How Jan Miner Becomes a Crash Course in Player Choice

The Alters is finally here, and it’s proven to be a strong, meaningful continuation of 11 Bit Studios’ unmistakable survival gameplay formula. While it’s a clear evolution of both This War of Mine and Frostpunk, it’s also strikingly unique, injected with fresh storytelling and mechanical elements that help it stand out from the rest of 11 Bit Studios’ oeuvre.

Chief among these new elements is The Alters‘ ambitious and multifaceted approach to storytelling. Whereas in, say, Frostpunk, players are a faceless, nameless captain leading their flock as best they can, The Alters puts players firmly in the shoes of one well-defined character: Jan Dolski. Of course, the game’s central narrative conceit makes things much more complicated, as all the NPCs are, in fact, just different versions of the original Jan, but it’s through these unconventional character interactions that The Alters‘ choice-based storytelling comes into play. There are several crucial decisions that players will have to make during their time with the game, and the early stages of Jan Miner’s narrative set the expectations for this system in spectacular fashion.

Major spoilers for The Alters ahead, especially Jan Miner’s storyline.

The Alters Review

The Alters is a cerebral, thought-provoking, and beefy story-driven survival game, and undoubtedly 11 Bit Studios’ magnum opus.

What The Alters’ Jan Miner Teaches About Player Choice

The Alters: Jan Miner’s Story Explained

Like all Alters, Jan Miner is named after his chosen discipline: he is a dedicated miner, choosing this laborious path in his early twenties, diverging from the other Jans by accepting a mining job offer orchestrated by their abusive father. He takes great pride in his profession, but it’s also a source of tension and shame, the cause of the amputation of his right arm. Unable to work because of his disability, his self-esteem plummets, and he descends into substance abuse.

When he is created by Jan Dolski, his right arm is fully intact, but this is far from the end of his troubles. He experiences body integrity identity disorder, feeling immense pain in his right arm and demanding painkillers for relief. Players are thus presented with one of their first major choices of the game: give Jan Miner the painkillers, or refuse and encourage him to work through the discomfort. The paths have vastly different outcomes:

Give Jan Miner the painkillers: Jan Miner will abuse the drugs, leading to accidents on the job which will eventually result in his death.
Refuse to give Jan Miner the painkillers: Jan Miner will amputate his right arm himself, or enlist the help of Jan Dolski in amputation.

So, if players want Jan Miner to survive, they will have no choice but to either amputate his arm, or allow him to amputate it himself. Once this happens, Jan Scientist will propose an advanced prosthetic arm for Miner, while Jan Technician will offer a more narratively complete, challenging option: to grow the arm back, giving Miner a second chance to do things right, as it were. So, even in these early in-game days, the Miner has already provided the player with two major crossroads, which both have the potential to completely redefine the The Alters experience in the long-term.

It’s likely that the Jan Miner conundrum will be the first major story decision that players will be faced with, and it’s quite an introduction to the system. Miner’s struggle is no mere frivolity: it is literally a life-and-death scenario. This might be something of a rude awakening, as similar games typically ease players into such crucial decisions, but this just further proves The Alters‘ boldness: Jan Miner is a powder keg thrown into what might be a mostly breezy playthrough early on, and he teaches a clear lesson about the gravity of player choice, setting the tone for the rest of the game.