1000xResist

We're all just flowers in a garden of her making

Why

Why Not

Impressions

If you like story-driven games, or just good stories at all, stop reading and go play this. What a crazy journey, setting and incredible cast of lovable/hateable characters.

You're Watcher, one of many clones of the only surviving human, a deity-like teenage girl who goes by ALLMOTHER. Your 'function' is ...kind of nebulous compared to your more straightforward clone sisters; Fixer, Healer, Knower and of course, Bang Bang Fire, but it involves diving into the Allmother's memories via a process called communion.

The game opens with such a communion, taking you back to a time just before the events setting the story and sad state of the present world in motion, the night before a high school dance. Back when the ALLMOTHER was just a teenage girl called Iris, whose parents immigrated from Hong Kong after the 2019 protests. Interacting with those who knew Iris, especially her 'friend' Jiao, allows you to start piecing together not only what lead the world to its current sorry state, but what kind of person Iris was.

There's an achievement for talking to everyone possible in each chapter, and I highly recommend you use getting that as a requirement to proceed with the main story each time. These interactions are sometimes funny, sometimes haunting and often give you extra tidbits you can piece together to help understand what's really going on. There will be several times you think you've put it all together, only to discover whole new layers to the story you'd completely missed or failed to consider.

Even if the overall story wasn't amazing, the characters would absolutely make it worth experiencing. Some are only with you for a time but make a strong impression, while others who're with you throughout evolve in believable ways in response to the demands their environment places on them. There's probably not a single long-term character you won't change your opinion of (my sincerest apologies for ever thinking you were annoying Jiao), perhaps multiple times. And the game is structured in such a way as to make things you might have initially considered strange or important fade into the background, becoming just an accepted part of reality, before revealing that yep, they were actually pretty strange and important.

The gameplay is nothing to write home about, pretty much a walking simulator with some occasional grappling hook zooming and light time travel puzzles, but it does a good job staying varied and interesting enough to prevent 1000xResist just feeling like a visual novel. The graphics are kinda basic at times but in a way which fits the vibe of the setting, and there are some sequences which are absolutely beautiful.

Overall this is a must-play, you'll find at least one character to get way too attached to (Bang Bang Fire for me), some to hate then realise perhaps you were too harsh toward and some to be utterly perplexed by until a big reveal. The setting is mysterious, the characters are compelling, the music sets the mood beautifully and the story weaves it all together into something which makes in impossible to put down. Hekki ALLMO indeed.