The Alters: Last Variable

Loved this DLC. It's practically a whole game in itself. If you liked the base game, you'll definitely like this.

Божественной игре божественное дополнение. Как же я скучал по всей этой движухе. Впереди еще 20 часов нового контента, новых переживаний, тревог, подколов, экзистенциальных вопросов, раздражения и смирения, философии и магнитных бурь. Однозначно лучшая игра последних 10 лет. Надеюсь этим DLC всё не ограничится. Искусство

"People love to hear the same thing said in a slightly different way."

I love the fact that I spent all the hours and efforts in the DLC so it has no meaning at all at the end. 11/10 never play this DLC again.

非常好续作，虽然不如本体但是扮演科学家探讨问题步步逼近真相的感觉也很爽，拉管道很好玩就是优化有点拉。总之非常美味😋我说地质学家萌哭了有没有懂的，你们挖矿的都好萌随时都要受伤，继忠犬矿工后又一活泼大耳狗秒了一切。我说[spoiler] 反正零点机器成功不了，要不用量子计算机把敏娜桑都造出来在这个星球造多个绿洲大家一起生活不好吗。不过我真喜欢11bit这口BE，好美味TAT[/spoiler]

This is not a DLC technically. It’s the sequel, part of a two-part saga. The DLC is, strictly speaking, an almost entirely new entity built from the DNA of what came before. Instead of hunting for specific anomalies, you now must locate samples. You also have to lay down networks of pipes for three new resources, creating a different level of complexity. You still have to avoid anomalies and climb and drill; some things never change. Heh…some things never change… On top of that, instead of three different large regions, you are stuck in one massive region you continually expand into. This did make the late game more of a chore than a challenge. The opened regions proved more difficult to navigate, and I felt this was more of a time sink. I truly enjoyed the new mechanics, but at the standard difficulty, this is a much easier game to play. The alters you make are simpler, with shorter story arcs. And unfortunately, the game still suffers from the technical issues that plagued the base game—getting caught in terrain, spastic teleporting, and frame rate drops, an issue which gets compounded as your network expands. And the new mechanic, pipe networking, is intuitive but also frustrating, as you need to coordinate around geysers to split, combine, and accelerate production. This process is NOT intuitive, and I had to check discussion boards to fully understand the solution. And you will sink HOURS into the creation of this network JUST to funnel these three resources to your static base. I will say, however, that upon my final network, I did feel accomplished and satisfied that my web actually worked. It also helps that pipes don’t clip into one another, and no judgement if you broke the game to make your network operational. At 20+ hours, I found this to be an amazing game and worthy of purchase, with an added caveat… You have to be invested in the story. This is not a tale about survival and the pursuit to return home; it’s a story about obsession and a scientific mystery a group of characters ultimately sacrifice their minds and potentially their lives to solve. From the first minute, the game drops a sudden twist that knocks you off your feet, revealing an existential crisis it continues to dive into. Later choices only compound the issue, forcing you to confront the futility of human life against the age of the cosmos, culminating in an ending that has so far polarized the fan base. While I did predict the ending a couple of hours before the actual final act, it still surprised me with a few more shocks I wasn’t expecting, ending on a moment when the ending I chose (and yes, there is more than one) made me cry. But as a consequence, I return to the first line of this review. I don’t see a sequel to The Alters ever happening. This DLC is it, and once you play the game, you’ll understand why. There will likely never be an Alters 2…and for right now, I am okay with that.

After the update, the game constantly lags for more than 2 seconds at a time. This didn't happen before the update. Although the graphics have improved, I've lost the gameplay experience. The frequent screen stutters make me feel frustrated and rebellious.

Дополнение хорошее, хуже основной игры из-за меньшего количества диалогов, их слишком "научной" направленности и ощущения картонности происходящего из-за странного и почти отсутствующего взаимодействия самих альтеров. В плане геймплея тоже все несколько затянуто и присутствует куча лишнего бэгтрекинга. Но не критично. В общем если основная игра на 8, дополнение на 7. И я бы даже сказал что оно обязательно к покупке если бы не - [spoiler]абсолютная бессмысленность происходящего в плане сюжета, где нам показывают что решение ученого оказалось неправильным, он ничего не добился, а мы как игроки ничего не узнали. [/spoiler] . И именно из-за того что игра вообще непонятно что пыталась донести и зачем нужно это дополнение с сюжетной точки зрения, его в целом можно спокойно пропустить, ибо в целом 15-20 часов бороться с искусственными преградами и растянутым геймплеем ради этого - пустая трата времени, которая забудется через пару минут. Тем не менее за проделанную работу поставить отрицательный отзыв не могу.