The Alters Review Summary

Excellent genre blending and gameplay: The game blends multiple genres, such as base building, resource management, survival, and social simulation, into a cohesive and enjoyable experience. Players appreciate the balance and integration of these elements, which keeps the gameplay fresh and prevents it from becoming repetitive.

Compelling Alters with unique personalities: The Alters, clones of the main character with distinct personalities and life experiences, are a standout feature. Players find interacting with them compelling, as their unique traits and backstories influence the narrative and create emotional connections.

Engaging start and captivating experience: The game delivers a captivating and engaging experience from the very beginning, with many players highlighting the strength of the prologue and initial hours. The story, premise, and gameplay quickly draw players in, creating a desire to continue playing and uncover more of the game's world and narrative.

High-quality graphics and atmosphere: The game features high-quality graphics, a beautiful art style, and an atmospheric soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. The visuals and audio work together to create a sense of immersion and emotional resonance.

Immersive sci-fi setting and narrative: The game's science fiction setting and narrative are highly praised for their immersive qualities and thought-provoking themes. Players appreciate the game's ability to create a sense of wonder and mystery, drawing comparisons to classic sci-fi works.

Frequent crashes and freezes: The game suffers from frequent crashes and freezes, sometimes preventing progress or even launching the game. The lack of manual or mid-day saves exacerbates the problem, leading to significant loss of progress and frustration.

Inconvenient save system: The game's save system only allows saving upon sleeping, which can be problematic for shorter play sessions or unexpected character deaths. This, combined with long in-game days, can lead to significant progress loss and the need to replay large sections.

Lacks engaging features: The game lacks engaging features such as multiplayer, first-person perspective, or mouse key binding. The plot is more attractive than the gameplay, suggesting the gameplay may be lacking. The game's color palette is limited and monotonous, consisting mainly of black, dark blue, red, and white.

Tedious exploration and gathering: Exploration and resource gathering are hampered by slow character movement, clunky controls (especially the 'E' key interaction), and repetitive gameplay loops. The world can feel monotonous, and the need to constantly travel between locations becomes tedious.

Difficult Alter management: Managing the Alters' happiness and anxiety levels is difficult due to conflicting desires and unpredictable behavior. Dialogue choices can have significant negative impacts on relationships, potentially requiring players to reload saves.

Blend of survival, base-building, narrative: The game blends survival, base building, and resource management with a narrative focus. Players explore, gather resources, and manage a base while navigating a story with branching narratives and character interactions. Time management is crucial due to the day/night cycle and resource scarcity.

Mobile base management, 2D layout: Base management involves expanding and developing a mobile station using a 2D side-view layout, similar to 'This War of Mine'. Players must optimize space, connect modules, and manage weight limits while gathering resources to maintain and upgrade the base.

Cloning mechanic with unique Alters: A core mechanic involves cloning the main character to create 'Alters,' each with unique personalities, skills, and histories based on alternative life choices. Players must manage these Alters, balancing their needs and resolving conflicts, which significantly impacts the story and gameplay.

Solid, unoriginal, slow-paced gameplay: The gameplay is described as solid but not particularly original, combining elements from several games in a well-integrated manner. The game has a slow pace and is not an open world, at least initially, with movement being restricted to a linear path.

Branching dialogue with impactful choices: Dialogue choices may initially seem limited, but they branch into different outcomes later on, influencing the story and relationships with other characters. Choices made in conversations can change outcomes, creating politicking between all parties.

Generally good optimization and performance: The game generally exhibits good optimization, running smoothly on a variety of hardware configurations, including high-end PCs, gaming laptops, and even the Steam Deck. Many reviewers reported stable frame rates and an absence of significant bugs or crashes, especially after release version improvements.

Missing graphics options: Some players have noted a lack of certain graphics options, such as super resolution and resolution options in borderless mode, as well as no native resolution scaling. This limits the ability to fine-tune the game's visual settings to optimize performance or visual quality.

Minor graphical and gameplay glitches: A few players have encountered minor graphical glitches, such as flickering textures during dialogues, or getting stuck in specific locations after fast travel. These issues appear to be infrequent and relatively minor, but can still disrupt the player experience.

Game crashes on startup: A small number of users have reported experiencing game crashes on startup. This is a critical issue that prevents players from accessing the game at all.

Strongly recommended; worth the price: The game is overwhelmingly recommended by reviewers, with many calling it a must-play, a masterpiece, and worth the price. Reviewers express enjoyment of the game and encourage others to try it, with some specifically recommending it to fans of the genre or the studio's previous works. Some reviewers are emotionally invested in the game and express gratitude to the developers.

Practical information for players: These points provide practical information for potential players, such as the game's availability on Game Pass, the length of the prologue, system requirements, and advice for Linux users. While helpful, these points are less focused on the core gameplay experience.

Overpriced; writing quality concerns: Some reviewers feel the game is overpriced for its content, citing an imbalance between storyline/dialogue and gameplay. One reviewer found the writing quality grating and refunded the game. This point is specific and actionable, but the small number of mentions reduces its importance.

Reports of performance, crashing issues: Some reviewers report performance issues, such as optimization problems and crashes, with one reviewer refunding the game due to these problems. A day-one patch is anticipated to address these issues. One reviewer experienced motion sickness.

General emotional responses, praise: These points express general emotional responses and praise for the developers without providing specific details about the game's features or gameplay. While positive, they lack the specificity needed for actionable feedback.

Explores deep philosophical themes: The game explores thought-provoking themes such as determinism, identity, and the consequences of choices within a sci-fi setting. The narrative focuses on Jan, who is working for Ally Corporation to obtain Rapidium and is confronted with moral dilemmas and self-reflection through interactions with copies of himself.

Cutscenes use still images: The game uses still images with voice-over for its cutscenes. This presentation style may impact the level of immersion and storytelling effectiveness.

Saves only upon waking: The game only saves when the player character wakes up. This save system could create tension or frustration depending on player preferences and the difficulty of the game.

Includes social activities: The game features live-action series collectibles and social activities like beer pong for alters. This may add a lighthearted or humorous element to the game.

Similar to Death Stranding: Some features in the game are reminiscent of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, particularly the mining transmission towers. This may influence players familiar with that game.