about the game when I wasn’t playing it, planning my next session, and looking forward to returning to its world. The combination of base management, survival, and narrative-driven science fiction arrived at exactly the right time for me, and it scratched an itch that I had been struggling to satisfy with other games.
The strongest part of that connection comes from the Alters themselves. I became invested in their personalities, their histories, and the ways their different life experiences shaped the people they had become. I wanted to understand why each version of Jan behaved the way he did, how his circumstances had affected him, and what those differences meant for the group. The game made me think about the decisions that shape our lives and the possibility that a single turning point can send us down an entirely different path. Those are compelling questions on their own, but The Alters makes them meaningful by giving the player a group of characters whose lives embody those possibilities.
The management systems were equally important to my enjoyment. I loved figuring out how to make my base more efficient, deciding which resources to prioritize, and experimenting with different assignments to get more out of each day. Even when I finished a session, I often found myself thinking about how I could approach it differently next time. That kind of engagement is exactly what I want from a management game, and the fact that it was tied to a compelling story made it even better. The survival pressure also gave those decisions a sense of urgency, creating moments when my planning was put to the test and I had to scramble back to safety before the planet’s radiation became deadly.
The score isn’t higher because I recognize that The Alters has some real shortcomings. The exploration can become repetitive, the grappling hook isn’t always as responsive as I’d like, and the combat is not particularly engaging. The visual presentation is also more serviceable than spectacular, so this isn’t a game that impressed me because of its technical achievements. If I were evaluating it solely on mechanical polish, I would have more reservations. However, a Passion Score is about more than identifying the most refined game in a category, and the experience I had with The Alters was much more meaningful than its individual flaws might suggest.
An 83/100 feels right because it reflects a game I genuinely adore without pretending that every part of it is exceptional. The Alters gave me a world I wanted to return to, characters I wanted to understand, and systems that kept me thinking about how to play more effectively. It reminded me why I love science fiction that asks big questions while giving me something engaging to do with my time. Most importantly, it left me with an experience I expect to remember for a long time. That’s what makes it special to me, and it’s why my affection for this game goes well beyond simply thinking it’s a good survival adventure.
