Pong and Beyond

511th played so far

Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1986
Developer: Activision
Publisher: Activision

With there being 1021 games on the revised list, here we are – the actual, true halfway point of the list. And I’ll admit that Alter Ego wasn’t our planned halfway point (that game will follow at some point), but I started playing it to try it and was enjoying it that much that we both played through it.

Alter Ego is a role playing game of sorts – in that you play your way through life. A 1980s life, of course, no modern conveniences, but the idea is that you see ‘yourself’ develop as you go through things that happen in your life.

Our Thoughts

Alter Ego is strangely compelling, considering it plays for a large part as a visual novel or simple adventure – you just pick an answer (or two) each time, without anything more complicated. Menus allow you to see more detailed statistics, but that’s all based on your actions and I’m not quite sure how often they play a role – in part because you only see one outcome, unless you’d play again – there’s occasionaly feedback, but only in the most general terms.

It gets more complicated as you get to university and move beyond, as you need to keep track of education, start to keep tracking your job and income, and can be in a relationship. It gives you more choices over what choice adventures youget, but sadly it also means the more interesting story ‘tree’ isn’t available as often as you need a job or need to graduate. It still makes for an interesting story, but it someitmes felt a bit diluted as I felt compelled to go through more boring scenarios.

With some content updates, it even feels like the game could work today – an indie title with a slightly updated interface and graphics, but essentially the same game would still make for something playable today. That much is shown by the fact that I started playing my game, but soon after Peter wanted to join and make his own route through – he did very well out of that.

Final Thoughts

Alter Ego is, at its core, a pretty simple game, something more approaching the visual novel these days. It’s also incredibly fascinating, in a ‘what-if” sort of way that, especially now I’m a bit older than the first time I experimented with it years ago, makes me reflect on parts of my own life. It’s utterly fascinating on its own already and feels like it could do with a sequel.