I personally love this game. The game is a simulator in the manner of the Sims, but unlike the Sims, you control one person – your alter-ego, as it were – and choose from a variety of icons leading to a whole array of different situations and experiences, which shapes your character's personality throughout their virtual life. Each scenario gives you a number of different choices, and as you progress further through your lifespan, you get more scenarios available to you, such as those relating to employment or serious relationships.
It's best described as being a real-life simulator, but since most of the gameplay is done using text, “text-based simulator” would be equally applicable.
Your character starts as a baby and progresses through six stages of life - Childhood, Adolescence, Young Adulthood, Middle Adulthood, Late Adulthood and Old Age. Every action you choose naturally has consequences, but unlike the Sims, for example, these actions could have consequences far in advance. In the Sims, if a friend caught you gossiping about them behind your back, your relationship would decline slightly but it would all be forgotten in a day. In Alter Ego, however, a similar situation might cause your character's Trustworthiness to fall, or your relationship with this friend would be hurt and would lead
to this friend not helping you later on in life – this is how deep the gameplay goes here. Trustworthiness is just one of your character's statistics, and these all go together to shape your personality; the answers to the questions you give in the “quiz” you take before starting the game proper determine your beginning statistics, and the choices you make as an infant help shape them for later life.
But because of the incredible freedom you have, it's very possible to never get the same character twice, even if you're playing to do just that. Better yet, it means that you can tailor-make characters in whatever image you choose. You like James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause? You can make your character to be just like him, defying his parents, raising the ire of the people he met, even getting a motorcycle at some points. Prefer to re-live your own childhood days, but differently? You could have your character study hard, go to college and end up earning a six-figure salary or work out, train hard and try to go pro with his football career if you really want.
The following people should play this game: fans of the Sims; fans of simulation games; people with a God complex; people interested in reliving their own life; people who like good games; people over sixteen (because there are certain scenes that contain some mature content). If you fall into any one of these categories, do yourself a big favour and download this game.
