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1000xResist Fellow Traveller Games

1000xResist review: pushing back on storytelling norms

Originally posted on Video Games on SI
By Georgina Young | Last updated Jan 21, 2025 11:56 AM ET

Imagine a world where history is only told through the lens of one person. Now imagine that one person is a rather surly teenage girl. As you might expect, not everything she’s written is truthful. Some stories shine her in a better light, and she doesn’t see the shadow other stories cast over her, yet everything is told from her perspective. This is the story of 1000xResist.

The story starts out like many sci-fi thrillers. A virus sweeps the Earth. Only one person is immune. Scientists carry out experiments on her in an attempt to save humanity. They fail. Ultimately, a new society emerges that is made entirely of the clones of our original surly teenager. She becomes a god, and this new society studies her life and teachings in order to form their morality.

Fellow Traveller Games

This is the setting for 1000xResist, but it isn’t what it’s really about. It’s about the relationship between the different clones; how they differ despite being built from the same DNA and being brought up in the same environment. It’s about how society can change and develop its own alien culture, when it’s so separated from history and humanity. It’s about how people can change when placed in difficult situations.

Just like the sisters of the colony, as the player we try to understand the surly teenager Iris, her upbringing, and why she is how she is. 1000xResist has been out a while, and despite Iris’ coldness, you will find fan art of her all over the internet. Though we rarely see her kindness, players have become obsessed with reading between the lines. It’s the mystery that makes 1000xResist so intriguing.

It is certainly not for everyone. Most of the game is spent walking around the Orchard, or Iris’ memories, and relating to others in a language that isn’t quite English. The cruelty is hard to watch, and the dialogue is as difficult to understand as the cloned society itself. Yet, if you look close enough, you will see threads connecting both the sisters’ language and actions to our own societies.

Fellow Traveller Games

Many of the scenes take place in a dream-like setting, and you’re never quite sure if things really happened, or if they are just what Iris wants you to believe happened. It makes the story difficult to parse, but not impossible. The ambiguity means that each player will have their own interpretations, and all of them are valid. Trying to figure out concretely what’s real and what’s not will only hurt your brain.

1000xResist is different to anything else I’ve played and mostly because it’s a narrative-based game that tries as hard as possible to obscure the story from the player. But just like those fans who see the goodness in Iris despite what she shows us, interpreting what you are shown – and what you aren’t – is part of the gameplay. I can’t tell you what 1000xResist is. You’ll just have to see for yourself.