1000xResist
Above the school floats a giant, headless body, its arms outstretched. No one else has passed comment on it, so it seems we’re supposed to take it in our stride – just like how people in full-body suits are roaming these corridors at night with us, and how we’re welcomed home by a voice emanating from a dead student’s portrait. Some of these things will make sense later and others won’t, but much of 1000xResist’s slowly unfurling narrative puzzle (its opening seconds, after all, ostensibly show you the antagonist’s death) demands – and eventually rewards – your patience.
You control Watcher, one of a small group of clones of a girl named Iris, revered as the ‘Allmother’. Each clone has a specific task: as Watcher, your role is both to learn and preserve the Allmother’s history. This makes her the ideal vehicle for this story, since Watcher knows nothing yet, and so her lack of understanding matches yours. Via her companion, Secretary, a floating AI not unlike Destiny 2’s Ghost, Watcher can receive Iris’s memories. Memories, of course, are rarely considerate enough to occur in sequential order, and so Watcher has to steadily piece together a human life, one fragmented glimpse at a time.