Back in May 2024, 1000xResist launched to high praise across the board on PC and Switch, and so when it was announced for Xbox recently, we couldn’t…resist… seeing what all the fuss was about. While we left more than a little lost at the final few whirlwind chapters, we can’t deny being captivated all the same throughout.
We follow the story of Iris and her immediate circle of family and friends at the seeming end of the world. An alien race known as the Occupants have arrived on Earth, and spread a deadly virus around the globe. This tragedy forces people to scatter, wear masks, and fight to survive against insurmountable odds. There’s certainly shades of the 2020 pandemic in the themes here, as well as riots in China and commentaries on religion, amongst many other aspects.
These themes and ideas bridge to create a sci-fi narrative of immunity, deities, worships, family, love, loss and betrayal in its creation of a society of Sisters. Cloned from the ALLMOTHER – Iris’ assumed identity as an all powerful being – each live to perform specific functions; from Fixer who helps rebuild, to Knower who catalogues all knowledge, Bang Bang Fire and her mastery of weapons and defence, Healer attempting the help those in need, and Watcher, who observes and keeps an eye on things. It’s the latter that we control, and we see the world through her eyes, for all the good and bad that she creates.
The writing in 1000xResist is consistently engaging, and in the early hours we find ourselves drawn to the interactions with Watcher and her fellow sisters. There are dozens of optional dialogues to experience with other Sister’s outside of the core team, and whether we’re moving the story along or not, we enjoyed getting every little nugget of lore we could from the characters.
1000xResist is predominantly led by this narrative, and we’re never more than a few moments away from another conversation or story beat. Fully voiced acted but also letting us read the text and skip at will, there’s a lot to digest here.
Seeing as this is the case, it’s hard to fully delve into the game without spoilers, but we will say that across the roughly 12 hour story there are many, many twists and turns, flashbacks, alternate timelines and more. As we say, it’s rarely less than engaging mind you, and is a perfect game to sit and while away a few hours at a time.
In fact, we’d recommend you play it at least a few hours at a time. Due to the constant story progression and ups and downs of the story, it can be tricky to keep up with what is going on if you stop and start playing. We played a good chunk of this on our new ROG Xbox Ally X and it ran brilliantly, but we also kept being pulled away for other life things, and coming back to it in half hour bursts proved hard to keep up with where we were and what was going on. We’d highly recommend that, wherever you play, you set aside a few hours interruption free to fully immerse yourself in this world. We spent one Saturday afternoon doing just this, and found it hard to put down, though coming back the next day took a little while to readjust back into the story.
When you’re in the zone though, there’s a gripping narrative here, and one that – although we didn’t fully grasp all of its in’s and out’s in the last few acts – is well worth experiencing. It can all get a bit vague and pretentious at times, but we’re also brought back down to Earth with excellent performances and new revelations that have us wanting to see what happens next. We will admit that it went on slightly too long for our liking – the last few chapters felt like they pushed at the limits of what we could take in for one story – but the conclusion was worth persevering for, certainly.
Conclusion
Once again, it’s hard to really delve into 1000xResist without ruining the experience as the story is the main draw and driving force of the game throughout. It can get a bit confusing, and perhaps goes on a little too long at the conclusion, but all the same it is gripping and full of interesting twists and turns.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
Head to https://www.insertcoinclothing.com/, have a browse of their fantastic range of game-inspired clothing, and when you’re ready to buy use the promo code ICXBT24 to get 10% off orders over £50 (not including charity items, bundles, gift cards or postage. All usual fair usage terms apply. It’s one use per person and valid until the end of 2025).
