The Alters is a fantastic game. I skipped both Frostpunks and that’s on me but playing an 11bit game after a decade felt almost surreal. While playing, I kept thinking, *This might just score big*. But what would that even mean? I know people appreciate a good story, and so do I, but The Alters doesn’t just have narrative meat; it backs it up with rock-hard gameplay.

If This War of Mine was character-based survival, this is survival through yourself. Dealing with alternate versions of you—each born from different past choices—creates a uniquely intense dynamic. This War of Mine had minimal storytelling resources, but it was almost a masterclass in survival, sticking with you for long. Every choice felt brutal, and I needed multiple playthroughs across two platforms before I finally finished a run.

Here, I immediately thought, I’m going to win this but under what conditions, exactly? That’s a bold mindset for a survival game with such direct stakes: escape the planet before the sun scorches you and your ship to the ground. Yet 11bit leaves just enough ambiguity. You’re on a clock, but you don’t know when. It’s oppressive, but the ambiguity isn’t the oppressor on the contrary it’s a clever design choice to ease tension and let players experiment. The real oppressor is the inevitability if you mess up. You know what’s coming, and you have to wrestle with that. Besides, I do think the studio here wants to challange players into discovering stuff rather than simply surviving.

Your alters are stereotypes, but it works. Scientist is your classic detached, non-sentimental type workaholic who often uses high language, Technician’s a hotheaded street-smart type, and Worker’s an optimistic everyman who hates crunch. At first, I worried they’d demand too much micromanagement, but no. You keep the base radiation-free, feed them, socialize (there are live-action series collectibles — some hilarious), watch movies, play beer pong, and complete their personal quests that sometimes necessitates you to do or not to do certain things for a few days. I surely wanted more social activities, but bonding with these versions of myself was weirdly compelling.

The base layout mirrors This War of Mine’s 2D side-view, forcing you to connect modules in tight spaces while managing weight limits for your escape. Planet exploration shifts to 3D, enabling you to scan terrain, hunt resources, and set up mining outposts. The tools aren’t always perfectly intuitive especially in the case of scanning ''root'' of the sources where you must place your mining outpost on, requiring you to place polygonal scanners, but they’re serviceable. There are anomalies which are the best way to tell ''Haste makes waste''. I died to anomalies quite a few times only because I was rushing through a timer.

The magnetic storms are the world events that can cause you serious trouble. They'll toxify the environment and cripple your base. You'll need to stay prepared, constantly repairing modules and replacing radiation filters. During these crises, your alters automatically work emergency shifts to help mitigate the damage. There are limitations though: you can't deploy alters to the surface during storms, and if you're already intoxicated, you're trapped inside the base. Radiation spikes also follow a daily cycle - activity ramps up after a certain time, then gradually decreases as the sun approaches.

Early on, resource scarcity combined with time pressure keeps tension high, by Act 2, the bigger problem isn’t scarcity. It’s your alters. At some point I had every available state of emotion on my deck.
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I don’t usually share personal gameplay stories and keep things more systematic but I can't see a more fitting way to tell what the game is about:

Take the Miner. He lost an arm before, now he’s whole again except he suffers reverse phantom pain, relying on opioids to function. Then, suddenly, he dies. I reloaded a save, determined to save him. He lived to see another day. Then died again. I can't fault the game saying it's all scripted but I thought it was subtly telling me to take him off of the meds when he kept involving in sorts of accidents. I made sure he was ok but I feel the game forces you to confront futility: some fates are unavoidable if you don't take the right turn. Without referring to the Scientist's beloved quantum states and promixity planes, the easiest way to tell is simple: Your life is the choices you make and you suffer the consequences. That holds true even when you’re certain you acted in someone’s best interest, hell, in everyone’s best interest. I put my faith in the man, and he still couldn’t pull through. From a player’s perspective, it might feel insulting when you are too conditioned to win, to outsmart systems. The game lets you fail for whatever it's worth. That’s striking to prioritize storytelling over power fantasy, to shock the system and force player to sit with the fallout.

Act 2’s big dilemma is this game’s Kobayashi Maru and this won't be the first time you hearing it. A seemingly no-win scenario testing your leadership. Alters rebel, abandon the base, even hijack some supplies. This isn’t just narrative; it guts your survival odds. I tried “hacking” the system in my own way because I knew (through the achievements) there was a condition where rebels return to the base. Spent days connecting my base network to their shelter, delivering care packages, begging my rogue alter to return. Thought, it was a guaranteed win when I did all that. We shared a raw moment where he acknowledged my efforts… but to my surprises he still refused. All after my Jan's newfound dedication in being a captain. Immediately understood that I had to deal with I was left with. Of course, this is still mediated through a game format so if you pull the right moves you know you'll win but I had to course correct several times.

Not all alters feel equally vital. The Scientist, is indispensable —handling story-based researches— while others seem more replaceable (I know the Worker wouldn't approve of this). I’d have loved endings shaped more by their individual arcs, but it culminates in the central dilemma: corporate pragmatism vs. rebellious idealism. The finale avoids flashy twists, opting for quiet and not so subtle ending. In a way, that’s how you build a compelling story without needing some grandiose ending. Surely, I am aware that there's one win condition where you can return to Earth as one of your alters, I was convinced the game would either force a true lose scenario or make my relationships with the alters the defining factor. Instead, the real weight comes from those critical, Earth-connected decisions you make along the way, shaping up the finale with conflicting interests where you are an equally disposable middleman on a mission to carry out the objectives and give their desired resource: Rapidium which is said to be groundbreaking and the one that you use to create your alters.

That said, Rapidium while positioned as the game's most valuable currency ended up being the resource I used least. You can construct Rapidium Arks when prompted, and they might be required for other win conditions, I didn't have the opportunity to test this thoroughly, but in my playthrough, they ultimately proved to be dead weight.

I profoundly believe The Alters represents a bold experiment, despite some hiccups. It's difficult to gauge just how far you can push its systems - one playthrough tells too little. What's even harder to determine is whether subsequent runs will carry the same emotional weight as that first blind experience. Yet even if treated as a "one and done" game, there's too much value to dismiss.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

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MindsEye: Our Expectations Were Low From You But Holy ♥♥♥♥!

Sometimes, the fall of a certain thing creates its own ecosystem. The death of trees sustains fungi, and termites for decades while the body of a whale sustains deep-sea organisms. Shipwrecks become artificial reefs, hosting corals and marine life. Carcasses spawn carrion ecosystems, attracting scavengers. In case you're still wondering what this is all about:

People love controversy alright, but it wasn't uncalled for. A game's failure, especially one surrounded by substantial money creates its own ecosystem, making the flop the most interesting, most talked-about thing. Life born from death.

Ah, back to the pixelation and hey, its best buddies, the 22 framerates! Here’s where this game will stand in a few years:

a) Overanalyzed by video essays,
b) Sought by trophy hunters in the $5 bargain bin,
c) If delisted (given its semi-niche status), it becomes the next Ride to Hell.

And as reductive as it sounds, I always say, "A game’s direction is everything." Inside me, two wolves battle: the overanalyzer, desperate to understand what went so catastrophically wrong, and the other one screaming, "To hell with it".

Can’t ignore that it was directed by Leslie Benzies. The echo chambers suggested he had something going on. But if anything, MindsEye feels like the direct result of poor leadership and decision-making. Whatever happened behind the scenes, this game had no business being released. Now, where we at? I, for one, if happened to see another Leslie game, I'd immediately go ''Lol, so what?''. As far as the studio concerned debuting with such a game sealed a fate worse than of Unknown9's. I still have some sort of sympathy given the fact people just work on the project and they could be as well threated with their jobs but there's nothing to salvage here, even if I tried to.

It’s hilarious how it was immediately compared to GTA just because of its director. GTA has more charisma, character, and capability in its pinky finger than MindsEye has in its entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ being. This game can’t even come close to the Saints Row reboot, and proving the naysayers right —that it would be worse off— remarkable.

This game wasn’t meant to be explored. Yes, there’s a general lack of interest in crafting dense urban environments, probably because it’s a massive effort. But arcade corridor shooters are rare too. MindsEye had no business going semi-open-world; it should’ve been a tight, linear experience akin to Anarchy Reigns, Army of Two, Homefront, or even Marlow Briggs. Instead, it’s much worse and at least 3–4 hours longer. There used to be "mid" but fun games that wrapped up in 3–5 hours. MindsEye isn’t even that.

MindsEye is barely experimental. Everyone knew it looked bad, and it’s no surprise the studio lacked confidence, fueling all the press and sponsored stream controversies. What truly annoys me is the fact I bought the game because of strong regional pricing, and the studio gave a free deluxe upgrade, something you rarely see. After such genorosity, seeing what it turned into, I’ve lost all interest in upcoming content, rendering the free bonuses worthless. I think players should be eligible for refunds on Steam as well, like PSN’s handling of the matters, a first after CP77.

There were skeptics, and I get it. I always try to judge things for myself. I finished this game in one sitting, clocking roughly 10 hours. I constantly checked a YouTube walkthrough to gauge my progress, and every time I realized it wasn’t ending, I wanted to scream! It was pure agony. I don’t want this game near me ever again.

This turned into more of an immature rant than a review, I know but these are my unfiltered, raw emotions. I hate this game for what it is. I can’t simply stand it.

MindsEye's failures do include and not limited to: Pixelazation, broken DoF, bad lightning, terrible framerates, a shallow gunplay that lacks impact, no melee, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AI, 2010's old fashioned ''One Man Army'' types of missions which lack any substantial thought, bad music (I don't remember anything from the BGM other than it was an annoying loop sounding like it was an AI experiment), bad puzzles, side objectives not meaning any ♥♥♥♥ and so on.

The story starts off ok and goes too convoluted for the scale of the game. Awful ending, awful characters—it’s one of those scenarios where you recruit someone, see her for like 5–10 minutes on screen, she disappears, and your "relationship" progresses over comms (all while you drive through a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ desert and probably aren’t even listening). Then suddenly, she becomes the most important thing ever to you, and everyone threatens you over her.

There’s a tower-defense-type side objective where I got a gold medal without any effort, and I don’t even know what that was about. I think these are supposed to be tutorials, like, "Oh, see? You can build this too!" I don’t give a single ♥♥♥♥ about your "EVERYWHERE", dude.

Free roam was locked behind main story completion, and by the time I finished the game, I’d lost all interest. Everything acts like a prop in this game. So then, one must ask: Why go through all this trouble to create an open world? You don’t even have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ map. Just a minimap with a marker, a world devoid of anything interactable, and a GPS routing that always ♥♥♥♥♥ up.

The driving isn’t half bad and is probably the best thing the game has to offer—but you can’t even drive any car you want. It isn't sandbox fine, but you’re stuck with Jacob’s car unless the game lets you switch in certain missions. Jacob loves his company car too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much!

The traffic is outright disastrous. Apparently, nobody in Redrock knows how to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ drive: One person jams the entire traffic flow. Crossroads get clogged even when the route is clear and the light is green. Cars line up in gridlock despite there being a wide-open lane.

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You have a drone. That little thing at least makes the game slightly less unbearable even if not exciting. Your guns might as well be worse than airsoft props — no recoil, no bullet drop. Just stay behind cover and occasionally shoot randomly into the air. I promise the bullets will find their way. I barely died once or twice until the final third of the game, where it suddenly went full ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. At some point you raid a ziggurat, do Tomb Raider-esque puzzles. All the things GTA was notably famous for.

The game looks blurry and as oily as a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Gustav Klimt painting once you step outside the cutscenes. I'll say night time is better, but the DoF is too messy, and despite what some might claim, the draw distance is not that good. We see all that distance, foliage at the state of Unreal, and then go back to play this. What are we doing here? Ngl, the UI & HUD are very clean.

I hardly got 60 fps with DLSS Quality and frame generation on (4K with a 5080). There were moments when the frame rate completely cracked and I was getting 15-25. Yes, with FRAME GENERATION. Without it, I was barely seeing 30 fps with DLAA or TSR without much going on the screen.

You can kill a few at your company's factory - you can get away with that. But killed too many? No no no, we can't allow that. Then enters a quote from Robin Hood (which later on I learn is an in-game moniker). That said, you can kill anyone in the open world without consequences because there are no cops to chase you off, lmfao. And seriously, what are those quotes all about? Why gimmick COD in the worst way possible?

I could do this all day if Steam allowed me. Believe me I have a strong disgust going on for this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a dung pie. MindsEye is one of those games I've played. One of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ at it. To conclude here's an inspirational quote from Jacob Diaz:

''Everyone's playing someone.''

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Here's the damn curator. Out of characters. Ciao.