What if, stranded on a hostile planet with a scorching sun threatening to incinerate you, the only hope for survival was to create clones of yourself? Not perfect copies, but Alters—alternate versions born from the life paths you didn’t take.
The person you might have become if you’d pursued science instead of manual labor, or stayed with a partner instead of leaving. What if these walking, talking regrets were the only crew you had to save your life? This is the central, mind-bending question at the heart of The Alters, one of 2025’s most thought-provoking and essential games.
The Alters: GOTY contender caught red-handed using generative AI
In a year marked by industry turbulence, where major publishers have stumbled with high-profile live-service flops and creatively stagnant sequels, The Alters arrived as a beacon of hope. From 11 Bit Studios, the acclaimed Polish developer behind the morally complex Frostpunk and This War of Mine, here was a single-player, story-rich, complete experience. It is precisely the kind of game a growing chorus of players has been demanding: ambitious, intelligent, and free of predatory monetization. It was, by all accounts, an early Game of the Year contender.
And yet, this same game, which was hit with delays until Q1 2025, is also the one that got caught red-handed using generative AI without telling anyone. The discovery of AI-generated placeholder text and shoddy machine translations ignited a firestorm, tapping into the deepest anxieties of a community already wary of technology’s encroachment on human creativity. This created a difficult question: how do you reconcile a brilliant game with a clumsy, ethically dubious mistake?
Why is The Alters worth defending?
To understand why The Alters is worth defending, you must first understand what makes it so special. It masterfully blends genres into a pressure cooker of both environmental and interpersonal hazards. At its core, it’s a survival game with a relentless timer; a sun on the verge of a cataclysmic flare forces you, as protagonist Jan Dolski, to constantly keep a massive, wheel-shaped base moving across a desolate planet to stay in the shadows. This “panic inducing time limit” underpins every decision, transforming resource management into a frantic race against annihilation.
The true genius of The Alters lies in its central mechanic. The clones Jan creates are not blank slates. They are born from a “Quantum Computer” that splinters his timeline, plucking out versions of himself from moments where he made a different life-altering choice. The Jan who became a miner is gruff and hardened; the Jan who became a scientist is brilliant but arrogant.
Each Alter arrives with a complete set of memories from a life Jan Prime never lived, along with their own personalities, desires, and deep-seated resentments. This transforms the game into a “workplace soap opera” where you must manage not only the base’s physical needs but also the psychological well-being of the crew.
This powerful emotional core is brought to life by a Herculean voice acting performance from Alex Jordan, who voices every single Jan, giving each a distinct and believable personality. It’s this human element that earned the game its widespread critical acclaim, with a Metascore in the low 80s and 90% positive critic reviews.
Why did the game receive backlash?
The game’s reputation was quickly tarnished when players discovered the ghost in the machine. A background graphic in the base’s Command Center displayed text prefaced with the unmistakable chatbot response: “Sure, here’s a revised version focusing purely on scientific and astronomical data”.
Worse, players in non-English regions noticed bizarrely literal machine translations for certain cutscenes.
The backlash was severe, tapping into a deep, industry-wide anxiety about “AI slop”, especially with GenerativeAI remaining as major obstacle after the recent SAG-AFTRA strike. Compounding the problem was the lack of transparency; the game’s Steam page had no AI disclosure, a violation of Valve’s policy.
In response, 11 Bit Studios issued a lengthy public statement. The company admitted fault, explaining the AI text was a placeholder left in by “internal oversight” and the translations were a last-minute fix for a tiny fraction of content—just 0.3% of the total text—due to “extreme time constraints”. Crucially, they said, “we acknowledge this was the wrong call… we should have simply let you know.”
And then they fixed it. Patch 1.1.0 removed the AI-generated text and replaced the machine-translated subtitles. They were caught, they apologized, and they made it right. This kind of accountability is rare and allows for a more nuanced view.
Despite the AI mistake, The Alters is definitely worth your time
In a landscape dominated by buggy releases and failed live-service games, The Alters is a complete, polished, single-player narrative experience. The AI wasn’t used for core creative work—not the story, art, or voice acting. It was a clumsy shortcut for minor elements.
Players are right to be skeptical of AI. The concerns are valid. But we also need nuance. This wasn’t “AI slop” replacing art; it was a human team making a mistake and taking responsibility. To condemn a game of this caliber for a corrected 0.3% error sends a muddled message. It tells the industry that creative risks aren’t worth it. Supporting a flawed but fundamentally good game like The Alters is a vote for the kind of game it represents. It’s a flawed gem, and it absolutely deserves to be played.
