The Alters Reviews
Unique, poignant, and one that will stick with you, The Alters also will win hearts with a $52 AUD price tag or availability through Xbox Game Pass. As a result, it's highly recommended and needs to be played to be properly understood and enjoyed.
11 Bit Studios strikes again with a fresh take and setting that borrows from the brilliant mechanics of This War of Mine and sends them into space.
The Alters is undoubtedly one of this year’s best indie games. The creators of Frostpunk at 11 bit studios once again showcase their mastery of crafting fluid narrative frameworks—what you might call "narrative sandbox" experiences—and their knack for challenging players’ moral boundaries. While The Alters might not break new ground in its survival-driven gameplay, it more than makes up for it with its fluid storytelling, remarkable character development, near-flawless plot, immersive atmosphere, and polished gameplay. It's so good, in fact, that finishing this review makes me want to urge you to play it—and dive right back in myself.
Review in Persian | Read full review
In The Alters played almost everything. For me, it is unquestionably the best game from studio 11 bit!
Review in Polish | Read full review
The Alters stands out with a creative and emotionally rich premise, combining base management, exploration and a deep narrative of identity, choices and coexistence. The idea of interacting with alternative versions of oneself is original and well explored both in terms of mechanics and plot, highlighting an interesting balance between constant pressure, strategic decisions and moments of introspection, which enriches the gaming experience. The proposal is ambitious, well executed and offers a type of engagement that is rare in games of this genre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Alters will leave you with pondering thoughts long after the credits roll. It’s a brave and daring take on the survival genre and one that will keep you coming back, hoping to answer just one more ‘what if.’
If there's one thing Poles are really good at, it's video game development. This is confirmed once again by the 11 bit studios team. After Frostpunk, they bring another great title in which you clone yourself, manage a base, explore and fight for survival on an inhospitable planet.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
11 Bit Studios delivers its best project to date with The Alters. Become the humble builder Jan Dolski and survive on an extreme planet while fleeing the dawn. Exploration, action, decisions, management, and strategy are the keys to a title that cleverly blends various components, giving the experience a very original touch. Play with the fabric of time, manipulate the universe at quantum levels, and perform scientific magic as you try to keep your crew alive and return home safely
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with The Alters, especially thanks to its blend of gameplay styles and variety of mysteries throughout. If you relate to the protagonist then it'll be a much better experience for you but keep in mind that not everyone will. 👨🚀
The Alters isn’t for everyone. If you prefer fast-paced action or streamlined resource management, this might feel slow or cumbersome. But if you’re the kind of player who appreciates narrative weight, moral ambiguity, and gameplay that reflects character, this one hits hard. A survival game rarely feels this human. Every decision echoes. Every Alter adds a new layer to the question: “Who are you, really?”
The Alters is a bold experiment that mostly succeeds. It dares to explore questions of identity, regret, and collaboration in a setting that could have easily defaulted to standard survival tropes. Instead, it delivers a deeply personal game about being many people and learning how to live with them. Smart mechanics, emotional stakes, and a strong narrative spine make this one of the more memorable indie titles in recent years.
The Alters may not reinvent base building or survival gameplay, but it masterfully frames both around a fascinating narrative hook. This is a game that asks the player, “What if you could meet who you could’ve been?” and makes that question its core mechanic.
The Alters is an amazing game, and one of the few that I could actually see myself replaying for the story. The combination of survival, gathering, and base building, mixed with a winding, sci-fi story where your choices matter, is a treat and so intriguing that it only gets better the longer you play. Even with some little nuisances later and a slight overwhelming feeling, nothing ever detracted from the gameplay or story, and I was loving it. I was also surprised that it plays as well as it does on the Steam Deck. It isn't perfect, and does have some hitches and slowdowns, but it sticks above 30 FPS for the most part and looks great. It does need a lot of power, but in the end, it will be worthwhile to play on the go.
The Alters delivers a powerful narrative experience, though its gameplay can feel frustrating at times. 11 bit studios reaffirms its talent for exploring the human condition through games.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Technical issues aside, we’ve had a great time playing The Alters. It poses tough choices and requirements to the player, and gives us a tight time limit and a thousand other things to keep track of, all while teasing us with new exposition or areas to explore that we’ll never get to in one sitting. It’s a tough game, but give it the time it deserves and you find yourself deeply invested in Jan(s) home.
The idea of mixing strategic management with existential drama and science fiction results in a game that will demand both the player's technical and social skills. This is where my perception of it being a weird subversion of a farm simulator, such as Story of Seasons, comes into play. It's just that instead of planting turnips, milking cows and trying to woo some of the village's bachelorettes (or bachelors), we have to mine an inhospitable planet, maintain a functional mobile base and prevent alternative versions of ourselves from killing each other. In short, The Alters can be as welcoming as it is irritating — but it is also unique in its own way.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
So far, The Alters is the most compelling and intriguing game I’ve played this year.
The Alters teaches us that along the non-stop race for survival, sometimes you need to relax with a movie night with the people who know you best.
Full disclosure: I am not the target demographic for a survival and base building centric game. However, The Alters primary focus is the sci-fi narrative that is crafted around a bold and unique concept. The survival and base building elements aren’t here for you to create your own narrative, but instead they drastically heighten the stakes of the existing one. The Alters exceeds expectations in every facet of the game. The narrative had depth beyond an intriguing premise as it provoked philosophical thought. The base building featured a tetris like grid, which made it engaging, but easy to understand, and the survival elements didn’t feel meaningless, they felt crucial to my survival. Best of all, The fusion of all of these elements highlighted the best everything harmonized together
THE ALTERS is a compelling, if sometimes chaotic, sci-fi odyssey brimming with ambition and innovation. Its customizable systems, engaging narrative arcs, and unique take on identity through alter creation make it a standout experience. The onboarding could be smoother, and not all mechanics are user-friendly out of the gate, but those who persevere will find a richly layered game full of meaningful decisions and poignant solitude. For fans of thoughtful, atmospheric sci-fi survival, it’s absolutely worth exploring.