At the heart of The Alters is the Brain Map, where Jan creates new versions of himself—Alters—by unlocking memories from paths not taken. These Alters raise deep ethical questions: are they truly their own people? The game answers with a morally complex “yes.” But that’s just the beginning. The Alters explores how these identities interact, clash, and form a fragile community, forcing you to make tough, emotionally charged decisions. True to 11 Bit Studios’ style, it’s a gut-punching journey through personal and moral survival.
Let’s be clear: when it comes to survival games, few developers understand the genre as well as 11 Bit Studios does. Arguably, the reason for this is that rather than crafting some dry, inoffensively bland genre effort, the talented Polish outfit instead infuses its thoughtful takes on the strategy survival genre with a very human, emotional core that separates them from any other developer out there. Ku999 Sports From This War of Mine to Frostpunk and its most recent sequel, 11 Bit Studios has long made a habit of blending personal turmoil and survival mechanics in super interesting ways and with its latest effort, The Alters, they’ve done it again. If you’re a fan of 11 Bit Studios’ past work – or simply looking for deeper, more ambitious survival games – The Alters is shaping up to be the next big thing.
A Terrifying, Murderous Sun Is The Big Bad Ku999 Sports
In The Alters, players take control of Jan Dolski, a resourceful miner who finds himself stranded on a hostile planet where the sun is powerful enough to provide anything living with an instantly lethal dose of radiation. Much like a memorable sequence in the underrated Chronicles of Riddick that has Vin Diesel attempting to outrun a murderous sun, so too does The Alters employ a similar idea – essentially reversing the role of the sun as a life giver into an indiscriminate death dealer. Yeah, Boots’ own brand E45 sun cream isn’t going to cut it here.
The Great Thing About Being Me Is, There Are So Many Me’s Ku999 Sports
In a bid to keep himself alive, Jan realises that he needs to pilot a mobile, wheel-shaped base across the surface of the planet to avoid the sun’s deathly rays. Of course, Jan is just one fella, and the wheelbase is massive, so this is where the mysterious chemical compound known as Rapidium comes in. Much more than just a cool-sounding name, Rapidium allows Jan to create the titular ‘Alters’, which appear at first glance to be clones of Jan himself, which is handy for trying to keep a mahoosive wheelbase up and running. Ku999 Sports The problem is, they’re a lot more than that.
Taking The Mickey 17
In a similar fashion to Bong Joon Ho’s excellent Mickey 17, each Alter isn’t a straightforward copy of Jan, but rather an alternate version of him based on a particular set of different decisions that were made at key points in his life. This means that not only does each Alter have their strengths, weaknesses and unique skills which would be useful for maintaining the base, gathering resources, providing scientific solutions and so on, but they also have their own personalities too, which provide the personal turmoil which sits at the heart of The Alters.
You see, every Alter has their own needs, fears and emotions and much like the ragged survivalist civilians seen in This War of Mine, or the burgeoning throng of desperate folks in Frostpunk, these needs, fears and emotions must be met, lest there be consequences. Ku999 Sports For example, one Alter might be especially proficient at solving particular problems but might also desire simply to have some face-to-face time with his fellow Alter. Failing to satisfy this need, however, will mean that this particular Alter will begin to slow down in the fulfilment of their duties, before beginning to act out and then eventually rebel completely against your commands.
A World Filled With Deadly Opportunity Ku999 Sports
Even though The Alters is very much about this balancing act between personal turmoil, social cohesion and survival, there is a whole heap of exploration to be done as well. The Ku999 Sports planet that Jan finds himself stranded on is quite the melting pot of chaotic insanity and deadly opportunity. If the skin-blasting sun and terrifying magnetic storms weren’t enough, Jan’s newfound home is also an unexpected bounty of bespoke biomes filled with secrets to be unearthed and precious minerals to be extracted.
The Alters blends high-stakes survival with emotional depth, set on a hostile planet full of deadly anomalies and psychological threats. As you manage Jan and his unstable clones, every decision balances risk and reward—push forward for vital resources or play it safe to preserve fragile mental states. With Ku999 Sports its mix of sci-fi, moral dilemmas, and identity crises, The Alters evolves 11 Bit Studios’ legacy, challenging not just your strategy, but your empathy.
