With less than two weeks to go before The Alters: Last Variable arrives on July 13, 11 bit studios has released a gameplay trailer showing what Jan Scientist has gotten himself into. The expansion is coming to PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and PC, the same platforms as the base game.
Last Variable picks up after the base game ending in which Jan Scientist refuses to leave the planet, waking from cryosleep years later to study the Oasis, a strange fertile phenomenon on an otherwise hostile world. Since the work can’t be done alone, he starts creating again, this time building scientific versions of himself, including a Geologist, a Biologist, a Chemist, and a Physicist. Each Jan has his own idea of what science should be. In my review of The Alters, the bigger draw was the story and the rotating cast of Jans rather than the moment-to-moment gameplay, so I’m excited to see how the approach works for a new collection of Jans.
Much of the new loop is built around terraforming, with Jan converting barren sectors into habitable zones that spawn new resources while also provoking the planet’s defenses, including more frequent earthquakes and severe radiation waves. There’s an underground base to build across different soil types, new modules to research like the Cryosleep Chamber, and Field Labs where Alters continue their work on the surface while Jan sleeps through the planet’s harshest cycles. The catch is that anyone outside cryosleep keeps aging, so every long nap has a cost for the rest of the team.
Last Variable requires the base game to play, though it doesn’t need a completed save, and 11 bit studios estimates the expansion at around 20 hours on its Steam page.
