The Alters is a New IP That will be a Mix of Multiple Genres

The Alters is a new game from 11-bit studios which will be an intimate portrayal of a man’s desperate attempt at survival. This new title will be an adventure game in which players will be in the shoes of Jan Dolski. Who is a worker stranded on a strange, remote planet by himself. With the weight of everyday life taking a toll on him, Jan decided to duplicate himself to help ease the burden. The situation is that Jan’s alters are distinct versions of him that are associated with possible life choices he could have made in the past. They are all very different in terms of style, personality, and traits. Players will be tasked with overlooking The Alters and ensuring that they are doing their jobs. Of course, there will be gameplay mechanics in place which will give this game an RTS feel to it. However, this game will be more grounded in its approach as opposed to other titles in that genre.

This game appears to mostly take place within the Von Braun Wheel. This is a vessel seen in the trailer that perpetually rotates across the surface, generating artificial electricity. Most likely, the majority of the game will be taking place within this thing. There will be a slew of jobs to do which all The Alters must be assigned to do. They will all come with particular perks and weaknesses, making them essentially a “cog in the machine” in terms of survival. Jan may need to venture out of the Von Braun Wheel to attend to certain situations. However, that is just mere speculation. There are actually a lot of questions on how this game will play. A trailer was recently dropped that, although cinematic, didn’t offer much in terms of how the game will function. However, the notion behind this is rather interesting, indeed.

Daunting Duplicity

The Polish developer 11-Bit Studios are known to make rich, vibrant worlds. This is especially true with what they did with the underrated Frostpunk. When it comes to The Alters, it looks like they may have another homerun on their hands. The core aspect of this game is that it’s all about the relationships between Jan and The Alters. There will be friendship, loyalty, resentment, and even betrayal throughout the course of the story. The player won’t know how the story will unfold in terms of making decisions on running the Von Braun Wheel. Everything will be randomized in terms of decision-making with every playthrough. This will allow every approach a player makes to be a totally fresh experience. Even though this game is taking place on an alien planet, it is currently not known if there will be combat in this game.

However, the trailer did show a version of Jan who was decked out like an elite soldier. He was recently killed and the other alters were examining the body. Even though the trailer is just a CGI cut scene, the footage is a good indicator of what kind of versions there will be with Jan. Everything from engineers, cooks, musicians, fighters, and doctors can be made. Of course, they all will offer something important in terms of keeping the vessel in stable condition. From what was stipulated, players will be taking control of the original version of Jan as he tries to keep everything in working order. It is not known if players will be able to manually control The Alters. At this point, everything is up in the air on how this game will play in terms of controlling the avatars. With the idea of playing God and seeing the consequences, this game has a philosophical angle to it, for sure.

Real Life Reflections

Now, the main goal in The Alters is ultimately finding a way to get home. With a game that has an emphasis on making life-changing choices, there will most likely be more than one way to complete the story. Everything will unfold organically and sometimes, most likely, even tragically. The decisions that players will make in this game always be within a gray area. Even though there are games out there like The Witcher and even Shadow of Mordor that each has branching dialogues and randomized consequences, it’s rare that a game is being developed that focuses solely on these features. With a twist of the survival sub-genre, players will most likely need to mine for resources and craft items. Alternatively, there may be an alter that will specialize in it.

It is said that The Alters will have “a little bit of everything” in terms of genres. Expect to have a little horror, a few psychological tests, action, strategy and adventure rolled into one title. This is what this game is offering. Once everything is digested, there is a lot to get excited about. This appears to be an odd game in comparison to the other titles coming out. However, there is no doubt that this game will be offering a rather unique experience. Even though this game is clearly early in development, there is some intrigue floating around this project. There are still some viable questions yet to be answered. Is the game going to be third-person? How about first-person? Will it strictly be single-player or have an online component? Only time will tell what the developers have in store for us. Until then this trailer is the only thing available to hold us over.

Multiple Minds

The Alters appears to be offering a brand new cerebral experience that will take advantage of next-gen hardware. Even though it is slated to be a PC exclusive, there is no telling if this game will be coming to consoles. It would not be surprising if it did. Hopefully, the developers will release a gameplay clip for gamers to look at to help get a better understanding of how this game will play. The Alters is something interesting being made and hopefully, the gaming community embraces it so we can have more experimental offerings like this.