An Unexpected Thought Provoking Surprise
The Alters Review
The Alters surprised me as one of the most compelling strategy/survival games this year. At first glance, it reminded me of Fallout Shelter or XCOM, but it quickly reveals deeper, thought-provoking themes wrapped inside an addictive base-building experience.
Pros
- 🏗️ Deep, rewarding base-building mechanics with plenty of player freedom
- 🧠 Social survival elements and existential storylines that add depth
- 🎨 Unique art style with strong atmospheric world-building
- ⚙️ Engaging resource management that keeps gameplay fresh
- 💡 Exploration of cloning and alternate realities provides a rich narrative backdrop
Cons
- 🖥️ Performance issues on PC, with some stuttering even on high-end rigs
- 🔍 Visual polish uneven, with some UE5 jankiness present
- 📉 Blurry visuals on console despite smooth frame rates
The Alters is an unexpected “surprise game” of the year for me. At first, I didn’t know what kind of game it was, aside from some online recommendations and getting the general gist of it from small glances. I initially thought it had similar vibes to Death Stranding, but then came the base-building mechanic similar to Fallout Shelter or XCOM. But then came the social survival and deep, thought-provoking existential themes within the characters and story, which is probably a signature for 11 bit studios, the same studio that made Frostpunk.
At its core, The Alters features a deep and rewarding base-building loop that will hook anyone with a strategic mind. You are Jan Dolski, a simple worker stranded on a hostile alien planet, and your only hope for survival is a massive, mobile wheel base that you must constantly expand and maintain. The gameplay is an intricate dance of resource management; you’ll send Alters out on expeditions, refine materials, manage power consumption, and carefully plan the layout of your base.
The building system itself is simple but effective, offering a great deal of freedom in how you construct and connect different modules. This freedom extends outside the base as well, allowing you to strategically place remote mining structures and link them back to your main facility with a network of power pylons. Exploration in The Alters is a another important part of the survival loop, driven by the constant, desperate need for resources to expand your base and keep your Jans alive. You'll need to scan the alien landscape to identify points of interest. These include rich resource deposits—like metals, organic matter, or chemicals. This is where the tension comes in. The planet is bathed in lethal radiation from its star, and your Alters can only survive outside for a limited time before the radiation levels become fatal. As a player, you must manage this time limit carefully.
This addictive gameplay is in service of a narrative that is shockingly deep and can pull its own weight, and I would say, the story is so compelling and thought-provoking that it doesn’t just pull its own weight, it probably carries the gameplay altogether. This is a signature of 11 bit studios, the same minds behind Frostpunk, and their talent for incorporating heavy themes into gameplay is on full display. The story tackles fascinating topics I had never considered before, all centered around cloning, alternate realities, and existential crises.
The true genius is in how you get more "workers": you create alternate versions of yourself, the Alters. These aren't just generic colonists; they are born from pivotal, life-altering decisions in Jan's past. What if Jan had become a scientist instead of a worker? What if he had pursued his passion for botany? You create these "what ifs" as living, breathing people. The narrative forces you to confront the consequences, as these Alters come with their own unique personalities, skills, memories, and traumas from the lives they lived. Managing their conflicting desires and shared existential dread becomes a core part of the social survival mechanics. The thought-provoking story alone would be worth the price of admission, but we're lucky that the addicting gameplay itself is also as strong.
Conclusion
The Alters is a brilliant and unexpected fusion of addictive base-building strategy and compelling existential storytelling that truly makes it a unique experience that caters to your brain’s dopamine receptors in more ways than one. Though hampered by the usual UE5 jank, its highly engaging gameplay loop and mature, thought-provoking themes make it a standout release that I simply could not put down until the end. It has firmly cemented its place as my “surprise game” of the year and a must-play for anyone seeking a survival game with both brains and a profound, melancholic heart.
