Summary
1000xResist is a bold, heart-wrenching sci-fi game revolving around an underground colony of clones whose fragile lives begin to come apart.
Here me out about this crazy sci-fi scenario. There’s a global pandemic that’s ravaged the world. You’ve been confined to isolation in your claustrophobic dwelling alongside your closest of kin. You are a WATCHER; this means that you observe this state of affairs from afar, unable to alter events that’ve already occurred. This is your main job within the society you inhabit: to watch and to remember. That and to remember to wear your glowing, holographic face mask at all times.
Of course, the narrative-led indie gem 1000xResist isn’t only interested in unpacking the collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic that we’ve all anxiously pushed from our minds. It’s a science fiction story first and foremost, revolving around an uprising within a society of clones, who cultishly worship a matriarchal figure they call the ALLMOTHER. She gave life to these clones as their genetic origin and so they worship her with a god-like reverence.
But is that reverence truly justified? Does the ALLMOTHER truly have the best interests of the clones at heart? And is there something about the nature of their lives that is being concealed from them? These are the questions the game’s narratives will answer, culminating in a series of dramatic developments and twists that entirely upend what the player might be expecting.
The game will initially ask you to spend time among this clone society and truly understand what makes their lives similiar/different to our own. In service to the ALLMOTHER, clones are assigned various types so that they can fulfil their functions within this society: Watcher (History), Fixer (Engineering), Bang Bang Fire (Defense), Knower (Knowledge), Healer (Medicine) and Principle (Administration). The colours worn by a shell quickly and easily designate its type, while each function has a Shapen Sister who oversees that division. Every character you meet will in some way be defined in their service to the ALLMOTHER, whose needs the colony has been organised to provide.
It’s all a clean, tidy, efficient way of social categorising people who are essentially the same on a genetic level. Their professions are part of their visual identity, rather than just an incidental detail about their lives. They all cling to their work with reverence and appear content with the lives that have been arranged for them. It’s within this hierarchy that the protagonist, Watcher, has graduated to become the newest Shapen Sister and the narrative truly begins.
But don’t let the frequency of proper nouns and big sci-fi concepts in my summary give you the wrong idea. This isn’t a game that issues dry, overly-wordy dialogue that leans too hard on the philosophy – not most of the time, at least. The characters here, regardless of their functional names, are bursting with personality and soul. Despite being genetic clones of each other, they each manage to come across as full individuals in their own right. The team at the Asian-Canadian studio Sunset Visitor, alongside writers Pinki Li and Conor Wylie, have masterfully crafted a world and cast that feel alive despite their conceptual abstractness.
One memorable scene early on is between the self-serious Watcher and drunken Bang Bang Fire at a bar. Despite being in charge of military affairs, Bang Bang Fire doesn’t appear to take the job very seriously, as she makes a series of bad knock-knock jokes while Watcher berates her for being “inebriated.” In contrast, Watcher’s interactions with her closest confidant Fixer are deeply personal and heartfelt, contributing greatly to the emotional investment in the story. Meanwhile, her growing understanding of the ALLMOTHER through her memories drives Watcher’s actions for the rest of the story.
The game has strong moments of humour, of connection, of tragedy, while sometimes veering into disturbingly gruesome territory. The writing can be moving, darkly hilarious and thought-provoking without ever dragging down the readability or relatability of its dialogue. It embodies a wide variety of tones that never seem monotonous or manipulative.
Even the godly figure of the ALLMOTHER herself – or Iris, as she was once called – is grounded in a comparatively normal and nuanced life compared to this dramatic sci-fi scenario she presides over. As the player and Watcher will discover through communion with her memories, the ALLMOTHER was once just an ordinary Hong Konger-Canadian teenager, whose main worries lay somewhere between the difficulties in her parents’ marriage and the complications that come at school as a child of immigrants. This is where the game makes its most compelling narrative choice; it interweaves the grand idea of this futuristic clone colony with the deeply moving and relatable story of Iris’ growth across her life.
It’s Iris’s experiences, her choices, the person she will become, which will come to define the structure of how her clones live. The arbitrary rules of their society, the adherence to childish drawings and mediocre poems to govern their belief system, all of it comes from Iris herself. The inherent tension between the ordinary status quo of Earth we see in Iris’ memories and the post-apocalyptic future inhabited by her clones is what gives the game so much tension and mystery. It’s why telling the story through Watcher’s eyes is the perfect way into this multifaceted story that might’ve been too confusing otherwise.
As you may have already guessed from my description, 1000xResist is much heavier on narrative than on gameplay. The player controls Watcher as she navigates the ALLMOTHER’s memories, solving navigational and environmental puzzles while marvelling at the game’s vibrant and creative use of imagery. The Orchard where the clones live is also fully explorable and its complex layout will require you to actually look at the signs telling you where to go. Furthermore, you’ll pick who and how many of the shells and sisters you stop to speak with, utilising dialogue options that allow you to personalise Watcher’s tone in conversation, while also allowing you to question someone further. The gameplay elements largely exist to enhance the game’s captivating narrative. You really do feel like a participant in the game’s conversations and the claustrophobic interior space that is Watcher’s entire daily existence starts feeling a little like home.
The slightness of the gameplay doesn’t make 1000xResist a lesser game by any means. It’s a story that prioritises the player’s participation within it, just in more direct ways. The amazing sci-fi imagery conjured up by Watcher’s journey through Iris’ memories aren’t just images to be viewed through a screen; they are fully detailed environments meant to be explored at the player’s own pace. Conversations are to be partaken in, not merely viewed as a spectator. Without giving away any spoilers, the game also asks the player to make a big choice at the end that will dictate the way things play out. It wouldn’t be half as effective if there were just one static ending for everybody. The grand visuals of some sections of the game also seem like something that would’ve been difficult to execute in any other medium, where the stylised art style might not have been as appropriate.
It’s a game that exists in conversation with other story-oriented titles and it’s especially easy to recommend to those who enjoyed the narratives of games like Nier Automata, Disco Elysium, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim or Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and who are maybe less interested in a strong gameplay loop to go with it. The game reflects heavily on notions of self, generational trauma, relationships and, of course, the very idea of resistance against authority itself. It’s a powerful narrative that really does broaden what feels possible in telling a story through a fully digital medium. Despite its sci-fi scope and video-gamey aesthetic, it never stops feeling human at its core.
Unlike some books and movies, the game isn’t interested in making a statement to the player as much as asking for their input in the questions it raises. A character asks Watcher early in the story. “Is there a feeling worth being incinerated?” Judging from the emotional catharsis and one-of-a-kind journey that 1000xResist provides, I’d say the answer is definitely yes.
1000xResist is available now on PC, Switch and most recently, PlayStation, Xbox and Game Pass.
Featured image credit: Sunset Visitor
