11 bit studios is a truly unique team that only works on original projects that define a completely new genre. The second Frostpunk is coming in July, but soon after that The Alters will appear, which is mainly being worked on by the developers of This War of Mine. If you also suffer from overthinking, you will feel right at home here. But in Alters, you don’t just have to think about your past choices: the game takes you on an amazing “What if” journey, where you can change key life decisions and become an alternative version of yourself.
The game has been in development for quite some time now, and there have been a few trailers that have always caught my eye at first glance. However, you will soon be able to try the game for yourself: the demo will be available on Steam for 7 days starting Monday, June 10. I got early access to it, so I can share my impressions with you.
In The Alters, you take on the role of Jan Dolske, who has never had a stable job in his life, lost his mother, his money in the financial crisis and, finally, the love of his life. When he no longer knew what to do with his life, he decided to go on an expedition into space as part of the Dolly Project, the purpose of which is to search for a rare element called Rapidium on distant planets. It can significantly accelerate the growth of any organic substance, which could put an end to hunger on Earth.
However, the crew is forced to make an emergency landing on the target planet, and Dolski is the only survivor. His task will be to take care of the mobile base here, try to survive and get off the planet as quickly as possible. But he is alone and can’t handle the basics in one… or can he?
But I’m getting ahead of myself: I’d like to focus on the more classic side of the gameplay first, which dominates the roughly ninety-minute demo and essentially consists of two parts. In the first, you move around the base, take care of it, build new sectors, produce important items or cook food. But at the same time, you can go out on reconnaissance. You will need raw materials for construction and crafting, and they do not collect on their own, be it metal or organic material. But be careful, you need to watch your time. At night, the planet is very radioactive, so you need to return to the base by then, and also watch your fatigue.
As you probably already understood, this is basically a fairly classic Survival game, where you combine exploration and base management. Despite the fact that we are talking about standard mechanics, this part is very exciting, although, of course, I can’t judge whether it will become repetitive after a long time. However, at least at first you will feel a little like Mark Watney from The Martian.
In any case, the most interesting part comes toward the end of the demo, when Dolski discovers that he can use rapidium to create alternate versions of himself by changing key life decisions. What if he had stayed in his hometown? What if he had gone to college? What if he had managed to save his marriage? All of these key events shaped who Ian ultimately became. But if he had changed his decisions, he could have become a completely different person. Like a technician, a scientist, a botanist… and those are exactly the kind of people he’ll need to survive.
In the demo version, you will only meet one alternate version – the technical one. Despite this, conversations with him are extremely interesting. Of course, at first he does not trust you very much and is upset by the whole situation he found himself in. But gradually you will be able to find your way to him, mainly through the memories of your youth that you share. In any case, this is only a small part of what awaits us in the full game, where, according to the developers, maintaining good relations with each alternate version will be almost impossible, since they are very different personalities by nature.
The dialogues are superbly written and, in addition to the serious topics, not without a bit of humor. In addition, you will talk not only to other selves, but also to the person from the corporation that sent you here. However, it must be said that he seems rather suspicious from the very beginning, so even this plot line will be very interesting.
It’s not just the story and dialogue that are the strong points of The Alters. The game also looks very nice, both in terms of style and technical processing. And the very good sound is not far behind, both in sounds and in the music, which complements the atmosphere perfectly. So far, I can probably only read some weaker animations, especially in terms of facial expressions and the occasional stutter during playthroughs, as is common in UE5. On the other hand, it wasn’t all that bad.
Overall, I am excited about The Alters after playing the demo. I had high expectations before, but I am definitely even more excited for the final game now. 11 bit hasn’t let me down yet and I don’t think it will here either. If you are interested in this unconventional sci-fi survival, be sure to check out the demo on Steam.
The game will be released later this year and will be aimed at PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Source :Indian TV
