{"id":1539161,"date":"2026-03-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Uv6ZH4wdCNL8j3HBV35Wnj"},"modified":"2026-03-29T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:00:00","slug":"altera-is-a-hardcore-realistic-unforgiving-military-survival-sandbox-so-of-course-it-features-penguin-soldiers-with-reflex-sights-on-their-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/altera-is-a-hardcore-realistic-unforgiving-military-survival-sandbox-so-of-course-it-features-penguin-soldiers-with-reflex-sights-on-their-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Altera is a hardcore, realistic, unforgiving military survival sandbox, so of course it features penguin soldiers with reflex sights on their heads"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On the face of it, Altera<\/a> looks like a typical military survival sandbox. It’s a game about wandering through a massive, vaguely central European landscape in military camo, building a base, crafting useful items, and taking on missions from dead-eyed NPCs to shoot other dead-eyed NPCs in authentic ranged combat. It’s basically DayZ<\/a> without the zombies, PUBG<\/a> without the competition, ArmA<\/a> without the sensation that you’re piloting your character like a mech.<\/p>\n

In short, Altera couldn’t be more down to Earth if it had fallen into the Kola superdeep borehole, which is of course why it features penguin soldiers. What’s that? Your country doesn’t <\/em>have penguin soldiers? Well, we know who’s going to be conquering who, don’t we?<\/p>\n

I have been advised between paragraphs that penguin soldiers are not<\/em> a typical component of your average national military, and that the presence of penguin soldiers in Altera is, in fact, astoundingly weird. What’s even weirder is that developer Vulkanic doesn’t make a big deal about it.<\/p>\n

Vulkanic’s most recent Steam post<\/a> proudly announces that Altera has received more than 2,000 sign-ups to an upcoming playtest. I don’t know how that compares to your average playtest. But I do know that then going “By the way, here’s 50 seconds of weaponised penguins”<\/em> isn’t so much burying the lede as it is drowning it in a lake.<\/p>\n

How does a penguin become a soldier, you ask? Altera answers thusly. You strap a military helmet to your chosen aquatic bird which has a gun sight attached to the apex. You then aim down the gun sight, and the penguin shoots whatever’s in its path.<\/p>\n

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