The Alters Reviews
The Alters is a unique narrative experience all its own, asking you to survive by manipulating your own history to create clones and escape from a fiery fate. As far as the genre goes, The Alters makes for a very accessible survival experience. With that said, hardcore fans of the genre may see gameplay in The Alters as far too simplistic. The other potential issue is that the Sun's looming danger isn't quite as looming as it initially feels, with most of the game progressing naturally without much actual danger. Either way, the combination of strong narrative and accessible gameplay makes this the perfect game for anyone who even remotely interested in trying survival-builder games. The Alters is a definite recommend title, even at its $40 launch price.
All games build on or look back at what’s come before. The Alters makes a delicious stew out of familiar ingredients, both from other 11 bit studios games and popular genres. Taking survival and building mechanics and adding a complex layer of social simulation isn’t entirely foreign to this developer, but The Alters feels genuinely original, and that’s a bit miraculous in an industry full of sequels and remakes. Ironically, while the game might be about clones, The Alters is anything but a copy of something else.
The Alters is a game that resonates more for what it tries to say than for how it says it, and although it doesn't always manage to balance ambition with execution, it still carves out an interesting niche within the landscape of narrative-driven experiences.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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Review in Russian | Read full review
The Alters is a deep, emotionally resonant experience that blends engaging gameplay with sharp writing and rich character work. Despite some rough edges and repetition, it stands out as one of this year's most compelling and successful releases. Its ability to challenge the player’s conscience outweighs its flaws, proving that emotional impact can matter more than mechanical perfection.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Alters is the title that best showcases 11 bit studios’ narrative strengths. It delivers a compelling and immersive story that explores how countless choices impact the game and lead to meaningful consequences. A well-crafted game where choice, consequence, and survival seamlessly intertwine.
Review in Korean | Read full review
The Alters achieves something tense and new by merging strategy base-building with third-person exploration and a sci-fi story about cloning yourself. But repetition and complicated busywork mar the overall effect.
The Alters is a highly atmospheric sci-fi character study mixed with simple but effective resource and base management that cleverly builds existential and interpersonal pressure throughout its story.
The Alters is a cerebral, thought-provoking, and beefy story-driven survival game, and undoubtedly 11 Bit Studios' magnum opus.
Wildly unpredictable but always enjoyable, The Alters is a masterclass in high-tension gaming.
Many games feel like they mirror film and television in the stories they tell and the cinematography they present, but The Alters feels like a best-selling sci-fi novel. The intricacies, branching storylines, decisions that actually matter, and world-building that makes you feel at home on a planet millions of light years away is a terrific accomplishment. This is the story of a singular man I cannot recommend enough. And who knows, perhaps along the way you might even learn something about yourself.
The moral implications of cloning yourself aren't lost in all the resource and base management systems.
The Alters is an engrossing survival adventure that delicately balances captivating self-reflection and engaging base management
Hardcore Gamer's official review on the new sci-fi strategy game The Alters.
The Alters is a unique and atmospheric survival game that riffs on the existing 11 Bit Studios blueprint in a meaningful way. Offering a superb sci-fi story that is equal parts somber, surreal, and silly. The economy, base building, and Alter Management are the highlights, which are somewhat dragged down by the rather mindless exploration that feels like a means to an end. But overall, The Alters is a brave and bold step forward within the survival genre, and one that will make you question your life decisions more than any other.
There were times I wished The Alters was a pure adventure game without any of the survival elements, but that friction is what makes it work. While the interpersonal relationships and conflicts between the Jans are the heart of the experience for me, and what I can wholeheartedly recommend, I came to appreciate the basic survival loop as a way to add more agency to all the choices I made. Like all the best sci-fi stories, The Alters will leave you with plenty of philosophical questions to chew on.
It can be very difficult to take these games that are focused on complex system management and add a nice layer of humanity to it all, offering a reason beyond simple efficiencies and problem-solving for people to engage, but 11 Bit Studios does it well and has once again succeeded with The Alters.
The Alters is one of the stand-out survival games of this generation. Imbued with a fascinating sci-fi concept for the ages - one that asks genuinely fascinating ethical questions – and with high-pressure survival mechanics that keep things stressful from beginning to end, this is quite the experience. Did I enjoy playing it? Not really, but good grief, I'll never forget it.
The Alters blends 3D survival, resource management, and base building with a strong narrative core. As Jan Dolski, we must explore a hostile planet, manage a space base, and create alternate versions of ourselves to survive. Each Alter has unique skills, but also memories, personalities, and unresolved conflicts. Managing tensions between clones, assigning the right roles, keeping morale high, and coping with extreme environmental conditions becomes the heart of the gameplay. A deep challenge that mixes micromanagement, psychology, and sci-fi human drama, told through branching, multi-choice dialogues.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Alters is a unique, emotionally layered, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking game that will have you questioning your own life choices and then simulating alternate versions of them. It’s not just about survival or ‘tree-punching’ as Ken calls it; but it’s about identity, regret, and learning to cooperate with your own worst tendencies… literally. It’s like if RimWorld and Black Mirror had a baby, and that baby wanted to talk to you about your high school failures. The Alters is developer 11-bit Studios firing on all cylinders with what I feel is there best game to date. Do I recommend The Alters? Absolutely! Just don’t play it when you’re already existentially fragile. Or do. I’m not your Alter.