Publisher: Sierra Entertainment

Developer: Black Ops Entertainment

Release Date: 03/16/2004

Available Exclusively On

The X-Files is one of, if not the biggest, cult TV shows of all time. I was a young kid when the series was at its peak in the mid- to late-90s, so I didn’t understand any of it, but my mother was really into the show. While I caught bits and pieces, I do remember the atmosphere the TV show delivered, and this has stuck with cult shows dealing with paranormal activities for the foreseeable future. While the entire show might not have aged the best by today’s standards, it’s still a highly entertaining show that really makes you want to believe. There weren’t really any video games on the show until this one. Long after the series final season debuted and long after the series peaked in 2004, 2004 was also the end of the Sixth Generation’s life cycle, with the Xbox 360 just around the corner. What did Resist or Serve bring to the survival horror genre?

Well, the short answer is zero. I feel like fans of The X-Files would enjoy this more than survival horror fans of Silent Hill will. You can choose between Mulder and Skully (the show’s two main protagonists, voiced by the show actors as well). Each side has slightly different events in the same levels, so it may or may not be worth playing the game twice. Once was enough for me. The game has fixed camera angles similar to Silent Hill, but nothing is pre-rendered. You can move around the environment well enough, and there is some light puzzle-solving and combat. Combat is on the rougher side. You can hold a flashlight and a gun at the same time, but you can’t run with the flashlight and the gun out. If you want to run, you can just hold the flashlight. In some levels, you get nightvision goggles that help, but they’re still annoying. There’s an auto-aim feature similar to Silent Hill, and it works well enough if enemies aren’t right on top of you. Enemies will bum-rush you, and a couple shots will knock them down. One or two zombies is manageable. Although the combat system is not the worst I’ve ever encountered, the narrow level design isn’t conducive to this kind of shooting. Many rooms are barely ten steps wide. When faster enemies, such as dogs, come after you, the characters can’t run faster than the enemies to gain distance, turn around, aim, shoot, and reload, which slows you down a lot. It’s better to do the age-old reload on the inventory screen trick.

Combat only becomes a serious problem during boss fights. These guys have a longer range of attack, and I could never outrun them enough to turn around, blast them, and then get going again. Most bosses are easier if you stand still and blast them. The challenge lies more in battling the controls than in the bosses’ design. Health bars in the shape of the show’s logo serve as a health meter for these bosses. The rest of the game is obtuse object hunting, but knowing what to do with these objects can be quite annoying, especially when combining multiple objects together or deciphering notes to gain access codes. At least the game’s pace isn’t all that bad, and there are many locales to move through, from a research facility to an underground occult lair. 

Three episodes, each with a couple of acts, make up the game, with the first episode being the longest. There are a few pre-rendered cutscenes, but most are in real-time, and boy are the graphics rough here. In 2004, there was no reason for this game to resemble a PlayStation 1 game. The environments are bland and boring; there are zero facial animations; and the textures are a muddy, molten mess of colors. On characters’ faces and objects, textures literally blend and bleed into each other. The animations are stiff and awkward, and this honestly feels like a budget first-gen PS2 title, not something that should be out at the end of the system’s life. When it comes to the horror elements of the game, they kind of work in the beginning, but the same screeching violin and piano banging sound plays one too many times at the wrong moments, and the theme song repeats way too often. It will work for fans of the show, but not generalized horror fanatics.

To be honest, there really isn’t that much horror in the game. There are a couple of neat scenes in which Skully dissects a human a couple of times in gruesome detail, but the hideous visuals don’t do it justice. Some very dark buildings have lighting that almost works, but it doesn’t. The zombies are cheesy and stereotypical, and the bosses are just hooded cult freaks. There’s no exploration here unless you just want to find first-aid kits and ammo clips. There are no hidden items, and the only extras are lame storyboards. I played through Skully’s story first, and I had no desire to repeat the entire game as Mulder for a couple of different scenes and altered boss fights.

Overall, Resist or Serve is worth a playthrough. Resist or Serve may take you 5-6 hours to complete, and while it has a fairly interesting story, it ultimately succumbs to the whims of the TV show’s cliches and punchlines. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson phone in their voice lines, sounding like they are falling asleep or bored (I guess Duchovny always sounds like that), but it’s not an inherently offensive game. The worst parts are the boss fights, and it could have gotten a lot more wrong.