What if I had decided differently? Everyone has probably asked themselves this question at some point and an interesting new game on Steam wants to answer this question in a special way.
What kind of game is this? We’re talking about The Alter, a sci-fi game with adventure, survival and base building elements that tells one of the craziest stories you can imagine. The game is scheduled to appear on Steam in 2024 and comes from the same creators as Frostpunk or This War of Mine.
What is the story about? At the beginning, Jan, the character the game is about, lands his spaceship on a hostile planet. He is so close to the sun that his spaceship has to keep moving because otherwise the sun’s radiation will kill him.
In order to escape the planet, he has to collect new fuel and keep the ship in good condition, but that’s almost impossible to do alone.
You can see the trailer for The Alter here
The Alter shows their gameplay trailer with clones who have made different life choices
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If I don’t have any friends, I just clone myself
What makes the story interesting? The story gets exciting at the point where Jan clones himself. It’s not just replicas that are built here, but rather alternative versions of the character.
In plain language: What if Jan had become a doctor? Or mechanic? Or gaming journalist? Each clone of the protagonist reflects one of these life questions that the character previously decided differently.
Each clone or alter, as they are called in the game, has its own needs, feelings and goals. For example, while the engineer wants better food so that morale increases, the scientist-age says that food is sufficient and offers everything a person needs – taste? Overrated – After all, you want to save resources.
What is the goal of the game? The goal of the game is to leave the planet. To do this, resources must be collected to fuel the ship. The real difficulty, however, lies in keeping the morale of the alters high – they often cannot keep up with each other and like to argue. But if you’re not careful, you’ll just settle disputes and be overtaken by the sun, which means death.
What does the community think of the new trailer? The trailer was shared in a post on Reddit. Below are the first reactions to the video. Cilantro42 writes under the post: “I was a little undecided about it until the revelation that the alters are different versions of your character if they had made different choices in life. It’s such an interesting concept.”
Kiroqi also finds the trailer on Reddit interesting: “The original concept of the game alone was interesting enough, but this mix of gameplay makes me even more curious.”
ldb also writes on Reddit: “I’m so excited for this game. I hope it can hit the same strategy/narrative vibe as the few gems we have like Frostpunk.”
The interesting story and ages could make the game a contender for the best story in a video game in 2024. But it also remains questionable how the game ultimately plays and whether the alters will be really exciting or just complain all day. If you’re looking for a story game until then, play Baldur’s Gate 3 again with a new character.