The Alters, from 11 bit Studios, was one of our favourite games of 2025. A resource management masterpiece, it put you in the shoes of Jan Dolski, a construction specialist marooned on a distant planet who finds he has no choice but to make half a dozen clones of himself to manage his base and survive. The Alters: The Last Variable DLC explores a “what if?” scenario that brings new challenges, new decisions, and of course, new Alters.
Given that the original has several pretty definitive endings, I was super curious as to how 11 bit were going to produce DLC at all. Now that it’s here, I’m happy to see that it all makes perfect sense. In universe, of course. This follows a specific ending that I never saw, where Jan Scientist chose to remain on the planet after the others were either rescued, or escaped. Fast forward some time, and an elderly Scientist is forced to clone himself one last time in order to carry on his essential research. Essential to him, that is, as it becomes apparent that Earth has abandoned this planet altogether.
See, there’s an Oasis in the barren wasteland of lush vegetation and clean water, and when the planet goes through its “Hot Phase” and the sun nukes everything every 13 years, the Oasis simply survives. Jan Scientist dedicated his life and considerable mind to the puzzle, but was never able to solve it, since every 13 years every research station and module he’d set up had to be taken down or was destroyed.
Left with nothing but a jittery AI representation of Jan for company, the Scientist decides immediately to create Alters. However, he only needs fellow eggheads, and so programs the Quantum Computer to sift through all the possible Jans to only produce academics. Thus, the four new Alters here are a Physicist, Biologist, Chemist, and Geologist. And boy howdy, is every version of Academic Jan a dick.
The main thrust of The Last Variable is similar to the main game but with a few notable changes. For a start, it’s no longer a mobile base, as Old Jan relocated it underground. Instead of gathering resources to outrun the sunrise, you must now gather enough Organic material to put everyone into stasis during the planet’s Hot Phase. It means that instead of coming to a new area every time the sun comes up, you’ll simply need to re-establish your pylons and resource lines. As you research new and improved ways to build modules and pylons, this will become less of a problem.
As before you’ll spend your day out gathering resources and researching. While there is still an element of base and mood management, it’s secondary to the Work, which entails researching samples and analysing them in the newly built S.A.M (Sample Analyser Module). You’ll put all your findings on a whiteboard as you struggle to solve the mystery of why the Oasis manages to outlast a 13-year nuclear summer over and over again.
There are more modules to build in the base, new dangers out on the surface, and of course new interpersonal problems to solve. The first Jan I got was the Geologist, since mining quickly and researching resource efficiency seemed paramount. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to get over-excited about projects and then ditch them, so the tasks he gives you have a frustrating likelihood of being a waste of time. Then I chose Jan Physicist, who’s a Tony Stark-style rockstar scientist in his false reality, which makes him a bit of a diva here. By the time you’ve unleashed all four, you’ll have your hands full keeping them happy and alive.
A smaller group to manage and a smaller spread of Jans to choose from should make it easier to control events, but sadly that’s not the case. Turns out, when you have a bunch of maverick geniuses with access to this level of tech and resources, things can get out of hand quickly. I won’t spoil some of the weirdest hazards they manage to cook up for themselves, but suffice to say that Jan Dolski really is his own worst enemy.
New environmental hazards such as earthquakes give you more to prepare for, while you’ll have new structures like underground pipelines to develop while also researching new and returning advancements like improved batteries and climbing hooks. Ultimately the goal is to terraform the planet to match the Oasis and thus make it permanently habitable, but everything seems ranged against you.
Once again, Alex Jordan is fantastic as Jan, portraying each of the Alters as a very different, distinct personality. It’s not as extreme as we saw in the original game, but each one is noticeably individual, and he imbues the Scientist with a great deal more awkward charisma than we saw before. He was always the Dad of the group, and that’s the case here, as his cloned offspring essentially run amok with experiments and theories of their own. Alex Jordan deserves all the awards a voice actor can earn for this performance.
As with the original game, The Alters: The Last Variable can occasionally punish mistakes quite hard, and now and then I came close to being completely overwhelmed. Limited saves return, though you can save and exit at any time now, not just at the start of a new day. Losing everything at the end of the second Cycle because I forgot to adequately plan ahead was heart-breaking, but at least I could load an earlier save and course correct.
While it lacks the greater variety of Jans, 11 bit have packed so much new stuff into The Alters: The Last Variable that it feels like a sequel. Offering at least 20 hours of new gameplay along with replayability to review some of your choices, it’s a hefty slice of sci-fi adventure that manages to be just as captivating as the original. The fact that the stakes have completely changed is also impressive, as it never feels like you’re just retreading old ground to get to the same conclusion. Frankly, this is how an expansion should be done. If you fell in love with the original game’s Jan Dolskis, then picking up the Last Variable is an absolute must.
