Self-cloning strategy game The Alters is getting a 20 hour terraforming expansion that plays with the problem of age

Self-cloning sci-fi strategy game The Alters is getting a DLC expansion in which you terraform the world of the original game, using cryosleep to fast-forward the years, even as your hard-working alternate selves age and wither. Out on 13th July, it's a 20 hour epilogue starring Jan Scientist, one of Jan Dolski's vat-grown doubles, who creates his own workforce of clones while investigating a phenomenon called "the Oasis".

Over the course of the expansion, you'll build up a new underground base, populate the volcanic soils with flora and fauna, and contend with the planet's increasing hostility to your efforts. It's not quite clear from the release, but I imagine there's also a moderate risk of being dragged from your cryopod and crucified by a bunch of septuagenarian doppelgangers. Anyway, with useful irony I can't think of any more synonyms for "clone". Here's a trailer.

Much of the drama in The Alters came from exploring the differences between yourself and your alters, each not just a biological replica but a character spawned from different choices in a parallel timeline. You also had to deal with the question of hierarchy – Jan Dolski is kind of a mess and yet, he's the Jan in charge of all the other Jans, the one who gets to sleep in a Captain's bed, in a classic case of middle management failing upward.

By the sounds of things, Last Variable will intensify those disagreements by introducing the problem of divergent ageing. "Unravelling the mystery of the Oasis requires specialized analysis from specialized alters - a Geologist, Biologist, Chemist, or Physicist," explains the press release. "Yet each Jan has his own view on what science truly means. While you descend into a years-long cryosleep in your underground base, waiting for the planet's scorching sun to retreat, those working in Field Labs don't have that privilege. As they age without that protection, can the vulnerability of time still change them?"

The rhythm of play appears to see you going to sleep and waking up in landscapes dramatically changed by your previous decisions, sometimes for the worse. It's kind of the original game's loop of travelling between areas, but this time, you're travelling between epochs. "Each transformation shifts the landscape, spawns new resources, and awakens the planet’s defensive mechanism - more frequent earthquakes, severe radiation waves, and other threats," the press release goes on. Ugh these planets, always making a fuss when people try to plant flowers in them.

Aside from experimenting with different soil types, you'll want to add modules to your Cryosleep Chamber, "which will buy you more time and let you witness the long-term effects of your scientific actions." Field Labs, finally, allow your alters to continue their work while you slumber.

I thought The Alters was "an extraordinary, unwieldy, high-concept management game". I'm happy to see that they're making it even loopier. Read more about Last Variable on Steam, GOG, and EGS.