The Altersis a bizarre, unsettling, and often mind-bending science-fiction adventure filled with serious moments, but it’s not above some much-needed levity here and there. In fact, there’s a case to be made thatThe Altersis 11 Bit Studios' most comic and personable game to date, with little of the bleary-eyed pessimism ofThis War of MineandFrostpunk. Indeed, it has the potential to be remarkably funny, on top of being moving and thought-provoking.
The most objectively humorous parts of the game, though, come in the form of the many films players can find scattered around its biomes. If one has constructed a Social Room in their mobile base, they can pop in one of these films in an effort toraise their Alters' moods—they can often put a smile on the player’s face too, as it happens. But these movies are quite different from the rest ofThe Alters: they are live action, produced by a duo known as Chris and Jack, who are otherwise absent from the rest of the game. This might raise an obvious question: who are Chris and Jack, and what is their connection toThe Alters?
Every movie inThe Altersis three in-game hours, but only a few minutes of real-time.
Chris and Jack Have Lent Their Comedic Talents to The Alters
There Are Nine Short Films from YouTube Duo Chris and Jack in The Alters
Chris and Jack is the name of a YouTube channel helmed by Chris Smith and Jack De Sena. The comedy team has been behind a number of viral videos, withThe White Room, a sketch about a strange afterlife intake procedure, being perhaps the most easily recognizable. Several other sketches, likeThe Perfect Wish to Outsmart a GenieandGroundhog Daying, have enjoyed similar levels of recognition, garnering millions of views over the years.
The duo is defined by their off-kilter and witty humor, which generally hinges on the fullest, most absurd execution of a single idea. For instance,Future Ex-Girlfriend, one of the Chris and Jack skits featured inThe Alters, is about an awkward encounter between a man and his time-traveling girlfriend from the future, who has long since fallen out of love with him and found a new partner. This silly and disarmingly sad situation is at once hilarious and heartbreaking, which makes it a natural fit forThe Alters' hard-to-define tone.
In reality, many of Chris and Jack’s skits arewell-suited forThe Alters, as the duo clearly has a penchant for ridiculous sci-fi premises. This is exemplified by the videos 11 Bit Studios curated for the game, whose subjects run the gamut from far-future intelligent life toMen in Black-style mind-wiping and 80s-era alien monsters alaThe Thing. The duo’s irreverent comedic stylings and unexpectedly cerebral concepts are likely what attracted 11 Bit Studios to them in the first place.
Did Chris and Jack Make Original Videos for The Alters?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that any of the Chris and Jack videos inThe Altersare made specifically for the game; some of the in-game movies were published on YouTube several years ago. Of course, many of the films seem tailor-made forThe Alters' unique narrative, like howPeople Who Always Finish Your Sentencesleans into the horrors of overfamiliarity, or howAsk Me Something Only I Would Knowfocuses on duplicates and doppelgängers.
Maybe the future has some extra surprises in store for Chris and Jack and11 Bit Studios fans: the two entities may find their stylistic similarities too powerful to ignore. But for now, it’s enough to know that Chris and Jack’s comedy will be introduced to an all-new audience courtesy ofThe Alters.
WHERE TO PLAY
The Alters is an ambitious sci-fi survival game with a unique twist. You play as Jan Dolski, the lone survivor of a crash-landed expedition on a hostile planet. To survive, you must form a new crew for your mobile base.
Using a substance called Rapidium, you create alternative versions of Jan - THE ALTERS - each one shaped by a different crucial decision from the protagonist’s past.
