🧟‍♂️ The X-Files: Resist or Serve (2004)

“When the truth isn’t out there — but the zombies are.”


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🎥 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

I bet y’all are thinking, ohh, goody, another zombie game because there’s not enough of those.

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📖 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Picture this: you’re expecting an X-Files game full of conspiracies, aliens, creepy government coverups, and monsters-of-the-week. Instead, what you get is basically Resident Evil with trench coats. Mulder and Scully roll into a snow-covered Colorado town to investigate mysterious deaths… and guess what? Surprise! Zombies. And not just zombies, but zombie dogs, shambling townsfolk, and boss fights ripped straight out of Capcom’s playbook.

It feels like someone mashed together The X-Files and Resident Evil because they thought, “People like both, right? So, why not both?” Except the tones clash horribly. X-Files thrives on paranoia, subtle horror, and conspiracies. Zombies are blunt instruments of horror. The combination is about as smooth as blending whiskey and orange juice.


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👩‍🦰👨 Character Rundown

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny): Yes, Duchovny returned to voice his digital counterpart. And yes, he sounds as checked-out as he did in Season 7. The man delivers lines like he’s reading them off a grocery list. “Oh look, Scully, zombies. Guess we’ll have to shoot them.” Thanks, Dave. Really selling it.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson): She’s here too! And thank god, because she at least tries. Anderson adds some credibility, though even her voice acting sometimes feels like she’s questioning her agent’s life choices. “Wait, I’m fighting… what? Zombies? …Fine, whatever, let’s do it.”

Skinner: He shows up. Does Skinner punch a zombie? Sadly, no. But in my headcanon, he should have.

🎮 Gameplay

Here’s the deal: The X-Files: Resist or Serve (2004) wants to be Resident Evil with a flashlight and a trench coat. Tank controls? Check. Fixed camera angles that make you wonder if Mulder is moonwalking into a wall? Double check. Inventory management that feels more like punishment than suspense? Oh, it’s here. The game technically works — you walk, you shoot, you burn through ammo like Mulder burns through cigarettes. But here’s the thing: X-Files was never about “shoot the zombies in the head until they fall over.” It was about mystery. Conspiracies. Creeping paranoia. When you give me an ammo box instead of a classified file, I can’t help but feel like I’m playing the wrong franchise. It’s functional gameplay, sure, but it feels like the devs just stapled X-Files textures onto a leftover Resident Evil clone and called it a day.


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👻 Atmosphere

Now, here’s where things get interesting — because atmosphere is the one thing Resist or Serve tries to nail. The dimly lit hallways? Creepy. The snowy Siberian environments? Spooky isolation done right. The voice acting? Yes, that’s actually Duchovny and Anderson, and hearing Scully mutter dry sarcasm in the middle of a graveyard is pretty great. You do get a taste of authentic X-Files mood when the lighting hits just right or when the soundtrack sneaks in Mark Snow’s eerie theme. But then… zombies show up. And boom — atmosphere shattered. Nothing kills an “unexplained mystery” vibe faster than a reanimated corpse charging at you like you’re in House of the Dead. It’s jarring. X-Files thrives on the unknown, the what if, the “is that thing out there real?” Zombies leave nothing to the imagination. They’re just bodies. Which means the game ends up being a tonal tug-of-war: half X-Files, half bargain-bin Resident Evil, and never really comfortable as either.


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⏳ Pacing / Episode Flow

The game is literally structured like a “lost” three-part episode of the show. Which sounds cool — until you realize each “episode” boils down to: walk around creepy environment, find key, unlock door, shoot zombies, repeat. It wants to be The X-Files, but it keeps slipping into low-rent Resident Evil fan mod territory. The pacing drags because every suspenseful investigation is cut short by Mulder mowing down undead with a shotgun.

Like… imagine watching the show and halfway through an alien conspiracy arc, Mulder just yells “Headshot!” and blasts away ten corpses. Tonally, it’s whiplash city.


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👍 Pros

Gillian Anderson actually tried. She brought dignity to this mess.

The snowy mountain town setting is atmospheric. If this had leaned into isolation horror instead of zombie buffet, it might have worked.

It’s weirdly charming as a “what-if.” Like, a bizarro Season 8 episode you’d laugh about later.

Yes, it’s basically Resident Evil in an X-Files skin. If you love old-school tank controls and fixed camera angles, you’ll get a nostalgic kick.



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👎 Cons

Zombies. In The X-Files. Need I say more? This is a show about mystery, paranoia, and “the truth.” Zombies are the most un-X-Files monster you could pick.

Mulder sounds half-asleep. Duchovny’s voice acting is so dry it makes toast jealous.

Tonally a trainwreck. Every time tension builds, you’re forced into clunky combat that feels ripped from a bargain bin Resident Evil.

Oversaturation of the genre. By 2004, zombies were already crowding video games (Resident Evil, House of the Dead, Silent Hill flirtations). This just felt like Fox cashing in.

The absurdity. “Remember when Mulder and Scully fought zombies?” No, you don’t. Because that never happened in canon, and for good reason.



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💭 Final Thoughts

This game is like an embarrassing fanfic come to life: someone in a pitch meeting clearly said, “Resident Evil but X-Files!” and nobody told them no. What you get is a zombie-splattered mess that doesn’t understand what makes The X-Files unique.

The show is about dread, ambiguity, government lies, shadows in the dark. This game is about blasting corpses in a snowy town. Jarring doesn’t even begin to cover it. It’s like if Breaking Bad: The Video Game turned into a kart racer halfway through.


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⭐ Rating

I give The X-Files: Resist or Serve (2004) a 4.5/10
👽💀🧟‍♂️
(Points for effort, snow setting, and Gillian Anderson. Docked for literally everything else.)


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🚨 Spoiler Warning 🚨

From here on out, let’s get into the absurd, the campy, and the downright baffling.


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🧟 Spoilers

So here’s where the game just… falls apart. The big reveal? The zombies aren’t just zombies. They’re tied to alien black oil (of course). Because god forbid an X-Files tie-in not shoehorn the black oil into everything. It’s like the duct tape of this universe.

The “episodes” escalate into boss fights that feel cartoonishly off-brand. Mulder fights giant mutated creatures that look like Resident Evil rejects, and Scully gets roped into performing autopsies between shooting sprees. Because yes, even when surrounded by undead, Scully still has to be the skeptical doctor.

And the finale? Oh boy. The “truth” ends up being another alien conspiracy — but one delivered with all the subtlety of a brick through a window. Aliens experimented with resurrection, and guess what? It led to zombies. Shocker. The ending tries to tie it back to X-Files mythos, but by then, you’ve already spent hours shooting corpses in the head. The vibe is less The Truth Is Out There and more Brains Are In Here.

The sheer absurdity makes it almost funny:
“Oh yeah, remember that time Mulder and Scully shot zombies in the snow?”
No. Because in canon, that never happened. And after playing this, you kind of wish it hadn’t here either.


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👽 The truth wasn’t out there. It was stumbling toward you, moaning, arms outstretched, begging for brains.