Ever imagined what your life would have been like if you’d set out on a different path and made completely different choices? Well wonder no more and pick up a copy of Activision’s 1986 life-simulation game, Alter Ego.
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Alter Ego was envisioned and created by psychologist Peter J Favaro and published by Activision in 1986. In an interview with Gnome’s Lair in 2007, he revealed that the life experiences within the game were ‘built on a foundation of hundreds of interviews I conducted with people about their most memorable life events – combined with stuff I just made up!’. The title was originally published for the Commodore 64, DOS, Apple II and Apple Macintosh, but a free online version is now available and can be played here.
I came across Alter Ego while browsing through the 1001 list and wondering what to play next. A game where you could effectively ‘re-live your life’ sounded curious so I tracked down the online version and spent the rest of the afternoon playing. There are a few reviews of Alter Ego across the internet and the majority of them rate it pretty highly, but I have to say that personally it left me with mixed feelings… but then I guess a game about life is meant to do that.
As mentioned above, this title is a life simulation and allows players to make choices for an imaginary character – their alter ego, if you will. As such there’s no real plot because it’s entirely focused around you and the decisions you make: choose a scenario, decide how you feel about it and how you’d respond, and see the consequences of your actions. What affect would these choices have on a person and their personality? It’s certainly an interesting concept and one that makes for an intriguing game.
At the beginning of Alter Ego players are presented with a list of true-or-false questions such as ‘The people who know me best like me the most’. These may seem pretty random – even weird sometimes – but they’re very reminiscent of those used for psychometric testing. They’re designed to create a character who’s assigned with personality statistics based on the answers given, and it’s then up to the player to guide them through seven life phases from infancy to old age.
Choose your answers and create your alter ego.
You start off as a baby and are presented with a branching tree of icons, each representing a different experience: social, physical, emotional, family and, once your character gets older, vocational. Clicking on one of these will present you with a scenario such as “You are sitting in a highchair, eating your lunch which consists of crackers, strained peas and a mug of milk.” Decide on your mood (angry or curious in this case) and an action (let’s face it – we all know you’re going to try and escape from your chair). You’re then presented with some text that details the outcome which will affect your personality statistics, before choosing a new icon in the tree.
A couple of problems with Alter Ego present themselves quite early on within the game. Firstly, it may seem as if you’re given quite a bit of freedom with your choices but this sometimes isn’t the case; for example, you’ll often be told that the mood and action you’ve chosen don’t match so, rather than being given with a number of options for a scenario, you’re only presented two which pretty much amount to good or bad. Secondly, the text detailing the outcome of your choices can often be read as being a little ‘preachy’ and you may feel as if you’re often being told off!
Answers that don’t correspond mean you don’t get as much choice as it first seems.
It’s probably worth pointing out here also that some of the life experiences you’ll come across during a playthrough may be a little ‘disturbing’; for example, at one point you may be confronted by a man who is trying to get you into his car as a child. Death hides in many places and you’ll find that violent crimes, accidents and disease can hit you especially if you have a tendency to behave recklessly; but always pick the safe option and you may not be able to succeed in social situations! There’s also a bit of sexism present in the game but it’s mild and reflective of the attitudes from when Alter Ego was first released. Rather than being offensive, it kind of just adds to its hilarity.
An entire page is devoted to your statistics and can be accessed by clicking on the graph icon in the top left corner. Here you’ll find details on your character including their scores for calmness, confidence and trustworthiness, along with the amount of money they have in their pocket and thoughtless spending! I found trying to manage these to be pretty difficult and after a while I actually stopped checking the figures; for the most ‘realistic’ experience, I’d recommend checking the stats only every once in a while. After all, life doesn’t come with a guide.
I’d recommend that you try to ignore the statistics whilst playing.
Depending on how you behave in various situations (and which life experiences you choose from the tree of icons in the first place), your statistics will evolve differently. This does actually make a difference throughout the life of your character: you may or may not be eligible for certain jobs in the future; you may or may not have chances to attend educational institutions; you may or may not have the opportunity to build a relationship and marry… just like in real life.
There aren’t many graphics in the online version of Alter Ego, just an image of a baby at the beginning of the game and the icons representing scenarios. The original version was very similar so this was never going to be a title that gets rated highly in the graphics section. The same is true for sound: in a couple of reviews I found that writers mentioned hearing ‘bleeps’ whilst playing, but all I got was silence.
Each icon in the tree represents a different scenario – and that’s it for graphics.
Despite having been written in 1986, this title somehow still manages to feel relevant. Perhaps it’s because the narrative focuses solely on human elements and examining our actions – why we do the things we do and what impact these have on it – or maybe it’s because the setting and scenarios are vague enough to feel as if they could be happening at any time. However, a problem for some gamers may be that the game isn’t ‘modern’ in its thinking and, for example, you won’t be able to have a same-sex relationship.
As I said above, it is indeed a fascinating experience and despite its seriousness, there’s an undercurrent of humour throughout Alter Ego. Unfortunately however, this wasn’t enough to save it for me personally and I found that the constant stream of scenarios got rather repetitive after a while. And, once I got survived all the experiences and ended up at old age, I found myself dying in the middle of the road after deciding to brave the cold weather to make a shopping trip to buy presents for my presents. What a way to go.
What a way to go…
Alter Ego is a game I’d recommend picking up for the sheer curiosity factor and the ability to ‘relive’ your life is definitely an intriguing one. But I’m sad to say it just didn’t do it for me; perhaps the old adage about only living once suits me better than always wondering ‘what if’. I would however be very interested to see what a current developer would do with the title if they were to create a remake set in the modern time… cat videos and video game memes, anyone?
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