The Indie Informer

When you play a lot of games, you often find yourself looking for that one special thing – a mechanic, a character design, a plot beat – that sets it apart from the rest of the pack. In the worst scenarios, that moment never arrives, but in Altered Alma, it only took about 20 minutes for me to find the thing that hooked me in for the rest of the demo: a scarlet teleporting dagger called the Quantum Blade.

Altered Alma is a metroidvania from 2Awesome Studio that stars Jack, a cyborg fighting to survive in the cyberpunk city of Neo Barcelona. The Quantum Blade is a tool you find pretty quickly in the demo, but once you unlock it, it’s hard to imagine a version of the game where it isn’t a part of your arsenal. At the tap of a button, Jack can toss the dagger at a foe, object, or surface to teleport directly to it, which is exactly as fun as it sounds. 

Metroidvanias are a genre defined by a fusion of action and exploration, and the Quantum Blade makes both feel loads better. Combat on its own is pretty tough. Enemies have simple attack patterns, but they hit hard and take several blows to defeat, so I have to tread carefully even in the most basic encounters. Luckily, the Quantum Blade evens the playing field a bit, giving me an all-in-one tool for approach, evasion, and retreat. I can also hit some opponents with the blade for special moves if I time it right, rewarding me with a unique animation and an instant kill.

Exploration is improved as well. Simple platforming becomes engaging, thanks to the ability to teleport at will. I can cross wide chasms by chaining teleports aimed at the ceiling, while certain red canisters mounted on walls let Jack teleport to a different spot on-screen entirely. Even the most basic jumps allow for a certain degree of creativity if the player is so inclined. The demo only lasted me about an hour or so, but there’s a lot of potential in this one straightforward mechanic.

The story didn’t have much of a chance to shine through in my playtime, but 2Awesome Studio has similarly lofty ambitions on that front. Altered Alma aims to mix its action gameplay with dating sim-style affection systems with the crew of Jack’s ship, The Esperanza. The Steam page also indicates that you’re not just limited to heterosexual partners – and that these animated romance scenes can get pretty spicy – so it seems like there’s something for everyone. I got a chance to exchange a few words with Henry, the first crewmate you meet, but given that the game is aiming for more of a long-term arc, it only offered a glimpse at what was to come, which is enough for me for now.

While the demo only held about an hour’s worth of content, it left an encouraging first impression, and I’m looking forward to playing more when Altered Alma launches sometime soon.