The Alters is a deftly crafted sci-fi survival game that gives players lots of choices to make and numerous paths to take. And it leaves them musing over choices they might make when they’re not gaming.
Like many a deep-space survival game, The Alters begins with a crash landing on a distant uncharted planet. Jan Dolski awakens from cryo-pod sleep to find that he’s crawling out into a stormy, radiation-soaked, starkly alien world. And his other crew members are all deceased.
The first job is to locate the huge, bicycle tire-like mobile base. But shortly after reaching that goal, Jan discovers three important things: He stumbles upon a vital mineral called Rapidium—the very quantum state-altering substance they were sent from Earth to find. He realizes that he doesn’t have the skill sets to repair and run the huge base and its mechanisms on his own. And, most importantly, he’s told that he’s in imminent danger of being killed by rising radiation levels. Within a very short time, he’ll be dead.
However, via broken communiques with Earth, Jan is also given a lifeline. The home planet’s denizens so desperately need that organic-manipulating Rapidium that they’re sending a rescue party. Jan just needs to move the mobile base to a suitable landing spot and gather up a huge supply of that precious wonder-substance along the way.
Oh, and to get that overwhelming task done, Jan has the option of using Rapidium to make … clones of himself. They’ll be versions of him that made different choices at key points in his life—choices that sent each variant off in different directions to develop vital skills. Jan, the scientist; Jan, the doctor; Jan, the botanist; Jan, the whatever-is-needed. Together, this organically crafted crew may get out alive.
Gameplaywise, players must manage a ticking clock and limited resources. They mine for Rapidium and other necessary substances; craft tools and base necessities; manage daily energy and fatigue levels; maneuver the base past environmental obstacles; and clone the alternate reality-branching versions of Jan that they need.
The Alters is designed as an offline single-player game that does not support multiplayer play. However, the game may require an internet connection for download or cloud-based Xbox Game Pass play.
Although this is primarily a survival and resource-management game, there are also ethical choices to be made. Dialogue-tree choices reshape the relationships between the various Jans as the narrative progresses, and players can change the numerous game endings in positive and negative ways.
The Alters also raises interesting questions about the choices we make in our real-world lives. Jan works through key moments and decisions in his own past and creates alternate “realities” for the clones he creates. Through that sci-fi interaction, the game asks: Can we better ourselves through concentrated work, patient endurance, kind actions or morally upright choices?
The various cloned Jans also have altered personalities and sometimes express themselves in angry and vehement ways. Some Jans are heavy drinkers and waste chunks of their lives in an alcoholic fog. Others are verbally foul: We hear uses of f- and s-words, as well as profanities such as “h—.” “a–,” “b–tard” and “d–n.”
The hazards of the surrounding world can play out in bloody ways, too. The Jans can be injured or killed. Jan’s decisions can result in his clones being euthanized, or in a rescue team being blown up in a huge explosion.
The game also wrestles with the corruption of the world back on Earth. Corporate individuals backstab, deceive and betray people around them. Jan’s mother is physically abused by someone. Marriages and relationships fail. Etc.
This creative survival game has a provocatively thoughtful side. But The Alters also traverses a foul mouthed and sometimes bloody terrain.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
