What makes a good game is hotly debated. That said, most scholars and players agree that a good game competently executes the core mechanics associated with its genre.
A good shooter will have workable gunplay, a good cozy game will be relaxing, and so on. But what if you remove the core pillar of a game, can it still be good?
11 bit studios humours this philosophical musing in its new update for space survival game The Alters. Among a host of changes is the introduction of a new mode that takes the survival out of your survival game.
The Alters Picks Substance Over Mechanics
The new Relax Mode is akin to those Story difficulties that litter JRPG settings menus. According to the patch notes, this mode is tailored toward those who want to play “without worrying too much about survival mechanics or inventory management.”
Adding a setting to simplify the gameplay loop and put the focus back on the story is hardly new, but it has a disproportionate effect on a game like The Alters.
Although The Alters is hardly a generational narrative piece, its story has received praise from far and wide. This is widely accepted as fact, but there is no such consensus on the role that survival mechanics play here.
The base-building and management aspect of The Alters are essentially the entire survival gameplay loop. Whether that’s good or not depends on your affinity with the genre, and reviews for The Alters reflect that.
That said, even for those who consider these tasks a chore, the survival mechanics act as punctuation for the game’s strong story. Much like the daily activities and hard decisions you had to take in the studio’s This War of Mine, the struggles poised by survival mechanics in The Alters get you closer to Jan Dolski and all other Jan Dolskis.
The new content update doesn’t water the story down in any way, but it threatens to upset the otherwise great pacing of the game by watering down some of the facets that serve as The Alters’ metronome.
What Else is in The Alters Free Content Update?
Aside from the Relax Mode difficulty, today’s update adds some much anticipated features, and a few other eccentric ones.
The biggest item on the list is the overhauled save system. The arcane saving has made way for a simpler, more efficient one: you close the game, and it saves automatically.
Another major change is the ability to save during major story sections, so you don’t have to clear your schedule to hang out with the Dolskis.
For the space Barbie in you, spacesuits and outfits have new customisation options including adorable bunny fits. How this blends in with the new noir detective side quest is up to you to decide
Finally, for the ultimate meta gaming, you can now build a gaming den inside your game, and actually play games in it. Xzibit would have been so proud.
The Alters is available on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
