Video summary
The video review focuses on "The Alters," a science fiction game centered on survival and narrative depth rather than just gameplay mechanics. The story follows Yan, who lives in a post-apocalyptic future and utilizes a quantum computer to create clones of himself, known as alters, to tackle different tasks simultaneously. These clones diverge at key decision points, allowing the player to explore various specializations such as mining, refining, or research. While the game offers significant replayability due to these branching paths and the ability to optimize resource management strategies in subsequent playthroughs, the reviewer notes that the core gameplay loop can become repetitive and tedious after the initial excitement wears off, particularly during the long stretches of base building and resource gathering required for survival.
Despite its engaging narrative setup and beautiful exploration of three distinct maps filled with unique physical phenomena, the game suffers from significant structural flaws that diminish player engagement over time. The reviewer highlights a major frustration in the second act where a critical choice regarding the fate of an alter's brain locks out several other alters and causes half of the crew to leave the ship, a consequence the author finds illogical and emotionally jarring. Furthermore, the exploration becomes a chore as the maps shrink in later acts, offering fewer choices for resource placement compared to the expansive second act. By the time the story reaches its climax, the reviewer feels fatigued by the survival mechanics, viewing the remaining gameplay more as an obligation to resolve the plot than an enjoyable experience, which ultimately leads to a lackluster reaction to the game's ending and epilogue.
Ultimately, the review concludes that while "The Alters" is a flawed masterpiece with a melancholic tone and strong performances from its voice actors, it is still highly recommended for fans of deep science fiction concepts. The game excels in exploring the likenesses and differences between alternate versions of the protagonist, ranging from subtle personality traits to fundamental behavioral changes that make each alter feel like a distinct individual. Although the reviewer acknowledges the narrative's imperfections and the repetitive nature of the gameplay loop, they express a strong desire to replay the game to experience different character interactions and optimize their strategy. The core theme of survival in a harsh capitalist world is portrayed gorgeously through its script, making it a must-play for those interested in thought-provoking sci-fi stories, even if the execution leaves room for improvement regarding pacing and consequence logic.
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Hello friends, Philip Magnus here. I
covered the altars when its demo first
came out. If you're looking for a first
impression style discussion without
covering more spoiler-filled moments,
you're welcome to check that out. It's
good. Promise.
Some games is the journey rather than
the destination.
There's good reason for that. An ending
is hard to pull off. a satisfying one,
more so. Everything that comes before
it, a long winding journey throughout a
desolate world, say, filled with
challenges and colorful characters, has
plenty to write home about in
comparison.
When these characters are all alternate
versions of one likable protagonist, the
journey is certainly a memorable one.
The narrative of the altars is one of
survival.
and the gameplay loop follows suit. The
first is engaging almost all the way
through. The second, I fear, becomes
something of a drudgery. By the opening
of act three, 20ome hours in. If you
need the spark notes of the game's plot,
here goes. Yandolski lives on the tail
end of environmental catastrophe in the
near future. After a lifetime of
disappointments, Yan signs up for a
space mission aimed at the discovery of
an unoptanium style substance called
Rapidium, which has the capacity to fix
the food shortage crisis back home.
Because it's a magical time accelerating
wonder of an element. Unfortunately for
Yan, everyone signed up for the mission
dies on the way down this nightmare
planet. And Yan has to deal with
survival and the gathering of Repidium,
all on his lonesome. An impossible task
for any one man if not for the quantum
computer on board his mobile base. It's
thanks to this quantum computer that Yan
can create altars of himself. clones
whose life paths defer at one of several
key decision points. The altars has more
content, more altars to grow than a
single playthrough could ever cover.
Likewise, too, with research, there are
only so many planetary samples in a play
through. Go a different route with
choice of the first as well as with what
accent you put on research and the base
management. And you'll find that the
resource gathering portion of the game
looks significantly different with each
altar tied to a different resource or
management aspect via their
specialization.
There's definitely replayability to the
gameplay loop too. For example, the
botonist is supreme where growing food
is concerned. The miner is great at
mining for metals. The refiner works in
the refinery so much more quickly than
anyone else, etc.
These are serious considerations,
especially early on in the game when the
mission is so resource starved that
picking between building a dometry in a
research lab feels like a consequential
decision, even if it's not. The
narrative doesn't demand specific
choices outside of two, the technician
and the scientist. My third choice was
the minor, whose personal journey was so
satisfying as to be one of the
highlights of the game for me.
Well,
if you need someone to wait it out with,
remember, we're here for you.
That's not necessary, but thanks.
My biggest pet peeve with the narrative
is the culmination of the game's second
act locks you out of a number of your
altars depending on a certain choice. A
choice that is deeply frustrating for
several reasons. Yan is asked to create
a clone empty of any young content in
order to produce a cure for some
detrimental brain bug that's going to
kill all the altars if not addressed in
short order. This done, two solutions
make themselves known. One to use the
tabularasa alt's brain to produce a cure
and the other to talk with Tan's ex-wife
in search of a different cure entirely.
Both ideas have proponents and
opponents. And depending on which one
you choose, you'll find that those
opposing the plan will have their
affection rating towards your yan locked
down to the lowest level. By the end of
the act, everyone who disagrees with
your choice will leave the ship for
greener moral pastures.
The issue is in my personal journey up
to that point, I'd already grown a hand
for the miner. The logical question to
ask is why wasn't I capable of growing
just a brain for the express purpose of
healing my altars? Many of the alters
disagreements with my choice were based
on the notion that the tabularasa is a
person and by the way it's a totally the
right notion as the game itself confirms
if you go with the other option but I
thought the grizzly choice that two
thirds of my crew disagreed with made
for a more dramatic and interesting
story line.
Why can't we just grow a brain is
unfortunately not a question the game's
ought to ask for a story so reliant on
clever science fictional writing. That
just doesn't uh it doesn't sit well with
me. Trust me, I hate to be the guy who
points this out rather than to support
the fiction, but choices like this one
with consequences as severe as these
really send me down this nitpicky
cognitive dissonance route that I can't
keep quiet about. I also didn't
necessarily think that making that
particular choice would cost me as much
as it ended up costing, namely removing
those two thirds of my crew who
disagreed.
I expect that I might well return to the
altars in years to come to make the
right decision. There's enough to do
differently there that I'll be happy to
experience those choices a new once the
memory of this playrough begins to fade.
The biggest issue I have, the one that's
stopping me, beyond the slight
annoyances with the narrative I've
discussed so far, has to do with the
gameplay loop. This is not too short a
game, and a good chunk of it is filled
with the minutia of survival.
Exploration does a lot of the heavy
lifting to make the gameplay loop
engaging. The game provides three large
maps to explore across its three acts.
Each of the maps has unique features, is
gorgeous to traverse and filled with a
smattering of interesting physical
phenomena that the player as Yan has to
learn to traverse and deal with. Much of
the exploration revolves around
searching for mining locations for the
various resources necessary to build up
the mobile base. Having spent anywhere
between 5 and 12 hours exploring each of
these dream maps, I couldn't imagine
going back to the drudgery of building
up my infrastructure in you. A further
issue is compounded in the act one and
act three maps being smaller than act
2's map. Neither of those offer much in
the way of choice. There's only one spot
to mine each type of resource from
across those two maps. Really quite
frustrating considering the fact that
the act two map invites you to make
active choices about how to position
your pylon and outpost infrastructure
because you have more than one resource
node for most if not all resources.
In truth, by the opening of our tree, I
was already feeling fatigued.
The exploration became a chore and so
did the survival gameplay. I had already
mastered the system and figured out that
there really isn't some secret depth to
it. I was there only to resolve the
story line. And with only two crew crew
members,
the day spent working towards rescue
felt decidedly blunder than I'd have
liked.
And sure, there is a fun little set
piece at the end of the game, but even
that really isn't anything to write home
about. Not that it wasn't an engaging
story in its own way. There is a sense
of melancholy and loss when a ship
crewed by seven people is suddenly down
to three. Just when you get used to the
hubbub of so many different versions of
yourself, the quiet that follows.
That break in trust by the end of act
two, it hits hard. It was a satisfying
enough narrative development, the
consequences of my own actions, even if
I disagree with the way the conflict in
act 2 itself was handled. But the game
at that point wasn't too satisfying to
play. I was well and truly ready to see
how it resolves.
Unfortunately, the resolution didn't
entirely satisfy me either. It's not
that I thought it was actively bad,
more that when I went through the last
choice and especially the epilogue, I
just shrugged and moved on with my life.
Not the ideal reaction, I suspect. I
don't regret spending my time with the
altis. Its core team of a builder
working to survive alongside his quantum
doubles while trying to find a way to
best help earth in a capitalist
hellscape. No less. All this is explored
so gorgeously through the script.
The performance of actor Alex Jordan is
such a highlight especially. He deserves
at the very least a nod for his acting
prowess come awards season.
Anyone who enjoys the in-depth
exploration of science fiction ideas
will well and truly appreciate the
likeness and differences between each
version of Yandolski.
They range from the mo the most subtle
things to such significant differences
as to make a few of the altters seem
like entirely different people, at least
at first. The reasons I would consider
playing through the altars again are
many. Of course, now that I've got
experience of the research and
exploration aspects of the game, I can
optimize my style of play and do much
better with exploration from early on.
That would satisfy the part of my brain
that likes everything neat and tidy. I'd
probably be able to cut through the
length of a second play through
considerably. And of course, I badly
wish to meet all those alters I didn't
get to during that first play through
because I thought I would have more
space to create altars midpoint to. I
knowingly used my last slot to summon
the refiner rather than the
psychologist, the latter of whom I was
far more interested in.
Tel Avie live and learn.
I recommend the altars again to those of
you who have an interest in science
fiction ideas down for the most part
well. If you enjoyed this video, please
like it. Let me know in the comments
below.
Have you played the altars? Have you
actively enjoyed it? Did you find any
part of it wanting? I would love to hear
from you. I'm Philip Magnus.
Don't forget to subscribe, ring that
bell for notifications, and I will see
you next time. Bye.
Growing up aart,
we shared
surprisingly common ground. Feeling
nothing more than regret
till the coin got flipped around.
Things never said in quantum state now
won't remain unspoken.
The clock is unwound. The choice is
unound. Could now reopen.
What if I got to spend a day with you
again?
Of all the things that I regret, it's
losing you. That truly hurts.
If I could take another turn, my life
would never be the same. If I could get
another chance
today,
[Music]
looking at the path
ahead,
I simply don't know where it ends. But
I'm no longer left all by myself.
I know I'm in it with my friends. Things
that we lost. The personal cost. Are
they really gone forever?
We're not going to fail. We need to
prevail and sail together.
And though it seems now anything could
be
undone,
would you be really missing things if
they were never truly gone?
If I could take another turn? My life
would never be the same. If I could get
another chance
today.
Oh, if I could take somewhere now. Let
us win this race against the sun and
find a place where we could hide
tonight.
[Music]