I didn’t read any reviews for 1000xResist before I picked it up earlier this month. I just saw that it had gotten tremendous scores and went for it.
As I started reading reviews and even some of the games’ marketing material after I beat it, I was surprised by how many plot details were pretty openly being talked about and spoiled. And I get this. Oftentimes, to market a game, you need to give away a few of the plot hooks so that people want to buy it. But a few things I read in other reviews were moments that actually really stunned me or pulled me in when I was playing the game.
Thanks to the nature of most video games, it can usually be easy enough to focus more details of a review on the actual gameplay and just give a general overview of the story. When it comes to 1000xResist, which is completely a narrative game with no real gameplay to speak of, even just figuring out where you are and the smallest basics about what is going on feels like a big spoiler to me. I spent much of the first hour of the game very unsure as to what was going on. As I explored areas, talked to more people, and slowly figured out the slang that the characters use, things started to click into place more and more. The rewarding feeling that comes from this “eureka” moment is one of the better moments in the game.
If you like narrative games, and if you like sci-fi, 1000xResist is definitely a game you should check out. Because of that, this will be a pretty short review that I will keep as vague as possible.
What Could Have Been
That first hour with 1000xResist, where I slowly started to figure out everything that was going on, was not always a blast. The aforementioned slang in the game is not hinted at super well and makes it hard to decipher just about anything that is going on. But about an hour in, a specific plot moment had me absolutely invested and wanting to know what would happen next. I started to understand much more about this world at around that point as well.
From there, the game kind of falls into a rhythm, as you look into memories from the past which help give context into the mysterious “Allmother”, who the citizens of the world look to as a god of sorts. The revelations regarding who she actually is get increasingly interesting as the game goes on. Through the first 5ish hours of this 10-11 hour game, I was sold on this being my favorite story of the year. I played 1000xResist on my Switch, which I rarely play when I’m home, but it was all I could touch for a few nights, because I was so enamored with this world and the characters in it.
And then… things change. The story structure shifts dramatically in the second half of the game, and the same rhythm that was present early on is no longer there. I found the characters that are introduced in the second half of the game to be far less interesting than those from the first half of the game as well. I can’t say things were bad. There were still plenty of interesting things that happened in this stretch, but I’d also say that the plot loses a lot of momentum. I went from pretty much only playing this game to it just being one game in my rotation.
This all leads up to an ending that gives you some fascinating choices to make, but that also never really makes it clear how your decisions made things shake out, at least with the ending I got. I’m sure if I replayed it and did different things, I might be able to figure that out, but I had no desire to go through all that by that point. In the end, I left 1000xResist feeling an odd tinge of disappointment. If the first half didn’t reach some dizzying heights, I feel like I almost would have liked the second half of the game more. I want to make clear once again that I don’t view the second half of the game as bad. It’s just “merely” good, while I viewed the first half of the game as absolutely magnificent. It’s an odd dynamic that left me feeling extremely conflicted about what my final thoughts were.
A Walking While Lost Simulator
The other main disappointment for 1000xResist that is present throughout is the navigation. Outside of some mediocre but inoffensive grappling hook segments, walking around the hub areas of the game is the main “gameplay” that is present. In each chapter of the game, while you can go progress the story whenever you want, you can generally explore and talk to a lot of different characters that both flesh out the world and the current events that are taking place significantly. The first few hours in the game, in particular, have some incredibly interesting and valuable conversations that helped me slowly put the puzzle of this world together.
The problem ends up being that the main hub where the game takes place is incredibly windy and confusing. The game gives you waypoints to help you figure out where to go, but often, you will have an objective right in front of you and it turns out you have to go all the way around in some elaborate manner, possibly even going down a level only to go back up in a different spot to get where you want to go. There is also no map to help you out either. I probably spent at least 30-45 minutes of my 11 hours with the game feeling frustrated trying to get where I wanted to go next.
The worst part is that this confusing navigation discouraged me greatly from exploring and getting all of those valuable side conversations in spots. When I stumbled upon the place I needed to go to advance the story, I rarely wanted to explore any further out of fear that I would get lost again. Even when 1000xResist is at the peak of its narrative powers, it consistently loses momentum as you get stuck trying to find your way to the next objective again. I found the hub design to contain an insane amount of bizarre decision-making, and it truly is a shame. Luckily, not every area in the game is that confusing, but the main area is, and it is a bit of a nightmare.
Luckily, the overall production values of the game fare a bit better and help enhance a very good story in ways that the navigation does not. The voice acting is strong and delivered in interesting ways that help enhance the atmosphere of the game. And the art direction is solid throughout. I actually kind of enjoyed the lower fidelity of the game. It somehow meshes with that art direction in a very charming way.
When deciding what score to assign to 1000xResist, I ended up using a pretty basic formula. I thought the first half of the game was a 9/10, almost exclusively held back by those aforementioned navigation issues. And I thought the second half of the game was a 7/10, as it still had good moments despite losing the hooks it had in me a fair bit. If you enjoy narrative games and sci-fi, I certainly think 1000xResist is still worth a look, as it is still one of the better stories in video games in 2024 so far. But god damn, I was really hoping it was on its way to being the best story of 2024. Alas.
Score: 8.0/10
Big Nerd Gaming 
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