kisui is Reviewing The Alters
Alright, probably the final one for this month. Gosh, I have been really productive, haven't I? (Also I forgot to click post so this is 3 months late)
But let me begin with saying that I'm biased. I love Sci-fi genre, especially where it focuses on the drama side like space opera. Stories about human psychology, ethics, consequences of the unknown are just amazing. The use of strange new world as reflection of society and humanity is definitely my favorite genre. So this game might be rated higher for me than it is actually is (it is still a great game though).
The game basic premise is survival combined with base building and a caveat of the protagonist making clones of himself, albeit with different personality and skillset. While the premise sounds like a survival tactical game, it heavily leans into the narrative, making it more of a story game with some difficulties. As the game cares more about its narrative, its reach would be reduced.
The gameplay can be a bit weirdly balanced and annoying for some people, but i believe it is a fitting gameplay to deliver the narrative. Everything else (the art, the music, the story) are crafted beautifully though within its limited scope. For a game that can be cleared in 15 hours, the game limitation and awkwardness are clear, but the strongest point of the game is the delivery of the narrative.
Despite its limitation, this game has become number 1 as my favorite games of all time, so, I definitely recommend it. At the same time, I can agree that this game would not reach wide audience, due to its more quirky gameplay. I believe one who love the genre will absolutely love it, but will also put off a lot of audience from general side. Still, if you are a gamer, I definitely would recommend for you to try.
Priced around IDR 280k (USD 18), and I got it on 50% discount. The game deliver an amazing experience that can be compared to AAA games. Moreover the game will be delivering a DLC that expands the story and promises 10-20 hours experience.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1601570/The_Alters/
Heavier Gameplay and Story Spoiler Below
As a lover of story game, the game delivers a chef kiss experience for its theme. And the main theme of the game is past choices. When a major choice of the past leads you to your current path and you cannot stop to wonder "what if" you chose differently. As the main characters (Jan Dolski), you are trapped alone in an unknown planet. Push came to shove, you are forced for your survival to make clones of yourself but "what if" your clones didn't drop out of university and became a scientist instead. Or "what if" you stood up to someone instead accepting abuse. For normal people, they can only imagine the "what ifs", but for Jan Dolski who have plenty baggages, these imagination came to live physically as clones. Jan would need to confront his physical manifestation of past regret and work together with them. At the same time, the corporation that sent him to the planet, have their own politics and agenda. Jan must balance them all to find a chance of survival.
Obviously, the premise are full of intrigue, and the gameplay are used heavily to deliver the storytelling. As such, while the gameplay loop can be fun, it is more effective as storytelling tools. If you are the type that doesn't care for the story, the gameplay can be quite a frustrating. Living with your choices (no matter how regretful it is) is the main theme. A choice that you made can utterly ruin your experience 10 hours later. Your choices would not be obvious. Sometime even if you choose the seemingly correct choice, it turned out to be not. Moreover, your clones (or Alters) carry heavier baggages than you. So, more often than none, these people needs extra attention more than the basic need of survival. But I found that exploring each Alter personality and background are one of the most fun part of the game but at the same time babysitting them while you are dying and on the clock could be very stressful.
Let me detail the gameplay. Again you are Jan Dolski, a builder who is the only survivor of a space mining mission. Your job is to ensure your survival before the rescue team arrives but at the same time fulfill corporate agenda since... rescuing you is expensive unless, of course, you still fulfill your mission of mining magical space material. I would separate the game in two different part, Exploration and Survival.
For Exploration, I would say it would be easier part, the planet is full of hazards and obstacles but none that would aggressively kill you on the spot. You could not fall through your death or there are no sentient entities that would hunt you beneath the shadows. There's no need for nimble fingers either, as there is no action sequence other than minor hazards avoidance which are very much telegraphed. Exploration gameplay wise, I find it is more like Death Stranding (but with no enemies), you are walking around the place to find mining area and build pylons as hub to connect the mining outpost with your base. It also has no encumbrance or movement physics, so there's no falling accidentally pressing a button and fall to lava. You explore just to find new items or new mining outposts, the exploration feels more like adventure puzzles then anything else. There is a tiny bit of action part, the hazards need aiming to clear up and some might be difficult to aim. But other than that, I would not say the action is difficult even on hardest difficulty (There is difficulty slider but I believe it would effect more on time resource and actual resource cost than needing dexterity).
For the Survival part, it is more of base building and resource management. Almost like a tycoon game, you gather resource and build mining outpost during exploration part and use that to expand your base and fulfill your objectives. In the meantime, you need to take care your team too, by feeding them, taking care of them when they are sick, ensuring base integrity, and fulfilling their tiertary needs. All of this is done using gather and craft style quests. Fail to do this, your team will start dying or even arrange a mutiny. The game will absolutely throw wrenches into your well arranged machine, so you'll need to adjust and repriotize a lot in the game. The game is also timed so your optimization skill will matter. That said, even on highest difficulty, I didn't find the game difficult. I found that some people find it too difficult even on lowest difficulty setting. But maybe that's because this is marked as survival but actually more like tycoon management. As a lover of tycoon games, I find the gameplay quite fun, but not for people who are used to action AAA games. With a huge amount of side objectives, the game might be too chaotic, but a lot of them are optional (albeit kinda mandatory since forgetting about them may cause negative effect and can snowball from that).
Another side of the gameplay is... the game can be quite clunky and buggy. On my first gameplay, I found several bugs which needs soft reset (reloading a save like losing 15 minutes of progression). But what makes it clunkier is not the bugs, but i believe it is the way they implement the quests and events. Some quests event have higher priority causing others to be "untriggerable" until a specific event has passed, some can only triggers on specific time range, and some have strict time limits. Combine 10 of these quests and events, you could find yourself unable to progress a specific questline even if you fill the requirements and forced to drop it without any explanation. On my second run, it was smooth sailing since I already know what to trigger first or what not, but this game is definitely clunky in this way.
The side quests are more of narrative device, they explore each facade of your Alters, which I believe, are the highlights of the game. I would rate the gameplay as around 7/10 but since it greatly supports the narrative, I would rate it higher. The game is definitely narrative first then gameplay.
Now visual wise, I am using a mid end gaming laptop, so I can't play it on highest setting. My fans were running full speed as the game using the famously "optimized" Unreal Engine. I cannot really comment on HD or detailed graphics but the visual delivery are awesome. The visual managed to deliver space sci-fi in a perfect way. I have played a lot of sci-fi games but I believe this one has the best visual theme. They managed to deliver alien planet yet not cartoonish but also futuristic clean sci-fi without being too much like a hospital ward. Each rooms in the base are full of "human" clutters, personality, and warmth. Even if you are stranded in space, it visualizes Jan as everyday human, not action hero.
Sound wise, I found there are not too much variety but each delivers that cinematic space feel. Each enhance already cinematic writing and visual with a sense of mystery, fear, and yet joy of looking at something for the first time. There is exactly 1 voiced song which will appear on end of chapter 1, I believe this is one of the most cathartic experience of the game. I love it so much on how to deliver the game theme.
All in all the game is not perfect, but that is what exactly what makes the game perfect. It delivers not grandeur but grounding on what it meant to be human and Jan, our everyday guy, is a great reflection of that. The strongest point of the game is how the game deliver the theme of regrets, being an imperfect human, and living with it.
A 9.5/10 game for me. One of the best game in my life and a game that will have a place in my memories and my heart.