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A Hekki good time
1000xRESIST opens up with a rather brutal scene of the player character, Watcher, murdering her “ALLMOTHER” in cold blood.
Okay, you have my attention.
It’s a rather jarring start, as you’re immediately shunted back in time to see everyone – including Watcher – giving praise to the ALLMOTHER as they say goodbye to one of the sisters. Each character uses in-world jargon or phrasing as they speak to you, and things start moving fast, so there’s no time to really get settled into the world.
Despite (or because of) this, the world is immediately interesting. Each of the sisters are clones of the ALLMOTHER, most people in the world have died, and something got to them. Soon after starting, your character starts moving back and forth through memories at different points in time, as you piece together little bits of information on the “ALLMOTHER” character, your sisters, and the past. This time travel mechanic is also seamlessly used to navigate through the world and environments therein.
Publisher: Fellow Traveller Games Developer: Sunset Visitor Platform: Played on PC Availability: Released on May 9, 2024 for Windows PC and Nintendo Switch |
This flipping back and forth, combined with its non-linear narrative aspects, can sometimes make the adventure a bit disorienting. I think that makes things more interesting. It opens up new avenues of storytelling for the game, and allows you to guide your own experience with the story in a way that a normal cutscene would not. Sometimes you have dialogue to choose from, or maybe you’re just running trough a nearly empty zone as words fly by. This variety extends beyond just the mechanical aspects of gameplay.
See, 1000xRESIST is a lot of things, but it becomes very hard to say, specifically, what type of game it is. Part mystery, adventure game, and even part visual novel, it’s impossible to pin down. That ambiguity exists within the story and narrative of the game as well, as it leaves you crumbs of information that may seem like nothing as you play, which then blow up into major revelations.
The core experience of the game is done through exploration of the mission areas. You’ll walk through, talk to people, solve some puzzles, and watch some cutscenes. There aren’t many major decisions to make, and there aren’t any battles, but the game keeps you on your toes through its storytelling. I was always reading every dialogue box intently as I clumsily forced my way through the environments, trying desperately to piece the events together before the game outright explains it to me. And there’s a lot there to unpack.
I loved the way they used lighting and angles to convey ideas throughout the cutscenes.
The game makes expert use of various techniques to paint a picture for you in each scenario by changing perspective via camera angles – shifting from first person to third, side-scrolling to fixed angles. 1000xRESIST is always trying to tell you something, and I’m not certain I have grasped everything that was intended. I don’t necessarily think you need to. Certainly, there are themes about family, independence, living as part of the immigrant diaspora, living under fascism, nature vs nurture, and so on, but I think it’s possible to play this game and just enjoy what is in front of you without deep examination. The story itself is moving and interesting, even if you can’t quite get it. Yet, every time I closed the game, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Thinking about what was happening, wondering what I missed, or even creating my own theories about where things were going. Perhaps I didn’t get it all, but the journey itself was rewarding and exciting as I went through.
Where the narrative experience succeeds, I find the actual gameplay falls a bit flat. While they may in many ways be intricately tied together, running through the environments can feel clumsy, and the constant time shifting can make the exploration a chore. Even the hub of the game, The Orchard, seems like a maze; which is undesirable since the hub's only purpose is to house characters you interact with. Realistically, outside of walking around (or zipping around in some of the memory sequences), there’s not much to the actual mechanical gameplay. I can forgive that, as it’s mostly used as a narrative delivery mechanism, and the environments themselves are deeply interesting, even if the actual textures or geometry are extremely simple.
That excellent use of imagery extends to the gameplay moments, as well.
Graphical fidelity, performance, and animations may not be the game’s greatest strength, but I find they’ve made great use of the tools to deliver meaningful and interesting ideas. You don’t need ten thousand strands of hair to see the fear or sadness in Watcher’s eyes as increasingly horrific events unfold, but the excellent blocking, lighting choices, and dialogue certainly elevate the scenes.
Ultimately, I found the game to be a lot of fun to play through. I constantly thought about where things would head, and I admired the care with which the story and characters were developed. There are some things I didn’t love about the game, sure, but it doesn’t plod along or stick around for enough time to make those apparent flaws stand out amongst the positives.
Verdict
1000xRESIST is an excellent narrative adventure game with a lot to say, but not so much to do. Despite its lack of interactivity, the game delivers on its great characters, story, and music. Positioning itself as an examination of the realities of existing within an immigrant diaspora, 1000xRESIST strikes at the heart of what it means to be human.  |
Image Credits: Taylor Rioux
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