Alter Ego

About

Alter Ego is a text-based role-playing game where you shape an entire lifespan through thousands of multiple-choice decisions. Starting at birth and ending at death, each pick influences your character’s personality, relationships, and career. Choices range from handling schoolyard conflicts to pursuing wealth or love, with distinct storylines for male and female protagonists. The 2017 update preserves the 1986 original’s pick-a-path structure but adds a smoother interface and bug fixes, keeping the focus on branching narratives over action. The game’s simplicity and depth have earned it a 4.5/5 rating on Steam with 85% positive reviews. Its retro style appeals to fans of old-school interactive fiction while remaining approachable for newcomers. With countless possible outcomes and a runtime that stretches into dozens of hours, it’s a quiet but compelling exercise in storytelling. The fact that it’s still engaging nearly four decades after its debut speaks to its sturdy design.