“The Alters,” a sci-fi game produced by 11 Bit Studios, was released on June 13. After finishing my first run and completing the story, I have to say that this game may be the best game of 2025, and I have my reasons to back this up.
Premise
You play as Jan Dolski, a 35-year-old volunteer for Project Dolly, tasked with being part of one of many crews that are sent off to find a unique, rare and potentially life changing resource: rapidium.
This delicate resource was discovered on a rogue asteroid and was found to have rapid growth effects on organic life, including plants, animals and even human beings. It has the power to change the world, but no rapidium made it back to Earth, launching a worldwide effort to locate and recover more.
The Quantum Computer, the main computer in charge of directing the spacecraft and finding an optimal planet to land on, sends you to an unknown planet. But something goes wrong; as you emerge from your capsule, you find yourself the sole survivor of your mission.
It lands you on a planet abundant in rapidium but also in harmful radiation. You now need to gather a crew and learn the intricacies of this world, including avoiding its deadly sun. Dolski is a simple builder, though, and success seems improbable.
Until you are advised to use rapidium to your advantage: use it to create copies of yourself with different lives and skills by analyzing your own neural network, and work with these copies, called “Alters,” to navigate the tough terrain and countless anomalies you will discover.
The Alters is equal part exploration, base management, supply management, character interaction and story-driven excellence.
What makes it so good?
If there is one thing that will get me hooked on a game, it is the big questions: are your decisions ethical? Are they moral, “correct,” “good” or “bad?” The Alters is absolutely fantastic in introducing dilemma after dilemma, and you (and Dolski) will find yourself questioning if any of this is worth it.
More than once– especially halfway through my run– it felt like I should restart. I had made bad choices, and while things technically worked out, they came with consequences that felt impossible to bear.
But I persevered, and so did Dolski– and that is truly what this game is about. That there is no “right” or “wrong” choice, not when you are the sole pioneer of humanity’s future. You must weigh the options and analyze yourself and the world around you thoroughly, and keep in mind that the world will change no matter what– and you get to choose how it does.
Beyond the storytelling of this game, The Alters near-flawlessly introduces steady challenges per region that the player must learn to tolerate and overcome. You can do this with the help of your Alters, those back on Earth or even by yourself, though it never hurts to rely on others.
Explore the thorough world of this strange planet, collaborate with your Alters, and scheme with the few contacts you have left with Earth to figure out a way to make it home safely.
The game is very emotional as well, and each Alter you create has their own storylines and lessons to teach Dolski and you, the player. I fully recommend doing multiple runs of this game, if only to learn more about each of your unique Alters.
If you had the opportunity to meet an alternate version of yourself, would you do it? Would you have questions, or would you be avoidant? This is yet another aspect of the game that I find rewarding; choosing to lean into the character interactions makes the game more enjoyable, and it raises questions that will stay with you for a long time.
Are there any downfalls?
11 Bit Studios released a demo for The Alters over a year ago near the beginning of 2024. Thanks to this demo, many bugs were able to be ironed out, though there are a few small issues that may be addressed in subsequent patches.
If you played the demo before the full release, you may find the first act to move a bit slow. The game relies heavily on you progressing at your own pace, but if you hold off on doing what may feel like major actions– like exploration and creating more Alters– it may begin to slow down the storyline.
It is important to always keep moving, both for the sake of the crew’s survival and for your own enjoyment.
You can also alter the world encounters as well, which I would recommend if you are not a fan of fighting. There really is not much actual fighting in this game, but there is a world enemy that must be dealt with by identifying and eliminating their “cores,” which can get tedious if you are exploring often.
I played with the regular amount of world encounters, and there are a few places that are heavily packed with enemies that begin to get annoying very quickly. Again, lowering the world encounters setting can help with this.
As someone who has been in the editing field for over two years, it was hard not to notice some spelling mistakes throughout the dialogue. Again, these will probably be fixed with future patches, but I just have to say: if 11 Bit Studios ever needs a proofreader, they know where to find me!
The punctuation and grammar may also be due to where the studio is based. 11 Bit Studios is a Warsaw-based Polish game company, meaning that some things may fall through during translation. If you do not play the game with subtitles, it would be impossible to notice this– if you do play with subtitles, do not give the studio a hard time. Kinks will be ironed out as they receive critiques and reviews.
Ultimately, while there are some issues that players may encounter, there are ways to fix these– either by tweaking your settings or your personal playstyle.
Ultimate opinion
I personally believe this game may be the best game of 2025. Even with six months left in the year, it feels impossible to find something as excellently thought out as The Alters.
I have seen some critiques of this game that bring me some concern. My biggest piece of advice to you, if you plan to play this game, is that you have to be prepared to change how you view survival, exploration and character interactions. This game is incredibly unique– and that is beautiful, but it seems some players have not grasped that this game cannot be played like the stereotypical copy-and-paste survival-exploration game.
This game is polished, and it has been in production for years, and the studio behind it has produced countless excellent games that focus on how you, as the player, view the world before, during and after gameplay. It has excellent survival and management aspects, but ultimately it is a story-focused adventure, and it is important you are prepared for that.
The game is currently on sale for $31.49, and will cost $34.99 once it is over. It has dozens of hours of gameplay– from personal experience, I can say your first run will last somewhere around 20 hours. It is heavily encouraged that you purchase this game and enjoy its unique storytelling and survival aspects.
You can view the game’s description on Steam or by visiting 11 Bit Studio’s website.
Once again, I hope that you give this game a chance– it is absolutely worth your time and effort!
