Game Thoughts: 1000XResist
I've just hit the 1000XResist credit sequence roughly one week after going into the game completely blind, having knee-jerk purchased it after 10 seconds of game trailer.
I regret nothing - the game was fantastic. I spent most of the week horizontal with a back injury, and couldn't have asked for a more engaging distraction as I healed.
This title won't be for everyone. It's a very linear visual-novel-esq game consisting almost exclusively of talking to NPCs and listening to monologues in small exploreable areas. You mostly watch the story unfold. But what a story!
This is games as art. This is a story that explores a lot of concepts via its bizarre post-apocalyptic setting. Humanity's been wiped out by an alien-borne virus that causes people to cry themselves to death. Only you and your clone sisters remain, dutifully serving the ALLMOTHER.
Warning: Massive spoilers after the jump.
-I mentioned before that you mostly watch the story unfold, but the fact that your choices are meaningless is itself an important aspect of the story - both because much of the game is played out as one huge flashback, and simultaneously as a play on the lack of choice / decision often experienced by teenagers and children -- particularly those from certain cultural backgrounds.
This is the lifeblood of the narrative in 1000XResist -- cleverly reflecting the challenges of Chinese immigrant families/children into the wild abstract sci-fi world presented.
Many aspects of the game are straightforward about these metaphors, such as the Outsiders' flight from a tumultuous home to resettle on earth. Others are more subtle yet embedded in the fabric of the game's world, like how all the characters are ageless clones - a subtle reference to common racist western stereotypes of east asian people "all looking the same" and "never getting older".
I'm sure a million other things went over my head here as it isn't my lived experience -- but I picked up on enough to appreciate the care the developers put into mapping these experiences into worldbilding.
Interwoven with all the metaphors and references the actual story takes place. It's a story about faith and betrayal, love and hate, duty and rebellion. It has moments that are nerve wracking, others that are bafflingly abstract. It has scenes that are warm and fuzzy, and those that are cold and heartless. It made me feel a lot of things and kept me on my toes with each chapter.
The game started slow enough that I was worried things wouldn't pick up, however once things did pick (after the 2nd communion) I was absolutely hooked for the rest of the ride. Though I wasn't a fan of the ending I played through, I did appreciate how the final (and only) choice you make as a player gives you time to be methodical and examine your decisions carefully. You take everything you learned over 10 bewildering chapters and decide which threads to cut to forge a new future.
The developers made something really special here and constructed out an unforgettably unique narrative experience. It's a small, low-budget package, but it packs a lot of big surprises.
Red to blue, sisters. Hekki ALLMO.