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1000xRESIST Complete
I finished 1000xRESIST about a day or so ago. Verdict: it’s very good.
Also, fair warning, it’s longer than you think. I kept getting into sequences where I’m like “oh they’re wrapping things up” and… nope. Another entire section. And then another. Total playtime for me was 13 hours. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome or get too diluted necessarily, but it’s one of those things you should keep in mind as you play.
Speaking of “playing,” as previously mentioned, 1000xRESIST is definitely on the walking-simulator side of things. You have to talk to certain people to move the story forward, but you can also run around and talk to a bunch of different people too. I very much encourage you to do so, because there were surprisingly poignant side stories that were tucked away in unassuming spots. That said, there are definitely some really cool time jump sequences where you can bounce back and forth to navigate around obstacles. Plus, the devs really mix things up with perspectives at times.
So… what’s it all about? It’s tough to go in deeper than a surface level without getting into spoilers.
Essentially it’s a sci-fi story wrapped in a coming-of-age story wrapped in generational trauma and real-world (Asian) political events. Specifically, the Hong Kong riots of 2019. At times, this both worked and didn’t work for me. There is a kind of banality when it comes to political metaphors in fiction, IMO, especially when things are so on-the-nose. The 3-Body Problem book series starts out with Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but it’s not about the Cultural Revolution. With 1000xRESIST, the game is mostly about the Hong Kong riots back in 2019 and ensuring diaspora; not only were the parents of Iris protesters who eventually fled, but the alien beings who invade are labeled Occupants, the deadly disease they bring causes you to leak water from your eyes (tear gas), etc, etc.
That said, the rest of the dialog and interpersonal relationships within the game make it worthwhile. Seriously, I ended up taking over 100 screenshots throughout the game from when the writing shocked me and/or made me abruptly laugh. The banter is witty, biting, and sometimes all too real. The shifting gameplay elements are unique and kept things interesting. I’ve mentioned it previously, but I also extremely enjoyed the world-building language of the game as well. Still want to use “hair to hair” IRL.
Overall, I enjoyed my time.
Me-Haul
Ever have a birthday, say, two weeks ago and then just ask yourself “what about second birthday?” That’s where I’m at right now. So, I bought some games and now I’m going to talk about them.
- Enshrouded – $23.99 (20% off)
- Nightingale – $17.99 (40% off)
- 1000xRESIST – $15.99 (20% off)
- killer7 – $4.99 (75% off)
The first two items there are survival crafting games I’ve had an eye on for months.
Nightingale in particular is interesting because the developers are pulling a full FF14 Realm Reborn angle called, er, Realms Rebuilt. It is not uncommon for Early Access games to have to completely retool after realizing they drove off a design cliff – Icarus will forever be my go-to example – but a total progression wipe and pivot towards non-procedural generation seems a bit weird when the central conceit of your game is ever-changing fae realms. Also, the CEO straight-up said: “We are not satisfied with where the game is at, we’re not satisfied with the overall sentiment, we’re not satisfied with our player numbers.” The Art Director then went on to say:
“Ultimately, what we realized about the procedural nature of the realms was that the procedural generation and procedural assembly of these things is really all in service of telling stories, and of letting players discover stories,” Nightingale studio director Aaryn Flynn told PC Gamer. “When you peel it back, when you recognize that that’s why we built all this tech and did all that is to tell stories, you can then ask yourself, ‘Well, are we doing that?’ Are we being successful in that?’ And we’re being only moderately successful with that.”
“We went through Enshrouded, Palworld, V Rising, we went through a lot of the bigger, quite successful survival crafting games, not just in terms of sales but in terms of player perception. And it was really the structure that stood out as something they offered that we were not offering,” Flynn said.
Gotta say, I appreciate the candor. At the same time… I can’t quite pin down why it all feels strangely off. Nightingale getting an offline mode two days after “release” was a hard pivot based on overwhelming player feedback. That’s good. Changing the narrative structure of your game based on the sales figures of other Early Access survival crafting competitors? That’s… certainly one way to do it. Hopefully it works out, considering I just bought the game, but I also hope it works out for the people who already enjoyed how the game was up to this point. Although it certainly seems like they’re saying there’s not enough of them to matter.
The second two titles are both truly random picks based on A) being on sale, and B) me hearing effusive praise for them on Reddit. Who says advertising doesn’t work? 1000xRESIST is not a game I could easily describe, and after reading the IGN 9/10 review for it, I somehow feel like I know even less than before what it’s going to be about. From what I’ve read about killer7, that one may be even more incomprehensible. But, well, I’m a simple man, and if you invoke Evangelion, Neir: Automata, Kojima, and/or Disco Elysium enough times, my wallet will appear. Provided it’s not MSRP.
In An Age 
Decemberiment
Dec 1
Posted by Azuriel
Trying an experiment for December: just post stuff as I go.
Finished a second session of 1000xRESIST. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken so many screenshots. Looks like… 58 total, so far. Not really because of the visuals, although those are good, but rather the sometimes hilarious, sometime brutal dialogue.
And then you get into stuff like this.
That’s not really brutal, but most of what I’ve taken have spoilers so, yeah.
The experience has been great overall, although it is absolutely a walking-simulator style game. You walk around, talk to people, get pulled into crazy sequences, do some very light puzzle work with time skipping, and, uh, fly around by shooting at glowy purple things? It’s kinda weird.
The other thing I wanted to briefly talk about here is that I really, really enjoy the general weirdness of the made-up words/phrases it has. “Hekki ALLMO,” “Sphere to Square,” “Six to One,” “Hair to Hair,” and so on. A lot of games and/or media stick in random crap into dialog to enhance the “realness” of the fictional world, but many times it feels forced or otherwise a token effort. Think of all those fantasy games where people exclaim “By the [#gods]!” and basically nothing else. A Handmaid’s Tale did a fantastic job with its phrases; Game of Thrones had a lot of phrases, but, eh, sometimes felt more (ironically) rote than meaningful. 1000xRESIST lands much closer to A Handmaid’s Tale. Maybe it’s the repetition or something like the smaller scale of interaction.
Or maybe it’s just fucking catchy and evocative. “Hair to hair” is nonsense, but you could make sense out of it. Standing back-to-back? Being linked genetically? Regardless, it’s cool.
Posted in Commentary, Impressions
2 Comments
Tags: 1000xRESIST, Experiment, Hair to Hair, Phrases