1000xRESIST

In 2047, a race of aliens called “the Occupants” arrives on Earth. A deadly virus brought by them almost completely wipes out humanity in less than a year. The only person unaffected is Iris, a teenage girl who remains immune to the virus for unknown reasons. When all efforts to communicate with the Occupants fail, the last survivors recruit Iris to experiment on her. Their attempts remain fruitless and the remaining survivors die before they reach their goal. Overwhelmed by her loneliness, Iris perfects the cloning procedure and eventually manages to create five identical clones of her to keep her company.

Fast-forward several centuries later to the starting point of the game, the player finds themselves in a bunker filled with Iris’ clones, who multiplied over the years and eventually evolved into a new society. They call each other “sisters” and worship Iris as the “Allmother”, the one who birthed each one of them, the only one who is not only immune to the virus but now also immortal. Six sisters were chosen to have special roles that keep this society together: President – administers and oversees the bunker, Fixer – mechanically fixes broken things, Bang Bang Fire – responsible for military defense against the Occupants, Healer – in charge of cloning, Knower – keeper of historical records and ancient knowledge. You play as the Watcher – the last of the chosen sisters, whose task is to observe the world around her and to commune through feelings with others.

The game hooks you right from the first moments with a shocking opening cinematic: we see Watcher stabbing Iris, full of anger for the one who has been her goddess and role model all along. The first part of the game will take you through all the events that lead to this scene, built upon the above synopsis. A floating AI device that follows Watcher wherever she goes also allows Watcher to perform “Communions” with Iris, re-living Iris’ memories. Through these communions, Watcher comes to some surprising revelations about Iris’ true nature and where her immunity and immortality come from. As for what happens in the second part of the game, that’s for you to discover, to avoid any further spoilers.

1000xRESIST is a game that is hard to fit in any box. It plays like a walking simulator, but the environments are not really created to be explored and despite them being visually appealing, their purpose isn’t to divert the player’s focus from the story, but to support the immersion. Due to the amount of dialogue and the choices you can make during conversations, it also plays as a 3D visual novel. In some ways, it can also be seen as a narrative-driven linear adventure game stripped of any puzzles. Only one type of minigame exists, in which Watcher teleports from node to node (similar to using an invisible zip line) until she reaches a specific location that triggers a memory. This minigame occurs several times throughout the game but only one instance is timed, and it has a very generous timer. If I were to describe the game in a nutshell, I’d say that 1000xRESIST is a walk-n-talk adventure with light puzzling, perhaps similar to Telltale games or Life is Strange.

The actual strength of the game lies in its unique and innovative storytelling which is bound to blow your mind even from the first few minutes of gameplay. Because of how complex the narrative is, it’s difficult to express it in words. Essentially, the game makes use of all sorts of creative techniques to transform its audience into a Watcher, enabling them to employ mental associations or empathy to understand the story in depth. Playing 1000xRESIST is similar to the feeling you have when you look at a piece of art. You can’t understand a painting from a logical point of view. You can debate and analyze it logically but you “consume” it, you “take it in” by absorbing it as a whole. And this is exactly where the mastery of 1000xRESIST’s storytelling resides. By mixing reality and surrealism, the game gives the player information bits like puzzle pieces. Some things are clearly explained, others are left to the interpretation of the viewer or merely hinted at. Until the very end, you will feel confused about some parts, but deeply fascinated and intrigued at the same time about the whole experience. The title itself gives you the first enigma to solve: with “RESIST” being an anagram of “SISTER”, the title directly points at the clones’ society and perhaps also at the time that elapsed since the cataclysm (1000 years).

The game also likes to throw at you statements that you won’t initially understand, but which you will learn to interpret or comprehend later in the game based on the game’s world and lore. The most straightforward example of that is the dialogue options that Watcher has in the intro cutscene. Replying to Allmother before stabbing her is a choice between three cryptic options: “red to blue”, “six to one”, or “hair to hair“, the meaning of at least one (if not two) being somewhat deductible from the synopsis – in any case, all being later explained.

While the narration is linear (there are no branches), exploring the memory fragments isn’t. Just like in reality, when a memory can trigger another memory, Watcher will scramble through Iris’ memories back and forth, despite them being unlocked in a sequential (ordered) way, one at a time. Navigating the memories also allows in some specific circumstances location navigation (to get past a locked door, you go back one memory, move your character to the target location and then go forward to the desired memory). Like in a Tarantino movie, the memories are not visited in chronological order; they’re scattered over time and space. The game also heavily uses deja vus in two very creative manners. In some dialogue with cryptic choices, these options are actually fragments of what other characters said earlier in the game. Reading them is already enough to trigger a deja vu in the player, who will then try to connect that event to the current dialogue and direct the conversation accordingly. The second one presens scenes already shown to the player, but modified and extended with insights that reflect the realizations that specific characters reached.

At deeper layers, the story also has strong cultural and historical references. The Hong Kong Umbrella Movement is a big part of the plot, although not necessarily explicitly stated. Iris’s parents met during one of the protests, several character storylines are suggestive of China’s oppression and express the need to be individualized, to define themselves, while others wear an umbrella. Even the title could hint at the Hong Kong RESISTance.

1000xRESIST is like a diamond with many facets, it’s a deep philosophical masterpiece that reveals something new, a different perspective every time you turn it towards the light. The game is fully voiced in English, the soundtrack is top-notch and the camerawork is also spot-on. For me, 1000xRESIST was a one-of-a-kind experience blending all these together, with a storyline that immersed me so deeply that I couldn’t stop thinking about it even in between my gameplay sessions spread over several days. Even after finishing it and its multiple endings, I had to revisit some bits which allowed me to reach some new realizations. The story is so packed with symbolism that it’s impossible to grasp everything in a single playthrough. All-in-all, 1000xRESIST is in all aspects a brilliant game.