Alters
The gameplay for The Alters is finally revealed so we can understand just how we will experience what The Alters offers up
We finally have made it to the timeline where we have some gameplay for The Alters. Well, more along the lines of 11 Bit Studios finally getting the game to a point where it is ready to show off some gameplay to get us excited for it to head to the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. That will be down a different timeline for The Alters, currently, but one that should be here soon. For now, we will just get to look at how we are going to help our Jan and the various of Jans out there to survive the harsh setting they all find themselves in. If only we could find the one version who has already figured things all out and not the one that is still upset that they did not finish their college years in a different way…
It looks like The Alters will give us all a mix of ways to play the game and experience the story it is going to unfold in front of us. In some ways we will need to take our core Jan out into the harsh wilds of the planet we find ourselves on to search for a way off and for more of the mysterious substance that seems to be allowing us to make alternate versions of Jan. This is where the base-building and other social deduction gameplay will come in. We will need to make this base move about the planet to keep us all alive and to do that in The Alters, we will need to navigate the various personalities that spring forth from the different life choices each of the alternate Jans have made. A true showing of Nurture over Nature when it all boils down here. Have a look at the gameplay and get a taste of what should be coming later this year for all of the platforms the team can make an alternate version of this game on. Very poor attempt at humor there…
The Alters — Gameplay Reveal
After crash landing on a desolate planet with a scorching star, Jan must avoid the murderous conditions by taking refuge in a cutting-edge mobile base. The only issue? It’s meant to be operated by a skilled team and he’s just Jan.
Thankfully, fate takes a turn with the discovery of Rapidium, a mysterious substance exclusive to this perilous world. Interacting with the Quantum Computer on board the mobile base allows Jan to manipulate pivotal decisions from his past—creating alternate versions of himself known as Alters — that have the potential to change everything.
The Alters are indispensable allies and they possess diverse skill sets crucial for repairing the base, sustaining life, crafting essential tools, and mining precious resources. However, they’re also more than mere taskbots, with each operating as a sentient being, complete with unique emotions, goals, and even a dash of existential doubt thrown in. While this does potentially open the door for chaos, their collective goal remains the same: survive, escape, and do it all by themselves.
The Alters will launch later this year for PC and consoles. The game will also be coming to both PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass for console upon its release.
I am still very intrigued by the idea of The Alters but it is getting harder to see how the developers are going to keep us on a solid narrative as we head out into the game world. The base-building looks a lot like we had in Fallout Shelter, but in a 3D space, and then we have a bit of The Sims going on too. All with each of the characters in The Alters having a fully different personality that would certainly come about. Maybe it is just how the gameplay is offered up here, but that seems like a lot of chaos that we will need to navigate out there and one that seems like a hard challenge for the developers to get out there too. Unless, all of this is just us being the one in charge and dictating how everyone will function with a few alters just getting upset and saying a few words before heading to do the task. I could be wrong, but that feels like how it would work and we fill in the bigger parts of the story as needed.
Are you excited for The Alters after seeing what we had here or do you need to see more of the gameplay to get a better idea for it all? Could each of the different Jans have full dialog trees to go down or will it only be a few are able to do all of that in the game? Would this be a great use of AI to write some of the scripts with the same voice actor providing the samples to build from? Head into the comment section to talk about all of that and everything else that comes to mind from this gameplay. There will be more to look at for The Alters soon, so please come on back to see and hear about all of that as we get it. You will hopefully not be let down by any of that when it does come down.
