1000xressist – narrative diamond last year

At first glance, 1000xressist It looks like a typical anime-yoke in the setting of science fiction. You start playing, and around – angular textures, no graphics, gameplay, there is only walking and spatial three. The flower corn is embossed in the colors of the acid trip, and, Stop, we have a fantastic plot about same -sex relationship? To my disappointment, I met several such reviews from people who threw the game without even trying to understand it. There are tastes, but I am glad that I do not belong to their number. After all 1000xressist – One of the unique game experiments in recent years.

Further – not so much a review as impressions of the game and reasoning about expressive methods. It is very easy to dispose of the game, so I will not delve into the plot and I will only show some scenes.

1000xressist

What will happen if a group of very creative people meet on quarantine, and they will want to create something together? It will turn out a story. After a destructive fatal pandemic, the remaining population of mankind exists exclusively due to the clones of the only survivor after illness – the all -in. This is the basis for the game, and it lays the base for a powerfully written story exploring the revolution, generational injuries and personal identity. Plot in 1000xressist It is very difficult, it consists completely of movements in time and jumping according to the memories of a person? People? Or yourself? It is saturated through the echo of images that arise in every episode. Some of them are obvious as the consonance of the invasions of aliens and uprisings in Hong Kong or death through cries in one timline and tear gas in another. And sometimes they go into too subtle matters that can only be caught if you carefully watch and listen to the game.

Just think about it. The basis of the plot of the game about cloning is the internal struggle of the character and the struggle against his own identity, and then this is strangely played out at a public level after hundreds of years. Sounds like tin – crazy and difficult. But the story of this game is magnificent in its complexity, as its expressive means are magnificent.

Game – as an interactive experience

The catch is that as a game 1000xressist Bad. I went through the version for Nintendo Switch, and in moments the picture is very bad: each surface has “ladders”, which someone definitely will not like. Although I must admit that the art design outweighs the shortcomings. As well as the lack of gameplay will not like those who expect from the game “Game”. The easiest way to call it with a simulator of walking with a claim to a complex narrative, but it will be unfair. People from Sunset Visitor 斜陽過客, which are behind the development of the game – designers, directors, theateraries, writers, but not developers. Their main desire during work was to express what they wanted to convey through their medium, but in video games, because the usual methods at that time destroyed Covid.

Angles that the game artificially this builds, and that work with color and light that is used in it constantly cause a feeling of not so much a game as a slide show or a bizarre installation. Just like in the theater, events on one stage can occur in different time intervals, and only light and color will distinguish the present and future. And behind the “echoing”, in fact, a creative calculation and through symbolism is hidden, which allows us to more conveniently navigate in the game. Provided that you see these tricks. 1000xressist It requires you to care about you so that you can appreciate it.

And although from the formula “Games” Sunset Visitor 斜陽過客 They take only a little, the very opportunity to touch these scenes, to feel involved in those events that unfold not around you, but with you, gives some kind of catharsical ecstasy. It’s about your distance as a player in relation to a character, your distance as a player in relation to events and a reduction in this distance. The opportunity to go through “through” this narrative gives an amazing experience.

For the first time I meet in games such an amazing installation and a restrained tempo: a dynamic episode – time jump – static confession – time jump – increasing dynamics – time jump – real chronicle = catharsis and recognition of love.

It has a goosebump level in it Blade Runner 2049 – tense, alarming and at the same time bewitching and melancholy. Ryan Gosling from the meme would fit perfectly into this universe. OST was created after the chapters were ready, so the composers could mix the tracks so as to beat in the mood in almost every frame. And she is also amazingly voiced. Even before the creation of the game, Rami Siu knew that he would invite not professional actors, but his friends and acquaintances from the industry. Surprisingly, a very organic team of votes, which I want to call it intimate – made from the cabbage of different creative personalities – their voices sound so insinuating.

With all its technical disadvantages, each element in the game is used to be creative and non -standard. Even the interface and a task window are used to disclose the central plan of the game. When the heroine is in stress, and her internal guidelines are changing momentarily, the quest window is constantly changing, clearly showing the chaos of thoughts.

[1000xresist] demonstrates force in its artistic leadership and visual narrative. The composition of the personnel of each sequence and the cinematography of its cat-scenes report so much that you do not need to talk directly … Sunset Visitor turns its technical restrictions into one of its greatest advantages, allowing their creative techniques to speak as loudly as words.

IGN

If before the movie was a synthesis of all arts, then the most striking example of such a synthesis in video games is 1000xressist. Which is very interesting. As one of the most discussed indie projects of 2024, this game drags the very concept of “game” deep into the industry. It expands the cultural value for its medium, without committing a conceptual revolution. That is, it makes diametrically opposite things compared to the main indie game of the year- Balatro , which focuses exclusively on the process and appeals to the unique language of the gaming industry – gameplay. Such games drag the industry up, and this is wonderful. But I will value those who give her great depths as 1000xressist. Although both projects are the triumph of small studios over the giants of the industry. And they even have a collab!

Speaking in the language of comparisons, then 1000xressist You can put in a row with Kentucky Route Zero – another ambitious, creative game that set a goal to combine complex plots, visual narrative and philosophical topics. Or a less obvious example – OU, the charm of which lies not so much in a bizarre visual, but in the intertext, which makes us think about history as an invisible visualization of a person’s sensations from a book read.

Similar meta-prima condemn the game to remain a niche product “for connoisseurs”. The mass player is simply not interesting to spend on such a time. But if you are a connoisseur of games that are weakly similar to games, and are looking for unique experiments in the industry, then this is a definite mast-HEV. Not for everyone, but amazing. Not so often, game equivalents appear on the shelves “Evangelion”.

In addition to an exploding brain of a story, in which a love of science fiction is felt, the game leaves a huge scope for interpretations and interpretations. It is fair to say that this is part of the ongoing dialogue between the Chinese and Hong Kong diasporas. Or is it a statement on the revolution of umbrellas. Someone says that this is an allegory for the invasion of Chinese emigrants on the territory of the United States. Perhaps this is just a desire to create a game similar to the one in which the creators played in his youth. Or a new form of digital art. Look for a pearl – play. And I’ll throw her into my beloved and go listen to the soundtrack.