Review: 1000xResist Never Lets You Go

Sometimes, you play a game that just captures your interest in such a way that you can’t escape. You need to play it every waking moment until you get through it for your own peace of mind. Because you have to know what is going on. 1000xResist is that sort of game, as its powerful narrative and insight into both real and imagined experiences practically beg you to see them through to the end as quickly as you can.

Watcher is one of six prominent sisters in the Orchard, a civilization buried underground, attempting to survive hundreds of years after alien entities known as the Occupants came to Earth. Their arrival brought a plague to the planet, one so devastating that only one woman named Iris survived. Before the rest of humanity fell, she eventually became capable of creating clones of herself. These women didn’t possess the same immunity to the disease, but could live masked and underground. But now this society may be under threat, as Principal, head of the Orchard, orders Watcher to “commune” with the other heads like Bang Bang Fire, Healer, and Knower to investigate a possible traitor in their midst that suggested something wasn’t right regarding the ALLMOTHER that made them. It’s up to the player to follow Watcher on every step of the journey, observing and making critical decisions that will shape the sisters forever.

1000xResist blends elements of both walking simulators and visual novels, if you need more clear-cut explanations for how its story is told. However, neither explanation is exactly adequate. It’s more of an experience than everything. We’re seeing this cinematic retelling of a critical historical figure’s life in this alternate world. Since the current life of the sisters is so foreign to us, we’re only able to attempt to best interpret what is going on and take away how people’s pain, and that of those related to them who came before them, shape their future. How we can use what we learn from that to carry onward and make new choices.

From chapter to chapter and communion to communion, experiences in 1000xResist can vary. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. But perspectives can involve a first-person or third-person view, for example. You may be in a situation with more interaction, involving shifting between available and unlocked time periods to advance Watcher’s progress and take in new information. It could involve scenes set in a smaller space, with Watcher walking around as the ALLMOTHER, and interacting with items or talking to people. There will always be moments where you’ll be teleported to a more barren space with minimal color schemes and objects, then need to leap with the triggers to rappel to fixed points and reach certain people to trigger conversations and memories between people critical to the ALLMOTHER’s development. Lighting, perspective, casts, and other elements can all change to suit the situation in an instant. 

Which means that these elements can always match the current mood of 1000xResist. From insights into the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, reactions to a deadly pandemic brought on by visitors known as Occupants, and responses to Iris behaving like a typical teenage girl who may occasionally be selfish, disrespectful, or cruel, Sunset Visitor addresses and captures it all. More importantly, it handles it all tactfully. There’s a rawness to the emotion and recreation of memories of Iris’ activist parents, Iris’ own behavior toward Jiao as teenagers, and other situations that arise when viewing the ALLMOTHER’s past and investigating sisters. 

The only real issues I have with 1000xResist feel like ones that would happen with any first game from an indie developer like Sunset Visitor. Sussing out where Watcher is when she’s in the Orchard and finding where her sisters are is a huge pain. There are no quest markers or detailed quest log, not to mention no map, so finding your way around is more frustrating than atmospheric. The first time I needed to use Watcher’s warping abilities to fly around during a communion, I felt incredibly lost. A better introduction to that would have been great. But given spaces aren’t often too big and there’s no real risk when learning how to dash to the spheres in those memories, they’re minor qualms. Once you find your bearings, they’re easy crosses to bear.

I’d even say that the issue with the lack of map, navigation assistance, and introduction for those memory portions forced me to take in more of the atmosphere. I needed to spend more time in the Orchard while finding my bearings. This meant I happened upon more other sisters who would be under Bang Bang Fire, Fixer, Healer, Knower, and Watcher, and thus got additional context about the world. It meant maybe seeing more scenes and insights into them. For example, exploring the Orchard for sisters in chapter two meant Watcher ended up getting a package outside her quarters that offered more insight into her relationship with a sister.

1000xResist is provocative in such a way that its characters, events, and lore keep tickling your brain and urging you to continue. You may put the game down for a moment, intending to do something like eat or sleep, but you won’t stop thinking about it. The themes, arguments, and history it suggests keep at you until you go back, pick up your controller, and continue Watcher’s investigation. Even then, when you uncover the truth and reach an ending, it doesn’t leave you. It pulls you back in for more. What did you maybe miss? What would you change? You need to return to the Orchard.

Hekki allmo.

1000xResist is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC.