Last week I had a chance to fly out to Poland to get hands-on time with 11Bit Studios’ upcoming title, The Alters. The Alters is a resource management game where players take on the role of Jan Dolski, an astronaut stranded on a planet trying to collect resources, build up his base, and continue along the planet’s surface trying to outrun the harsh sunrise.
The Alters Immediately Sinks Its Hooks Into You
Our demo began with the start of the game, here Jan had crashlanded on the planet and found that he was the sole survivor of his crew. Making his way to the mobile operations base he had shelter but quickly learned that he would need to gather resources from the surface to begin to repair the base.
Jan was able to contact those in charge of monitoring the mission, to questionable success, and learn that he could get rescued but he’d first need to make it somewhere safe and far from the ever-encroaching sunlight of dawn that would fry the ship and him inside it.
Understanding that piloting this ship and making it to safety isn’t entirely within his skillset Jan is given access to the full power of the Quantum Computer on board and The Womb. Combined the Computer is able to create alternate timelines of Jan, where certain decisions were made differently, resulting in different professions.
Some Jans that I got to see in our time playing included a Technician, Miner, Scientist, and I had just created a Botanist Jan before being told I had reached the limit of the presentation.
There’s not much more to say but that The Alters had an incredibly strong opening. There was immediate tension in Jan’s predicament, a solid plot hook and objective, and also the lingering question of “how do we survive this?”
Gameplay Mechanics Never At Odds
For me coming to this event, The Alters was a bit of an unknown quantity, I had remembered seeing its announcement at the PC Gaming Show but the gameplay was a bit all over the place.
It showed off Fallout Shelter-like base building, the resource management and survival of Frostpunk, but also third-person exploration and resource gathering that may be more familiar to casual fans of survival games. Playing the game it felt like it all worked together perfectly harmoniously.
The gameplay began by being very hands-on with what the player should be doing, I can imagine for some it was annoying having their hand held but I enjoyed the blend of story and gameplay as you learned that you needed certain resources to build a structure that could obtain a different resource. With so much going on narratively it never felt like I was simply following a tutorial.
There was no point where the game made me feel lost, and as the narrative was introducing concepts like the Quantum Computer, the story of Jan’s life, and the ability to create Alters the pace still felt rapid and kept me engaged.
Within 40 minutes I already had an Alter or two, had learned a bit more about them, and was assigning them to help gather resources from the planet’s surface.
It felt like pushing dominoes that a resource would let me gather another, which would lead to new structures, I’d create a new Alter, build a new part of the ship for them, and then we’d move on to gather more resources.
Unlike the harsh pacing of Frostpunk where a dozen things are happening all at once and it’s up to you to somehow balance them all everything in The Alters is very deliberate and smaller in scale. You’ll always take steps because you know what you want to do next, and never because you’re just reacting to the world.
Interact With Your Alters, And Your Alters Interact With You
While there wasn’t too much time to interact with the Alters what time we did have laid some good groundwork for where the mechanic would lead.
As soon as you awaken a new Alter you’ll see different emotions appearing around their head as they’re angry or apprehensive. It’s not just enough to manage resources you also need to manage your relationships with the versions of yourself that you might have been
An early example of interaction with my Technician Alter was after learning they were sleeping on the floor at night I was able to craft a dormitory that could house up to four Alters. Looking down the research tech tree I noticed there was also space to create private rooms that could improve moods further.
I was also able to bond with an Alter by gifting them a pocket multi-tool that both he and I had fond memories of. It goes to show how exploration might reward the player with resources, but can also provide you with chances to strengthen your bond with other Alters.
One very unnerving conversation with an Alter came from the birth of the Miner variant of Jan. The memories that led to this Jan’s current predicament also included him losing his arm in an accident. Awakening with both of his hands was a rattling experience.
As I was pondering what something like this could mean Alex Jordan, the Voice Actor behind Jan and his different Alters, happened to walk by and tease that where these memories come from will be explored as the game continues.
The Look Of A New World
One of the things that most impressed me was the visuals and sound design of The Alters. From the moment you crash down on the planet, you’re met with known quantities like rain and lightning, as well as the alien elements like the oil slick look of the waves or strange ferrofluid reactions to the sand.
It was tense dealing with how little you could be outside your ship during each active day while also marveling at the world that was around you.
Within the ship, it was a bit more of the standard sci-fi fare in the look and feel of the place. The internal environment gave a vibe of a cleaner and slightly more up-to-date aesthetic that you’d see in 90s sci-fi like the Alien franchise.
It was impressive to see how much work had been done on each of the Alters. While some only offered slight differences where were others that held themselves in different ways that you could tell came from a different life.
The Alters Might Be A Gateway To Frostpunk
I thoroughly enjoyed The Alters as someone who enjoys a moderate amount of resource balancing and gets stuck into a good story.
The DNA of Frostpunk and This War of Mine is very present but it feels like The Alters is being set up as a more casual entry into the rest of what 11Bit has to offer. If those elements tickle your fancy then 11Bit already has the next game for you to try.
After getting only a few hours on the game I was left wanting more, I want to know how much deeper the mechanics go as well as what’s going on with the mysterious corporation behind Project Dolly.
TechRaptor was invited to preview The Alters as part of an event by the publisher where travel, food, and accommodation were provided. All screenshots have been sourced from b-roll or screenshots provided by the publisher.
