The Alters Reviews
All in all, The Alters delivers a unique and memorable experience. It’s the kind of game that lingers in the mind long after the credits roll. For those who enjoy deep storytelling and intriguing character dynamics, it’s absolutely worth exploring.
The Alters offered a unique experience with original ideas and a distinctive gameplay system. It's not just a survival game, but one of exploration and deep choices, featuring a beautiful artistic direction and a sci-fi atmosphere filled with mystery. The experience was enjoyable for the most part, especially thanks to the variety of characters and their different roles. However, some design decisions slightly diminished the overall quality of the experience.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Even with complex gameplay, the game is highly inviting for newcomers to the genre, featuring a well-crafted story and impressive possibilities. The Alters is, so far, the studio's peak and one of the best survival games out there.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Alters is an excellent narrative survival adventure from 11 bit studios, combining base-building, resource management, and story-driven gameplay. Players control Jan Dolski, the sole survivor of a botched space mission, who uses clone "alters" with modified life paths to aid his survival. The game masterfully blends exploration (à la Satisfactory) with personal dilemmas, as Dolski navigates not only a dangerous planet but also the emotional complexities of his cloned companions. Balancing immediate survival with the psychological weight of these choices, The Alters delivers a gripping experience deserving top marks.
Review in Finnish | Read full review
I like The Alters. It sells its premise in a way I wish more science fiction games would. We need more of them. But the watering down of its gameplay elements makes it hard to recommend. If you’re willing to slog through tedium and gameplay filler there is a wonderfully fun story to experience. I’m debating if I want to push through a second time and see how my journey plays out.
The Alters offers a challenging and compelling experience with its moral dilemmas and cornering situations. If you enjoyed Frostpunk and This War of Mine, you're bound to love this one.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The entire package of The Alters is incredible from start to finish. Be it the immersive soundtrack that delivers a gut-punch time after time, the incredible blending of new crew members with the philosophical questions posited around the right to create life, and the performances given by Alex Jordan and the smaller roles by the rest of the cast. When I wasn’t playing The Alters, I was thinking about The Alters. The decisions were difficult, and the choices matter. 2025 seems jam-packed with incredible, Game of the Year contenders, and for the last five months, mine was easily Split Fiction. Now, however, there’s only one choice for me. The Alters is Game of the Year.
Despite some frustrating bugs, The Alters is the most unique and interesting survival-crafting sim I’ve ever played.
The Alters combines a bunch of genres I hate, and somehow makes a game I loved (when it worked).
I’m rarely impressed by the overused “choices matter” tagline, but The Alters by 11 bit studios shows how it should truly be done—offering not just resource management, but deep existential dilemmas that force players to weigh mission against morality, making it a thought-provoking yet demanding experience best suited for those unafraid to fail and eager to explore both strategy and themself.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
For every challenge I was faced with, I felt like I was solving problems in equal measure. The Alters often faces existential complications and the human condition with gravity and weightlessness to allow you to laugh. You’ll be exploring, fighting for survival, or chasing a intriguing narrative, but each system feeds into the other so seamlessly, you’ll never be bored or want to leave a task unfulfilled. The Alters science fiction at its finest, and one of the best and weirdest games of the year.
The Alters is a game I didn’t have high expectations for after playing the demo at PGA, due to a weak prologue. Now, having experienced the full version, it’s my personal candidate for game of the year. An incredibly emotional adventure, full of highs and lows, where we constantly feel the heat of the approaching sun.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The Alters is a unique survival base-building game with addictive gameplay and a memorable, engaging and deep storyline. What's more, it's easily replayable for those reaching for completion.
The Alters delivers a gripping, existential survival experience that explores identity, regret, and self-acceptance in a way few games attempt. It's a little longer than it needs to be, but its story, systems, and emotional weight make it hard to forget.
The Alters is a mashup of some of the best sci-fi movies of the last few decades, taking the idea of an isolated human and turning it on its head. The base-building and survival mechanics are fun, and they flesh out and elevate the story of a wayward soul looking to get back home in one piece.
The Alters is an incredible concept that works by crafting an enticing gameplay hook of cloning yourself and changing the events of your life, while marrying it with a set of engaging and engrossing systems and mechanics to keep your team of alters alive as you traverse an alien world. While there are some performance issues, and the fact that the game only has one main character and personality, it is another strong entry in 11-Bit Studios’ lineup of games.
I highly admire everything that 11 bit studios has achieved in The Alters. At its core, there is a fascinating, emotional sci-fi narrative that demands attention and which is surrounded by high-intensity management gameplay. It’s finished up with some beautifully detailed and polished visuals that perfectly promote its futuristic world and eerie atmosphere.
The Alters is a survival base-builder set against the backdrop of a hauntingly desolate planet, with gameplay that mirrors that atmosphere—deliberate, reflective, and occasionally a bit unpolished. It’s not without its flaws, having traded some base-building depth to prioritize its narrative, but the experience as a whole is still thoroughly rewarding. Best of all, it’s a fantastic deal considering its visual quality and strong potential for replayability.