Reviewed on: Switch
Platform: Switch, PC
Publisher: Fellow Traveller
Developer: Sunset Visitor
Release: May 9, 2024

It's hard to do 1000xResist justice by describing its basic attributes. Its intricate worldbuilding seems convoluted, its simple gameplay seems boring, and its ambition to tackle so many heavy narrative themes seems like developer Sunset Visitor is biting off more than it can chew. But the magic of 1000xResist is not in what the game sets out to accomplish; it's in the fact that it does so with jaw-dropping finesse. The world and its characters are unique and fascinating, the basic gameplay leaves room for thousands of lines of brilliant dialogue, and the themes are explored in ways that have reshaped the way I think about stories and their impact on the modern world. Despite minor flaws, 1000xResist has firmly established itself as one of the most groundbreaking stories in video game history.

Watcher is the protagonist of this third-person adventure game. She is one of many "sisters" in a futuristic, isolated society of clones living in a space called The Orchard. Through a series of communions, she and her sisters delve into the memories of Iris, the teenager they're all cloned from, to learn more about her life before the current era. Each of the main characters in the game – Knower, Healer, Bang Bang Fire, Fixer, and Principal – complement Watcher differently. Whether they're encouraging her curiosity about the past, challenging her loyalty to the Allmother, or rattling her sense of morality, each relationship is rich and complicated, and I looked forward to spending time with them in new chapters.

Meanwhile, communions allow Watcher and her sisters to observe the past (roughly equivalent to the real world in the early 2020s), either by watching Iris' behaviors from afar or by seeing the world through her eyes. Despite the sci-fi trappings, Iris' relationships with her parents, her friend Jiao, and the rest of the world are grounded and human, and the more we learn about Iris, the more I appreciate her imperfections and difficult decisions.

On that note, if there's one word that summarizes why 1000xResist is so impactful, it's "flaws." Every character is just flawed enough to make them realistic and understandable, whether it's their anger, anxiety, fear, overbearing nature, or something else. Because you can always empathize with the other side, each relationship and major plot beat is afforded nuance that makes the story gripping, heart-wrenching, and delightfully complicated. As a result, when 1000xResist deals with themes of generational trauma, oppression, immigration, memory, and womanhood, it does so gracefully, creating one of the most thought-provoking stories I've ever experienced in a video game or otherwise.

 

The game is mostly dialogue, which is lovingly written and passionately performed. The realistic, pointed speech patterns of Iris and her family contrast the flowery, robotic language of the clone society. Although phrases like "hekki ALLMO" and "hair to hair" are initially disorienting, 1000xResist gives the player adequate time and context to become fluent in its aphorisms, and lines that had me scratching my head in the intro had me welling up with tears just a few hours later. These emotions can just as easily be attributed to the game's remarkable voice acting, which is understated and powerful. Despite most performers having almost no prior acting credits, there is not a weak link in the cast, and Jing Fang and Aliyah Rayner's portrayals of Knower and Iris, respectively, are standouts.

When you're not watching cutscenes and clicking through dialogue options – though that is the majority of the game – you can explore The Orchard and speak to the other clones living there. While technically optional, I greatly looked forward to conversing with as many NPCs as possible between each communion, as they provide valuable explanations and alternate perspectives to the game's events that can typically only be seen in one specific chapter. That said, The Orchard is miserable to traverse, and even though a post-launch update added a map, it's still frustrating to navigate. Though many areas look easy to access, they often require specific staircases or unintuitive entryways that force you to circle the entire locale, repeatedly pausing to check the map to ensure you don't miss a turn. The story is so engaging and immersive that I often found myself lost in its twists and turns for hours, only to be forcibly ejected from that immersion once I returned to The Orchard.

Tech issues also detracted from my experience. While the game is available on Switch and PC, my experience playing the game on the former console was less than ideal. Textures can be pixelated, load times are lengthy, and I experienced half a dozen crashes across roughly 14 hours of playtime, many of which were in The Orchard. Because these issues do not exist on PC and the visuals on that platform are generally improved, I'd recommend playing it there.

Still, the Switch port did little to quell my enjoyment of this game. 1000xResist is truly a singular experience, and since completing it, my appreciation for its world and characters has only intensified. A recurring line in the game that I think about often has characters reflect on the idea that "there is a you that remains and remains," whether in your offspring or clones, your impact on the world, or simply within memories. While I hope 1000xResist will inspire sequels, successors, or copycats, it certainly exists as a bright memory in my mind. A story that remains, and remains, and remains.

This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.

Score: 9.5

About Game Informer's review system

We're celebrating Game Informer's return with a belated Best of 2024 Awards, but despite our consensus on categories like Game of the Year and Best Moment, each editor has their own preferences. To highlight the dissenting opinions, personal favorites, and hidden gems, we like to turn the spotlight on the individual members of the editorial team to share their top games of the year. Check them out below and let us know whose list you most align with.

Look – we don't need to go into what happened. You can read about that here. For some strange reason, we were not able to share our 2024 Game of the Year awards the same time we have been for more than a decade. What matters is we're here now. We may be late to the party, but that doesn't mean 2024 wasn't full of fantastic games that we are eager to highlight. You can find our top 10 games of 2024 below, as well as a collection of additional specific category awards. Last year may have been a tough year for Game Informer, but we didn't want it to mean that we skipped a year celebrating the best the industry had to offer. Thanks for sticking with us!

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Additional Category Winners

Best Nintendo Exclusive - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Nintendo’s 2024 was light compared to previous years as it, presumably, ramps up for the Switch 2. Even with the console preparing to sunset, we got a brand new mainline Zelda and it finally, officially, let players play as the legendary franchise’s namesake. Playing as Zelda was long overdue and we were impressed by her suite of unique abilities. It may have struggled to sustain the fun of its primary mechanic through the entirety of the experience, but we loved using Zelda’s new power and we’re eager to play as her again in the future.

Best Xbox Exclusive - Indiana Jones And The Great Circle

From its initial announcement, the prospect of developer MachineGames (Wolfenstein: The New Order) adapting its fantastic writing, excellent gunplay, and Nazi-destroying ideals to one of fiction’s most outspoken Nazi haters was exciting. But there was one big barrier: Harrison Ford was not going to be involved. Despite that hurdle, however, MachineGames delivered an incredibly fun archaeological action game that stands next to the films, and in some cases, even outdoes them.

Best Developer - LocalThunk

You'd be forgiven for incorrectly assuming Balatro was crafted over years of work from dozens of veteran developers. In reality, LocalThunk is a solo developer, and Balatro is the result of a project he started in 2021 while taking time off from his tech job. The game was one of our favorites of the year, and it's astounding to think that the broad concept, mischievous pixel art, and approachable yet deep gameplay loop were all made by the same person across just a few years of passionate development. In a landscape where more games are made each year, and budgets and teams balloon larger and larger, it is an incredibly impressive feat to create a game like Balatro, and we'd be remiss not to give LocalThunk the flowers he deserves.

Best Publisher - Sega/Atlus

Last year was stacked for the role-playing genre, and many of the best games came out of Sega and its subsidiary Atlus. Metaphor: ReFantazio won Game Informer’s RPG of the Year award, but Sega/Atlus also delivered Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. In addition, we also received Sonic X Shadow Generations and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble to round out the calendar year for the publisher. Top Sega/Atlus’ 2024 off with an adaptation of Like a Dragon on Prime Video and the theatrical release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and any way you look at it, Sega/Atlus had an incredible year.

Best VR - Batman: Arkham Shadow

The idea of being able to put on the cowl in VR is an exciting prospect. The Arkham series’ creator, Rocksteady, delivered an interesting, if basic Batman VR game in 2016, but Arkham Shadow pulled out all the stops. Developer Camouflaj managed to create an excellent Batman game in the mold we know and love without any need for VR asterisks. Combat is rhythmic and rewarding without making you feel like you are arbitrarily swinging your arms around, stealth is intense and engaging in the first-person perspective, and the story is full of fun twists on familiar characters.

Best Action - Stellar Blade

Looking at Stellar Blade in action, you might be surprised to learn that developer Shift Up was primarily a free-to-play mobile developer before switching to consoles. To call it a first effort would be inaccurate, but we’re still impressed by how well it delivered on its first stab at a big, expensive action game. Executing Eve’s combos feels great and taking on Stellar Blade’s impressive collection of bosses was always thrilling and rewarding. There may be other action games on our top 10 list above, but to solely focus on how good it feels to swing a sword in a video game in 2024, Stellar Blade was our favorite.

Best Moment - Destiny 2’s Avengers: Endgame Moment

Bungie has been building to The Final Shape for a decade, and though prior expansions (looking at you, Lightfall) had players worried it might not stick the landing, the studio proved doubters wrong. The Final Shape does a lot right, and no part of it exemplifies that success better than the final fight of the expansion. Taking a note out of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, as Guardians reach the climax of their race to stop The Witness (the Thanos of Destiny), they are joined by fan-favorite characters from the series’ 10-year history to finish the fight alongside 11 other player-controlled Guardians. The result is an exciting and celebratory moment that’s a perfect finale to this decade-long journey.

Best Hero - Indika from Indika

Indika is a young nun seeking safety and forgiveness in faith, but there’s one big problem. The literal Devil plagues her mind, constantly whispering corrupting thoughts and compelling contradictions to her beliefs. As terrifying as his presence can be, what scares Indika most is that Satan often makes some pretty good points. We were captivated watching Indika cope with challenging moral dilemmas and her past sins while navigating a harsh world that constantly beats her down. Sadly, her attempts at doing good often backfire, culminating in a powerful climax that cements Indika as the year’s most empathetic and utterly fascinating protagonist.

Best Villain - Emmerich Voss from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

One of the most satisfying actions you can do in the world of video games is partake in the act of absolutely walloping a Nazi in the face. The Nazis represent a cruel and hateful movement that committed genocide against an entire ethnicity, making for an easy group to despise, but that did not make MachineGames phone in its antagonist. Even without his Nazi background, Voss would be an easy villain to hate, but he’s also, sometimes, just dumb in entertaining ways. It makes the final confrontation against him both satisfying and hilarious.

Best Dork - Captain Boomerang from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

It’s not a controversial statement to say Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a disappointment. Its cynical approach to its characters, world, and story wore thin quickly and its gameplay was… okay. One bright spot, however, exists in Captain Boomerang, the loud-mouth Australian with an exaggerated and wholly unearned sense of self-worth. Performer Daniel Lapaine imbued him with a charming and idiotic tone that easily got the most laughs out of us. We don’t think we’d ever want to hang out with Captain Boomerang, but to laugh at him and decisively not with him was arguably the best part of trying to kill the Justice League.

Best DLC/Expansion - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

FromSoftware took a celebratory victory lap of Elden Ring with last year’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, reminding the Tarnished why its 2022 action-RPG captured the attention of more than 25 million players worldwide. Shadow of the Erdtree isn’t doing anything radically different from Elden Ring, and it slots in nicely to the journey through The Lands Between. It introduces a couple new mechanics that speed up the progression process, a few new classes and weapons, and some of the most challenging boss fights in FromSoftware history. At its core, though, it’s more Elden Ring, so it’s no wonder it’s the best expansion of 2024.

Best Sports - WWE 2K24

WWE’s yearly wrestling sim has steadily climbed the ranks of quality since returning in 2022, and 2K24 sees it finally capture the gold. Boasting a strong Showcase mode celebrating WrestleMania’s finest bouts, improved iterations of the typically entertaining MyRise, MyGM, and Universe modes, and further refinement of its solid grappling gameplay make for an impressive pedigree. Like its popular cover star Cody Rhodes, WWE 2K24 finished its story to capture our Best Sports award.

Best Fighting - Tekken 8

The latest entry in the beloved 3D fighting franchise proved to be a worthwhile continuation of the long-running story. A terrific roster that has only improved with post-launch updates is just the beginning of what solidifies Tekken as the best fighting game of 2024. Fun mechanics centered around offensive aggression, an over-the-top story, and multiple long-term single-player modes complimenting the competitive suite make for an incredible eighth mainline entry in the Bandai Namco fighting franchise.

Best Horror - Mouthwashing

The advantage of telling a horror story in a video game is that the player, more so than a viewer or reader, is often the direct target of the elements that make the game scary; you're the one getting chased by the killer, trapped in a room, or bitten by a zombie. Mouthwashing flips this idea on its head, instead placing the player in control of the person responsible for dooming their crewmates, forced to watch as people reach their inevitable breaking points. Mouthwashing is devastating, tragic, and compelling, with memorable characters, surrealist art, and brutally poetic lines of dialogue. Its scope is small, but as is proven by the crew of the Tulpar, it's remarkable how much memorable suffering can come from a ship with a handful of stranded people.

Best Adaptation - Fallout

An intersection of satire, slapstick, sci-fi, and sincerity, nothing makes Fallout stand out more than its signature tone. Amazon Prime’s adaptation does many things well – introducing compelling characters, thoughtfully recreating iconic designs from the games, and scoring the action with classic jazz tunes – but its greatest success is nailing the series' vibe in its minute-to-minute writing. Bolstered by stellar performances, most notably by leads Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins, Fallout is a hilarious, gripping television season, making it an easy choice for Best Adaptation.

<p> <img loading="lazy" src="https://www.gameinformer.com/sites/default/files/styles/body_default/public/2024/08/01/dc0bef82/thegishow_718_web.jpg" width="800" height="450" alt="july&#039;s best indie games and marvel rivals - The Game Informer Show podcast" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-body-default" /> </p> <p>In this week's episode of&nbsp;<em>The Game Informer Show,&nbsp;</em>our editor-in-chief, Matt Miller, joins Alex and Marcus to discuss why <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpN6reeVs0">Marvel Rivals</a> has grown on us and how it's shaking up the Overwatch formula. Next, the crew dives into some of <a href="https://gameinformer.com/2024">July's best indie games,</a> including Dungeons of Hinterberg, Arranger, and Thank Goodness You're Here&nbsp;— okay, that last one technically releases today, August 1st, but I played and beat it during July via a pre-release copy. Finally, Marcus dives into Silent Hill 2 (2001) and Forestrike, the follow-up to 2021's pixel art action title, <a href="https://www.gameinformer.com/review/olija/olija-review-cast-away-any-doubts">Olija.</a>&nbsp;</p> <h2>Watch the Video Version on YouTube:</h2> <iframe width="560" height="315" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lmCc-chqM6w" width="640"></iframe> <p>Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (<a href="https://x.com/itsvanaken">@itsVanAken</a>), Kyle Hilliard (<a href="https://x.com/KyleMHilliard">@KyleMHilliard</a>), Marcus Stewart (<a href="https://x.com/marcusstewart7">@MarcusStewart7</a>)</p> <p><em>The Game Informer Show</em>&nbsp;is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join us every Thursday&nbsp;to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with&nbsp;<em>Game Informer</em>&nbsp;staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry.&nbsp;Listen on<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-game-informer-show/id335246945" target="_blank">&nbsp;Apple Podcasts</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2EWTEHrbZpNRAboYLimAhu" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, or your favorite podcast app.</p> <a href="https://www.djstormageddon.com/" target="_blank">Matt Storm,</a>&nbsp;the freelance audio editor for&nbsp;<em>The Game Informer Show</em>, edited this episode<em>.&nbsp;</em>Matt is an experienced podcast host and producer who's been speaking into a microphone for over a decade. You should listen to Matt's shows like the&nbsp;<a href="https://funandgames.libsyn.com/" target="_blank"><em>"Fun" And Games Podcast</em></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://reignitepod.libsyn.com/" target="_blank"><em>Reignite</em></a>, a BioWare-focused podcast.&nbsp; <strong>The Game Informer Show – Podcast Timestamps:</strong> <p>00:00:00 - Intro</p> <p>00:05:29 - Marvel Rivals Closed Beta</p> <p>00:31:27 - Thank Goodness You're Here!</p> <p>00:41:00 - Dungeons Of Hinterberg</p> <p>00:48:37 - Forestrike Preview</p> <p>00:59:31 - Silent Hill 2 (2001)</p> <p>01:14:27 - Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure</p> <p>01:21:37 - Housekeeping</p>

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, our editor-in-chief, Matt Miller, joins Alex and Marcus to discuss why Marvel Rivals has grown on us and how it's shaking up the Overwatch formula. Next, the crew dives into some of July's best indie games, including Dungeons of Hinterberg, Arranger, and Thank Goodness You're Here — okay, that last one technically releases today, August 1st, but I played and beat it during July via a pre-release copy. Finally, Marcus dives into Silent Hill 2 (2001) and Forestrike, the follow-up to 2021's pixel art action title, Olija. 

Watch the Video Version on YouTube:

Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7)

The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join us every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Matt Storm, the freelance audio editor for The Game Informer Show, edited this episode. Matt is an experienced podcast host and producer who's been speaking into a microphone for over a decade. You should listen to Matt's shows like the "Fun" And Games Podcast and Reignite, a BioWare-focused podcast.  The Game Informer Show – Podcast Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:05:29 - Marvel Rivals Closed Beta

00:31:27 - Thank Goodness You're Here!

00:41:00 - Dungeons Of Hinterberg

00:48:37 - Forestrike Preview

00:59:31 - Silent Hill 2 (2001)

01:14:27 - Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

01:21:37 - Housekeeping