Frostpunk developer 11 Bit Studios has just released its newest game, a sci-fi adventure called The Alters. This game mixes base building with sim management and has a really engrossing story about self-discovery and existentialism. It follows Jan Dolski as he crashlands and gets stranded on a planet as the only survivor.
In order to replace his lost crew members, Jan has to create clones of himself from different timelines. In one timeline, he never went to college, so this version of Jan is a mechanic. There are many different variants of Jan, including a scientist and a botanist. They all have different specialties that can keep your base running smoothly. Now, all Jan has to do is find a way home.
You can’t see everything the game offers in one playthrough, so you’ll have to do multiple playthroughs to experience everything The Alters has to offer.
How long does it take to beat The Alters?
Depending on how much time you spend building your base and talking to the different Jans, your playtime may vary. There are three acts in the game, with the third one feeling noticeably shorter, but still as exciting as the previous ones. However, if you want to be as efficient as you can and only go for the primary objectives, you’re looking at somewhere between 25-30 hours for a single playthrough.
During each playthrough, there are some Alters that you’re required to create, such as the scientist, but a good amount of them are optional. Choosing which Alters to bring into the world can lead to some interesting conversations between them. At one point, I had my scientist and mechanic argue about eating healthy foods and I had to choose who’s side I was on.
You’ll learn that each of these Jans are fully-fledged characters and not just cardboard copies of himself. They have vastly different personalities and it creates a sense of underlying tension that adds a personal touch to the story that elevates The Alters above other contemporary survival games.
It’s worth going through multiple playthroughs to see how the different Jans interact, as their different life paths can help the main Jan discover parts of himself that he didn’t realize before. I created five different Jans across my first playthrough, and it looks like there are about 10 Jan variants. So in order to create all Jans at least once, you’re looking at at minimum two playthroughs for somewhere of a total of 55-60 hours—possibly even more if you want to see the different ways the Jans can interact with each other.
The Alters is now available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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