Imagine being the last human alive, stranded on a hostile alien world. What do you do when one person isn’t enough to gather resources, maintain your base, and figure out how to get home? If you’re Jan Dolski in the new sci-fi survival game The Alters, the answer is simple, albeit bizarre: you clone yourself. Developed by 11 Bit Studios, known for their deep, thematic games like Frostpunk, The Alters blends base building, survival mechanics, and a unique narrative driven by managing multiple versions of yourself.
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What is The Alters?
The Alters puts you in the shoes of Jan Dolski, a simple worker for a massive corporation, who crash-lands alone on a perilous planet. His only hope is a massive, circular, mobile base that rolls across the landscape. Inside this base, made of modular rooms, Jan must not only survive the harsh environment outside but also confront the ultimate challenge: loneliness and the sheer impossibility of doing everything required on his own.
The game features a split perspective. While inside the base, you manage tasks, resources, and your crew through an overhead view, similar to management games. When venturing outside to explore the alien terrain, gather vital resources, or investigate strange anomalies, the game switches to a third-person action view.
Meeting Your Alters
The core mechanic and biggest surprise in The Alters is the ability to create “alters” – alternate versions of Jan from different potential life paths. This is made possible by a special room called the “Womb” (yes, you read that right) and a volatile substance called Rapidium.
Based on the multiple universes theory, this technology allows Jan to pull versions of himself who made different choices earlier in life. Instead of becoming a miner, maybe a version of Jan became a botanist, or a scientist, or a doctor. Each alter arrives with the memories and personality shaped by their unique history, and crucially, the skills needed to help run the base.
Screenshot showing the rotating circular base in The Alters game, with Jan Dolski inside.
Managing the Many You
Life on the rolling base quickly settles into a demanding routine. With a 24-hour day-night cycle, you need to assign your alters tasks efficiently. Botanist Jan grows food, Refiner Jan processes raw materials, Scientist Jan researches new tech, and so on. It becomes a game of optimizing every moment to keep resources flowing.
But it’s not just about productivity. These alters are still Jan, and they feel things. They get stressed, scared, and lonely. To prevent breakdowns or even outright rebellion, you need to build rooms dedicated to their well-being – gyms, social areas, and even contemplation spaces. This adds a layer of human (or perhaps self-human) management to the typical survival gameplay. You might find yourself building a gym not just for the physical benefits, but because Refiner Jan is having a rough day.
The Human Element: Identity and Relationships
Despite being clones, the alters are distinct personalities, and their interactions are where much of the game’s drama unfolds. The Alters explores fascinating questions about identity – if these are all you, but different, how does that work?
There are genuinely touching moments, like the crew mourning the death of Molly, a test subject sheep who became an unexpected friend. These shared experiences highlight the innate human desire for connection and ritual, even in the strangest circumstances. However, the conversations can also feel a bit eerie; since they are all Jan, they often grapple with the same fundamental questions about their existence, leading to repetitive but strangely fitting dialogue that emphasizes the isolated, almost claustrophobic nature of the situation.
Tough Choices and Deeper Meaning
Beyond the daily grind, The Alters presents significant, plot-altering decisions. You might face a crisis where you have to choose between relying on the shady corporation that stranded you or a potentially unstable independent scientist for help. These choices have real consequences for your crew and your chances of survival.
11 Bit Studios has a reputation for exploring complex themes, especially related to labor and societal pressures (look at their work in Frostpunk). The Alters continues this, bringing the focus right up close. The game feels particularly relevant today, reflecting how modern corporations often view employees as disposable resources, especially visible in industries facing widespread layoffs, including the video game sector. On this alien world, this disposability becomes an existential threat. Not all of your alters are guaranteed to make it, and their final moments might be spent simply serving the corporate machine.
Ultimately, The Alters is shaping up to be a unique blend of engaging survival mechanics, thoughtful base management, and a deeply personal narrative that asks big questions about identity, labor, and what it means to be human – or multiple humans – under pressure.
The Alters launches June 13th on the PS5, Xbox, and PC.
