The Alters PC review: I'm rethinking my own life paths after falling in love with a sci-fi game

Before I begin gushing over the latest sci-fi strategy adventure from 11 bit Studios, allow me to make a confession. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool fan of 11 bit studios. From the in-house developed titles like Frostpunk and This War of Mine, to the publishing sector’s work on games like Moonlighter. I have a hard time disliking this studio’s work.

The Alters | Launch Trailer - YouTube

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That said, the team at 11 bit studios has also set the bar high, and I was ready to go into The Alters and scrub it over for any little cracks in the facade. Because — as it turns out— I don’t actually enjoy Sci-Fi stories very much. What a conundrum to be in, then, when one of the most anticipated titles from one of my favorite studios was going to be a sci-fi strategy game.

Now I have to sit here and write a review of this game that has taken whatever sense of self I was scrambling to hold on to and cast it into a fiery sun right alongside my efforts to survive past Act 1. And I’m going to gush about it, because somehow the team at 11 bit studios has made me fall in love with the character (and his alters) who are trapped in this sci-fi hellscape. Even as I shout into the void that I swear I don’t like sci-fi games.

The Alters review — Story and characters

The Alters is the story of one Jan Dolski, a builder for a crew who has been flung into the farthest reaches of space to a remote planet on the brink of being consumed by its sun. Like any good sci-fi escapade, Dolski finds himself crash-landed on his destination planet all alone, with the rest of his crew having perished under unusual circumstances.

Thankfully, Dolski’s suit is intact, and with your guidance, he’s able to make it to the giant space station that his crew was supposed to take command of. Look at me. We’re the captains, now.

The space station is an anomaly in and of itself. This thing is a massive, towering wheel with an LED rim and plenty of room for you to grow, which is good because you’re going to need to add a lot of modules on if you’re going to survive. Dolski attempts to communicate with Earth, offering up the opportunity to make some choices in how Dolski communicates with the soulless corporation that sent him here.

Once you find a special material on the planet known as rapidium and report that back to Earth, you’re sent some organic material to grow in the “Womb” module of the space station. After a little bit of time, a grown sheep jumps out. This is now your space station pet, and Dolski names her Molly — a variation of the name Dolly, a sheep who was the first mammal to be cloned. Yes, you can pet Molly.

Once you report successfully cloning Molly, things get squirrelly. The Ally Corporation you’re connected to explains to you that you now have the ability to use rapidium to clone versions of yourself via the quantum computer. There are some quirks to these clones, however. They’re not exactly like you; they’ve made different decisions in their lives, which have led to unique outcomes. Rather than becoming a builder for Ally Corporation, there are branching life paths where Dolski could have become a scientist, a botanist, a miner, etc.

Each clone, or “Alter”, has its own motivations, its own needs, and its own skill set. The Botanist, for example, chose to stay together with Jan’s wife, Lena, in hard times and is therefore motivated by his love and dedication to his wife. The same wife who doesn’t actually exist on this timeline, so that’s going to cause some problems.

Meanwhile, the Miner has a whole host of unresolved trauma and mental health issues to contend with. You just may wake up one morning trying to figure out how to build a prosthetic arm, even as the sun and imminent death are bearing down on you. And you’re probably going to get a game over screen informing you that you, your alters, and your space station have all melted by the unbearable heat of a foreign sun.

Ask me how I know.

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Even as daunting as a failed play through is, there are little successes to celebrate with each new attempt at surviving in this harsh world. Playing a game of beer pong with one of the alters and having a heart-to-heart, for example, can make you genuinely want to take pause and re-evaluate the way your choices are weighing in on the crew of Jans. They feel more like actual characters to invest in, rather than just pixelated meat suits. They feel alive.

11 bit studios has excelled at crafting these characters, their motivations, emotions, and desires so well that I felt an actual desire to see them each doing well. Even to my own detriment. I would stay up well past my in-game “bedtime” to ensure they had real meals. I would go out in radiation storms to collect more minerals so they could stay safely at the base. Regardless of whether it would actually yield a positive outcome. Funny how taking care of a bunch of clones of yourself in a video game can make you reflect on your own reality.

The Alters review — Gameplay

The Alters gameplay is a genre mash-up of 3D, third-person exploration combined with base building and strategy. It can be a bit difficult to break down, but it actually flows quite well in-game.

Each morning, Jan wakes up in his captain’s quarters and can explore the circular space station he inhabits with his alters. The space station’s round frame encompasses a grid, and various room “modules” can be arranged, rearranged, and stacked as the player sees fit as long as they work within a few guidelines. There must be elevators for navigating vertically, and rooms need to have either a corridor or a doorway connecting them to one another.

There are a set number of buildable slots per row, and modules each take up a specific number of slots depending on what room type they are. A corridor or an elevator shaft will take up two horizontal slots. Meanwhile, the Captain’s quarters take up five. Small storage, however, takes up four horizontal slots along with two vertical, for a total of eight slots on two rows. We’re basically playing Tetris to build this space station, which adds another interesting layer of challenge to a game that’s already content to be difficult.

The player and the alter Jans can all move around the space station freely, which is viewable with what amounts to a side-scrolling camera effect. Modules include a kitchen, greenhouse, dormitory, social lounge, gym, and more. New modules can be researched, provided you have a Jan capable of doing it for you.

While the Alters take care of tasks at the base, the player can freely leave the space station during the day to explore the planet. This provides a chance to find resource deposits, uncover the mysteries that led to you being stranded here alone in the first place, and even find collectibles like movies that you can take back to the base and watch the crew.

That said, don’t be at night. The radiation poisoning risk is significantly increased at night, which can cause Jan Dolski to faint. Dolski and whatever poor Alter takes the risk to come rescue him will both get a lovely dose of radiation poisoning for the trouble. Other risks are lurking on the planet, as well, which keep things interesting while you’re out exploring for resources.

Of course, the most unique component of gameplay for The Alters is the actual cloning process. Each alter is representative of a different choice that Jan has made in his life, and it is up to the player to clone the Jans that can be most helpful in the current play through. It’s impossible to unlock them all in one attempt, so strategy is important here. Having a botanist who can help boost your food production sounds excellent until it comes at the cost of having a doctor on board who can keep your mentally unwell Miner in check.

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The Alters review — Visuals and audio

For this review, I had access to The Alters on Steam and played the game via a custom-built PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and an AMD Radeon RX 9070. Which is great, because 11 bit studios partnered with AMD to include technology like FSR 3. 11 bit studios team members hyped up the partnership prior to the launch of The Alters by describing how AMD’s technology allowed the developers to push the game’s tech further.

While obviously still playable on NVIDIA-based rigs, The Alters is optimized for AMD systems, and in the case of my personal experience on an AMD rig, the technology shines. Gameplay was impressively smooth, with stable frame rates holding at 60 FPS even when I cranked the settings to Ultra at 1440p.

The space station and the planet the Jans are stranded on are stunningly detailed, which makes exploring both inside and outside the base a joy. The only complaint here is that you must preload shaders each time you launch the game. Depending on how sluggish your system is, that could take some time.

The game’s audio is also exceptional, and the soundtrack is particularly enjoyable. Moving between different modules in the space station is a treat, because you can hear thump of a stereo in the lounge or the beeps of the infirmary. It makes the space station feel a little more lived in and real. While there’s not as much happening on the planet itself, there is still ample ambient noise that keeps the silence of space from driving you completely insane.

The Alters review — Accessibility and approachability

Accessibility and approachability are really where The Alters struggles the most, surprisingly. The game does offer varied difficulty settings, breaking down gameplay elements to Economy and Action. Action Elements gives players three difficulty options: Easy, Moderate, and Hard. However, the Economy setting only allows players to choose between Moderate and Hard. If you find yourself struggling with resource management on Moderate, you’re just out of luck. It doesn’t get any easier.

The in-game Accessibility menu does offer some decent options, including font size options ranging from small to extra large for closed captions. There are also options to scale the UI for those with vision impairments.

For those with motion sickness, there are options to disable the fast-forward effect that takes over when Jan is working. Prism effects can be reduced, as can intoxication effects. Motion blur can also be disabled.

There are no options for on-screen narration. However, key bindings for keyboard and mouse inputs can be customized, and there are settings for various camera and input sensitivities.

If you’re concerned about copyright music while streaming The Alters, there is an option to turn off troublesome parts of the soundtrack. The game also offers Twitch integration on Steam.

The Alters review — Final thoughts

You should buy this if:

• You enjoy sci-fi adventure or strategy games.

I know I said I don’t particularly like sci-fi stories, but The Alters has me questioning some of my life choices right now. Including my ability to find enjoyment in this kind of story, because I actually did fall in love with what 11 bit studios has done here.

The characters are so well crafted, and I often found myself surprised at just what ends I was willing to go to keep my crew of Jans safe and properly looked after, even if it meant the sun melting us into oblivion in the end.

However, if you already know that you’re up to the challenge of taking on a mind-bending sci-fi adventure with strategy gameplay elements? Boy, are you in for a treat.

You should not buy this if:

• You struggle with intense narratives that focus on mental health, grief, self-harm, or suicide.

Despite my best intentions to keep things as positive as possible on my space station, The Alters is heavily focused on important but dark narratives. There is a lot of emphasis on mental health, and other intense topics like substance abuse, suicide, and self-harm are prevalent in the potential stories this game tells. If you know those are a problem for you, you may want to consider letting The Alters pass you by.

Maybe a different version of Cole didn’t like sci-fi games, but the life decision to play The Alters has certainly set this version of myself on a path where I feel like that’s not true anymore. This game is so beautifully crafted, with complex and emotional story beats, that my little bleeding heart was left in pieces every time I failed a play through. I would immediately start another one because I was just so damned determined to get succeed with my little family of altered Jans all safe and sound.

11 bit studios has easily crafted one of the most unique narrative experiences I've ever had the joy of playing, and wrapped it up in a truly challenging and engaging strategy element. Every single part of The Alters works together in the best possible way.

The Alters launches on June 13 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC, Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG. The game is available to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers at launch.

The Alters

Meet Jan...and Jan, and Jan, and — you get the picture. Stuck on a remote planet far away from home with only himself to rely on, Jan Dolski must create Alters of himself who have experienced a different life path if he wants to return home.

Buy now: Xbox | Steam| GOG