1000xResist Review – Perhaps the Best Narrative Experience In Video Games

Every year, there are games that are, in the minds of some, criminally underrated and not given the credit they deserve, whether by the large-scale media, awards season, or public tone. For a certain subset of narrative indie game fans, last year's underrated game was 1000xResist by a new Canadian studio, Sunset Visitor.

It was released first on PC and Nintendo Switch and was nominated for several awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Director, Story, and Character at the DICE Awards, Best Debut and Best Narrative game at the GDC Awards, and Excellence in Narrative at the IGF Awards, but would only actually win a Peabody Award for Interactive and Immersive Work. I didn't play it last year, though I heard a lot about it and was keen to jump at the chance to review it now that it is arriving on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

I'm not going to use this review to rant about games that should or should not be recognized in award season. Something is going to get missed every year; that's just how it goes. What I will say is that I think it is absolutely criminal that 1000xResist was last year's big miss.

1000xResist is by no means a perfect game, but it has to be said that what Sunset Visitor has created here is one of the best narrative experiences in video games, bar none. There's no real gameplay to speak of, and by the time you're reaching its final chapter, you might be emotionally tired and feel like you just want it to end, but its flaws do not come close to truly weighing down what is probably one of the best narrative games ever, and for my own personal rankings, perhaps the best story I've experienced in a video game.

I love games, but as a means of telling stories, they are not my first love. That belongs to theatre: plays, musicals, opera. Those are the artistic experiences that have given me such immensely powerful stories that affected me the most from a young age, so much so that theatre was my life, professionally and personally, before I started covering video games and writing criticism.

1000xResist is the closest a game has ever come to matching some of the theatrical experiences I've had, and I hold it in the same regard for its storytelling that I do Tetris for its gameplay. It's simply a must-play. You owe it to yourself to experience this game, regardless of the kinds of games you like.

I will avoid spoilers where I can, because with the story being the core offering here, you're better off experiencing it yourself if you choose to play it. There are, however, a few contextual details that I feel are important to outline when talking about this game, so be warned that while I won't reveal anything too major, I'll discuss some key details you might not care to know about before going in, and some that you would have preferred to remain unspoiled.

With that said, some quick context that's not spoilery at all because it's in the basic description of the game and is all information you get early on. You play as Watcher, a clone living in a world where you and all of your clone 'Sisters' are given functions, and you live within those functions until the ALLMOTHER (sometimes called AllMo) calls you to live with her on the other side. When you start the game, the AllMo is revered as the God of this clone community, and her religious rule is carried out through you, Watcher, and five of your Sisters: Healer, Knower, Fixer, Bang Bang Fire, and Principal.

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Their names are their functions, with Knower being the keeper of the archives, Fixer being the one who fixes and keeps the facility working, Healer in charge of printing new clones and keeping the medical bay, Bang Bang Fire (mostly called BB/BBF for short) charged with keeping the facility safe from Occupant attacks, and Principal running the whole operation for AllMo as her administrative figurehead. Finally, the Watcher's job is to watch, to observe.

Occupants are these alien creatures who are why you're in this clone society in the first place. They are alien creatures who came to Earth many years before Watcher was born, and while they didn't attack humans outright, their presence caused a plague that decimated the human population, driving remaining survivors underground and leading them to research new means of keeping humanity alive, hence the cloning.

The AllMo, who was a young Chinese-Canadian girl named Iris in her life before becoming the God to hundreds of clones made in her image, is the only one who is immune to the disease, so she is taken underground to be cloned, studied, all of which leads to a series of events that lead to the story you experience.

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To avoid spoilers for as long as possible, with that all laid out, I'll start by talking about the gameplay, or more accurately, the lack thereof. There's no real gameplay loop to speak of here. For most of your time, you are just walking/running to different NPCs, talking to them, and moving the story forward. Because large chunks of the gameplay do involve you entering what are called 'communions' with other characters, where you inhabit the memories of the AllMo/Iris and learn about her life, that space is less grounded in reality and contains sections where you fly from one point to another, but it honestly just felt like something to do that wasn't running around.

To be clear, I don't mind that there isn't any major gameplay loop or mechanic here. How you experience the story through dialogue trees, environmental storytelling, and cutscenes was honestly enough for me. I can appreciate that Sunset Visitor is trying to change things up with the sections that have you flying from one place to another, but they never felt properly woven into the storytelling.

In an otherwise very well-directed game, these sections felt directionless in their gameplay. Speaking of being directionless, the other major gameplay issue I have with 1000xResist is how easy it is to get lost in the main space you explore, the Orchard. I was constantly getting lost running around the Orchard, trying to find the next character I had to talk to. The layout of the Orchard is confusing, and the game doesn't give you a lot of help to find your way around.

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Now, it's not like the Orchard was made confusing to navigate for no reason. There's narrative intention behind the design, but that doesn't mean it was fun to get lost and have the pacing of the story broken up by moments where I want to move forward but can't because I'm suddenly lost and stuck running around. I get the 'why' behind it, but it's a choice that comes with drawbacks.

Since that's about all there is to say about the gameplay in 1000xResist, the story is all that's left, and it's also all it needs, because Sunset Visitor wrote a beautiful, layered, complex story that I genuinely think is important to play and experience in the same way I think it's important to experience work by artists like Wajdi Mouawad and Sarah Kane.

Remember all that context I explained earlier? You learn all that early on in the game, but that's not how it starts. It starts with you witnessing Watcher kill Iris, the AllMo, the original from which the rest of the clones came, and you begin to work your way up that event, learning what drove Watcher to kill her 'mother.' The first half of the game is about waking up to reality, about going from someone who is observing and 'watching' to someone who is taking action, and how we can't choose comfort and convenience over our humanity. The second half presents a nuanced and complex view of what resistance looks like, why it's important to resist those who would take from you, because not resisting means not being able to even breathe freely.

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While its core message of resisting plays out as what I feel is the core arc for the plot, you have all these incredibly powerful character arcs about a variety of difficult topics. You see a story about diaspora, the struggles that Iris and her family faced as immigrants from Hong Kong living in Canada. There's an incredibly powerful allegory for the societal damage wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and what came after. An impactful marriage story about two people pushed to unimaginable lengths, stories about friendship, about community action, and the whole time, the game is challenging you by asking you meaningful questions, asking you to decide where you draw the line.

What's unforgivable along the path of resistance? What actions are necessary evils, and what crosses the line? What can we learn from tradition, and where do we need to accept change? What can you forgive, and what can only God forgive, if God is still paying attention at all? Which moments in our lives define us, and do we get to choose what they are?

It culminates with the 1000xResist very directly asking you what to keep and what to leave behind. It holds a mirror to the world and makes you choose, with each of its seven endings playing out in different (and sometimes not so different) ways. The multiple endings are also another reason why I love this game. While Sunset Visitor is asking you these grand questions about life and the world, it doesn't leave its own feelings in total ambiguity. The studio provides its own answers, stands its ground for what it believes, and you're left to wrestle with that and everything else presented.

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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the story hits as hard as it does from more than just its incredible writing and voice acting. The striking images paired with a score that plays a huge role in making every big story beat have an impact, all work in tandem to make this game the best narrative experience I've had in a video game.

I also feel that I can't close this review without mentioning one last disappointment, which is I had a few more performance hiccups than I would like. Nothing too egregious, but it felt odd that on my PS5, a game that is not at all taxing on the hardware compared to the big triple-A titles of the modern era had any performance issues at all, with the frame rate dropping in some particularly important scenes.

1000xResist is a nuanced story that actually has something to say, that doesn't provide a clean image because life isn't clean. Life is disruptive, it's sad, it's violent, and it also holds beauty, love, happiness, and community. Living is more than suffering; it's more than just being alive, and you should resist anyone who tries to impose less than that on you, even yourself. A point hit home at every corner of the game, when you really start to think about how almost every character you meet in 1000xResist has the same face.

It's the kind of game, the kind of story that will always stay with me. I'll always be jealous of people who get to play it for the first time because I can never do that again. Play 1000xResist. Live for more than just being alive.

PS5 version tested. Review code generously provided by the publisher.

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9.7

WCCFTECH RATING

1000xResist

1000xResist is probably the best narrative experience I have had with a video game ever. Its incredibly impactful story is nuanced, complex, layered and most importantly, it actually has something to say, while asking you to reflect and wrestle with your own core principles and how you carry yourself through the world. It's unfortunate that its minor gameplay struggles bring the experience down enough to interrupt the pacing, but 1000xResist more than over delivers with a story that stays with you long after the credits roll. It is a must-play because it is a vulnerable, honest, and important work of art that everyone should experience.

Pros

• Nuanced, complex, and engaging storytelling
• Striking visuals and excellent score to match the narrative
• Strong voice acting performances elevated by the excellent writing
• A game that actually has something to say

Cons

• Getting lost in The Orchard can disrupt the game's pacing
• Flying sections feel disconnected from the rest of the game
• Minor performance issues

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