One of the most interesting new games to be shown off this year is The Alters. After carving out a niche for itself making grim, narrative-focused strategy games with This War of Mine, Frostpunk, and the recent Frostpunk 2, the team at 11 Bit Studios could have continued working solely within this subgenre. Instead, it’s decided to branch out with The Alters, a pleasantly strange take on a survival game set in space. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while longer before we get to check the result of this decision out for ourselves, as news has just arrived that the game has been delayed from its original launch window.
The Alters is a building and survival game with an extremely novel set-up. It stars a space miner named Jan Dolski who has to use crystal-based cloning technology to create new versions of himself called “Alters” in an attempt to survive a deadly planet that’s regularly bathed in lethal solar radiation. These Alters stem from past life decisions Jan has made, consisting of versions of himself that took different paths that resulted in their varying personalities and skill-sets.
As mentioned above, we’ve learned today that The Alters has been delayed. In an announcement written in the voice of an in-universe corporate statement, its creator explains that it’s using the extra time “to optimize all mission-critical systems and ensure that every aspect of your journey is as seamless as possible.”
It goes on to note that, while the team is happy with the game right now, “‘good’ is never enough.” To that point, “additional time will allow us to polish each phase of the project, delivering results that surpass our prior projections.”
The Alters will now launch in Q1 (January to the end of March) 2025. You can wishlist it on Steam right here.
There are also plenty of great ways to pass the time between now and The Alters’ launch with our favorite space games and city building games on PC.
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