1000xRESIST

Dec 25, 20244 min read

Hekki grace, a wonderful gift from the ALLMOTHER!

Watcher standing with an angry expression on her face with a jumble of multiple images behind her - from 1000xRESIST

MOVIES

- No new movies watched since last time, but that will definitely change over the Christmas holidays, so there will be plenty of fresh stuff in 2025.

- I have watched Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning again, which I still think is a better Matrix movie than Mission: Impossible film.

- I've also watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and 28 Days Later again recently, both of which are still excellent.

- And now comes the dawning realisation that I haven't written about that last movie just yet...

GAMES

- 1000xRESIST plot summary: The year is unknown, and a disease spread by an alien invasion keeps you underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in serving the ALLMOTHER, until the day you discover a shocking secret that changes everything. (IMDb)

- First things first, 1000xRESIST is incredible and this is basically going to be a list of things I loved about it.

- So let's get the minor negative/less good bits and pieces out of the way first, starting with the fairly limited gameplay.

- Pretty much the entirety of the game is moving around environments and finding people and objects to interact with and delve further into the story.

- These environments can be confusing at first too, especially the main area called the Orchard, although I quickly grew used to it and figured out my own way of navigating the criss-crossing paths.

- The upside to all this is the number of ways the developers, Sunset Visitor, vary how you navigate the many locations.

- The majority of the time it's from a fairly standard third-person perspective moving around open areas, which most people will find familiar from many other games.

- However, there are also 2.5D side-scrolling sections, viewing scenes from directly above and several switches to a first-person perspective, including a chilling torture scene where you are the victim.

- Likewise, the next 'issue' of being fairly... simplistic visually compared to other 2024 games may put some off.

- Then again, the buckets of style lavished on some very well-designed areas, along with some excellent cinematography in cut-scenes and other narrative-driven sections were more than enough to compensate for the game's otherwise rather basic appearance.

- And that's genuinely my only two 'problems' with the game, because the rest is uniformly exceptional.

- The score is sublime and I do intend on purchasing it to listen to separately from the game thanks to just how good it is.

- The voice acting is fantastic and credit has to go to every member of the cast for bringing each individual to life and especially to those playing the clones for making them so distinct from each other.

- Oh yes, the summary above doesn't mention that, does it? Watcher is a clone living in a society populated by other clones all grown from the same source as her.

- If you think that would only make things confusing, then think again.

- Not only do the voice actors work wonders making the clones distinct in tone, speech patterns and more, the wonderful writing goes even further.

A miscellaneous shell known as Blue, who has an important role to play in deciding how the story ends - from 1000xRESIST

- And this is where we get on to 1000xRESIST's greatest weapon, which is the writing.

- The character work is sensational, with each clone feeling like an individual making them unique from each other.

- The quality of the dialogue is phenomenal too, with some absolutely killer lines that I'll remember for a long, long time.

- But it's the story where the writing shines brightest, encompassing so much that it barely seems possible that is could be coherent, never mind as impossibly brilliant as it turned out.

- The game starts with a flash-forward and the first part of the game is building up to that point while experiencing flashbacks to a thousand years earlier and how the world ended up in its current state.

- And that's only the very tip of the iceberg, with you uncovering more and more revelations through communions with your 'sisters' until the shit really hits the fan.

- I say that, except the story is so well-constructed that there was one point that I ended roughly five consecutive chapters with my mind blown and my only thought being "wait, what?"

- And these twists aren't just for shock value or for the sake of it either; each one is well-deserved and entirely fitting with the story at each point.

- I'm not even going to get into the themes of generational trauma, identity, immigration, politics (oppressive governments in particular), scientific ethics, and more that are juggled masterfully.

- Even then, if you're part of the Asian diaspora (specifically those with links to Hong Kong), there's even more for you to sink your teeth into.

- After finishing 1000xRESIST, I immediately watched a Let's Play and was astonished all over again at just how well-written and told the story is and the characters involved.

- Hell, I'm not really one for video essays, but will make an exception for this game and have been reading/watching every scrap of analysis I can because of just how engaging this game was.

- I can't praise this game high enough and will be thinking about it and inspired by it for a long, long time to come, even though I'm aware that it really isn't going to be for everyone.

- That said, 1000xRESIST is genuinely one of the best narratives in gaming I've ever experienced and it makes me wish that there were a lot more games like this. [10/10]