The X-Files: Resist or Serve

Overview

The X-Files: Resist or Serve is an action/survival horror game based on the hit television series that ran on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002. The game's events take place during the seventh season of the show, supposedly after the two-part season premiere (as Scully mentions the events of those episodes having taken place months earlier). Players assume the roles of FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in an attempt to thwart malevolent forces that are threatening a town called Red Falls. Events play out during the course of the game much as they do on the show and allow the player to see events from each agent's unique perspective, with Mulder experiencing more surreal and alien events and Scully taking her more logical and medical approach. The show's stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, lent their likenesses and voices to the developers, and the game's story is penned by the show's writers thus making it a reasonably authentic experience. The game was released in 2004, a year after the show had ended, for Sony's Playstation 2. A version for Microsoft's Xbox had also been announced but was never released.

Plot

In the game's first episode, Mulder and Scully head to the town of Red Falls, CO to investigate a string of murders that seem to revolve around a believed pair of teenage "witches." Upon entering the town, the pair are immediately separated and must deal with seemingly reanimated human corpses plaguing the town. Their investigation reveals that the girls were actually innocent, demonized by the town due to the supernatural events that seemed to follow in their wake. In reality, the girls were experimented on at a local asylum, all in an attempt to harness the power of an alien artifact. Mulder and Scully lose the artifact but manage to recover an optical disc.

In the second episode, the pair goes separate ways after a debriefing back at FBI Headquarters. Mulder goes home to his apartment and suffers severe hallucinations involving Scully, Assistant Director Skinner, and aliens due to the effects of the artifact. He manages to recover thanks to Marita Covarrubias' quick arrival and an injection of an antidote. Covarrubias sends him to Tunguska, back to the facility where he was infected with the black oil in the television show. Scully, on the other hand, performs an autopsy on the corpses retrieved from Red Falls before heading with the Lone Gunman to Roush Biotechnologies, a place thought to have a connection to the events in Colorado. Scully infiltrates the facility and learns more about the artifact, before following Mulder to Tunguska.

In the final episode, the pair reunites at the base in Tunguska. Mulder is suffering the effects of exposure to the virus, claiming he feels the pull of an alien spacecraft that brought the artifact to Earth. He insists he has to go to its location and see it for himself. Scully, after some hesitation, agrees. The pair drive to a monastery and find their way to the main chamber. Mulder finds the alien craft and fights a long, protracted battle against the beings protecting it. Scully has her own encounter, discovering the artifact and watching as it begins to unleash its power. The two of them quickly escape in a boat as the monastery crumbles into dust, a wave washing them to shore. Mulder sees the giant alien ship take off into the sky, but Scully, nearly drowning, doesn't see a thing.

Ties to the Television Show

A remarkable amount of care was put into the game by those associated with the television show. The show was written by an actual writer of the show, giving it a very comparable feel to a normal episode. Many of the members of the cast also lent their voices to the game: David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner, William B. Davis as the Smoking Man, Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek, Laurie Holden as Marita Covarrubias, and the trio of Tom Braidwood, Bruce Harwood, and Dean Haglund as the Lone Gunmen. The main theme appears many times throughout the game as well.

Bonus Features

The game includes some bonus features for completing sections of the game, most notably the B-rolls of the voice recording sessions from Krycek, the Smoking Man, and the trio of Lone Gunmen.