Resonance (2012)
Resonance is a 2012 point-and-click video game made by xii games and Wadjet Eye Games.
A scientist dies under unclear circumstances, and four strangers find themselves pulled into the aftermath: a doctor, a physicist, a journalist, and a thief. Each carries a different piece of the picture and a different reason to be afraid. Resonance is a collaboration between Wadjet Eye and xii games that draws on classic adventure game structure while using an unusual memory mechanic, letting players access characters' recent and long-term recollections as items in an inventory. The mystery tightens from a personal scale outward, and the choices made along the way have real weight.
Quick answers
What is Resonance about?
A scientist dies under unclear circumstances, and four strangers find themselves pulled into the aftermath: a doctor, a physicist, a journalist, and a thief. Each carries a different piece of the picture and a different reason to be afraid. Resonance is a collaboration between Wadjet Eye and xii games that draws on classic adventure game structure while using an unusual memory mechanic, letting players access characters' recent and long-term recollections as items in an inventory. The mystery tightens from a personal scale outward, and the choices made along the way have real weight.
When was Resonance released?
Resonance was released on 19 June 2012.
Who made Resonance?
Resonance was made by xii games and Wadjet Eye Games.
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Explore Resonance guides
Resonance in our writing
- Companion guide: Wadjet Eye Games: The Studio That Kept the Adventure Alive
A few thoughts on Resonance
Life Is Strange also uses a mechanical conceit tied to memory and revision to tell a story about the cost of knowing too much. Both games are interested in what four or five ordinary people do when they find themselves at the center of something much larger.
Detectives who build a case one lead at a time
Resonance follows a doctor, a physicist, a journalist, and a thief as each pulls one thread of a death that refuses to make sense. These shows work the same way, lead by lead: special victims investigators chasing a predator through incomplete testimony, patrol officers learning the job case by case, a naval team piecing together motive from physical evidence, and a squad room where every file hides another angle.
Piecing together a death through fragments of memory
Resonance's mystery runs on memory: four strangers piecing together recent and long-past recollections like clues. These stories mine that vein too: tapes that force someone to relive a friend's story piece by piece, an album built on a hypnotized memory of a past self, a cyborg investigator doubting her own borrowed memories, a detective rebuilding a killer's mind from old notes, and a consultant who reads people like evidence.
Ensembles who each hold a piece of a bigger, dangerous puzzle
Resonance's four strangers each carry a different reason to be afraid and a different piece of the same secret. These stories share that weight: neighbors trapped together as trust frays, a group of boys whose alliances turn dangerous, a detective and the friend who follows him case to case, a family whose loyalty is tested by costly choices, and investigators forced into an uneasy truce against a shared threat.
Albums that read like a crime story from the street level
Resonance keeps its mystery grounded at street level, told through four ordinary people rather than one detective genius. These albums work the same way, scene by scene: a debut chronicling one New York block in vivid detail, a crew's origin told like a gritty saga, a rise and fall narrated from inside the life, an account of just trying to survive it, and a stark, spoken record of desperate choices.