11 bit studios is a truly unique team that produces only original projects that define a completely new genre. The second Frostpunk awaits us in July, but soon after that The Alters will also 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 have to just 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 alternate version of yourself.
The game has been in development for quite some time and at the moment there have been several trailers that have always caught the eye at first glance. However, you’ll soon be able to try the game out for yourself: a demo will be available on Steam for 7 days, starting Monday, June 10th. 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, who has lost his mother, his money due to 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 the rare element Rapidium on distant planets. It can greatly speed up the growth of any organic matter, which could end starvation 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 leave the planet as quickly as possible. But he’s alone and can’t handle the basics in one… or can he?
But I’m getting ahead of myself: first I’d like to focus on the more classic side of the gameplay, which dominates the roughly ninety-minute demo and is essentially two-part. 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 to explore. You will need raw materials for building and crafting, and these do not gather on their own, be it metal or organic material. But be careful, you need to keep track of your time. At night there is very strong radiation on the planet, so by this time you need to return to the base and also monitor your fatigue.
As you probably already understood, by and large this is a fairly classic Survival game, where you combine exploration and base management. Despite being standard mechanics, this part is very fun, 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 towards the end of the demo, when Dolski discovers that he can use Rapidium to create alternate versions of himself, changing his key life decisions. What if he had stayed in his hometown? What if he goes to college? What if he manages to save the marriage? All of these key events determined who Ian ultimately became. But if he changed his decisions, he could become a completely different person. For example, a technician, a scientist, a botanist… and these are the people he will need to survive.
In the demo version you will find only one alternative version – the technical one. Despite this, conversations with him are extremely interesting. Of course, at first he doesn’t really trust you and is upset by the whole situation in which he finds himself. But gradually you will be able to find your way to it, mainly through the memories of your youth that you share. In any case, this is only a small part of what awaits us in a full-fledged game, where, according to the developers, it will be almost impossible to maintain good relations with each alternative version, since they are by nature very different personalities.
The dialogues are written superbly and, in addition to serious topics, are not without a touch of humor. In addition, you will not only talk to other yourself, but also to the person from the corporation that sent you here. However, it must be said that he seems quite suspicious from the very beginning, so even this storyline will be very interesting.
It’s not just the plot and dialogue that are The Alters’ strong point. The game also looks very nice, both in terms of style and technical processing. And the very good sound does not lag behind, both in terms of sounds and music, which perfectly complements the atmosphere. So far I can probably only read some of the weaker animations, especially in terms of facial expressions and the occasional stuttering as I progress, as is common in UE5. On the other hand, it wasn’t that bad.
Overall, I’m excited about The Alters after playing the demo. I had high expectations before, but I’m definitely looking forward to the final game even more now. 11 bit has not let me down yet and I don’t think it will happen here either. If you’re interested in this unconventional sci-fi survival game, 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
