The game is great, set some time after the film where a rescue team is sent to Antartica to check out the carnage, very soon your team get wiped out by creatures and you are left by yourself in a snow storm to find a way out, you are captain Blake, leader of the military rescue team and its your job to find weapons, ammo, and other supplies if you are survive. The game is difficult when you need to find a way out as keys and stuff are hidden and aliens attack you, the scenes of the murder is pretty gruesome and the game has many gore and blood scenes that wont disappoint you. During the game you are pitted against a number of bosses which you must defeat to survive and for me they were hard, no joke, for all gamers, this game is one for scares.
6 Reviews
Gets an awful lot right
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews21 March 2009
Two decades after the film, this came out, picking up about where it left off. This can be judged as either just a stand-alone exploit, or as a sequel. It does introduce the idea, and one does not need to have seen the movie(though I would definitely suggest it). While this is less complex, and plagued by the usual type of conceptual change that are seen elsewhere when it comes to further entries in a series(and/or when changing from another medium to this interactive one), in order to facilitate more of the specific popular and easily crowd-pleasing sights and situations(if this makes no sense to you reading, then feel free to contact me and ask), it does do certain things really well. It builds atmosphere quite successfully... the eeriness is utterly spot-on. The isolation is thicker than the deep snow. And all the dangers from the silver screen version are there, continually threatening you: The icy cold, and merciless, weather, paranoia, infection(albeit not of yourself) and, last but not least, attacks from Things. If those all stayed true throughout all of this title, it would be more accurate. But it strays, and whether or not that's a positive is, I suppose, up to each individual to decide. One could of course argue that since this was made based on the chord that was struck back in 1982, it ought to stick closer to that. Yes, part of the way in, this takes a turn, and goes down a much-trodden path(which, in itself, does not have to be a negative, 'eye of the beholder' and all). The quality of the ending is up for debate, however, in at least one aspect, it's entirely in Carpenter's vein. That's not the only portion, either. Apart from quite literally, since he appears in this, you can see him, and his hand, in this. The humor and dialog come off as stuff he could have written, without seeming like it was copied from elsewhere. You get to visit locations we already know, and they crafted them well. In general, the level design is a mixed bag, they can be nice and open. It isn't always clear where you're supposed to go. You aren't even equipped with a compass. The HUD is rather discrete, perhaps excessively so(health bar, be visible!). The Fear and Trust systems are interesting, and a fantastic thought, and they add to the overall experience. Moreso, if they had a stronger impact, and were significantly important(and less infrequently so). The execution leaves a bit to be desired. Nevertheless, as they are, they are inspired features in this. Your people have to have faith in you still being human, for them to do anything you ask at all, and if you don't keep them from losing it when they are terrified, they may quite simply wind up blowing their own brains out from panic. As far as I know, these are unique to this. They can be helpful(Medics to heal, and Soldiers that are skilled at fighting along with you), and several of them, you need to keep alive and well(Engineers, to work electronics that you can't). The first-mentioned Squad-combat is also available, and you can give orders to your men. I personally, as with other releases that allow that, wanted a couple more commands, and too often found them getting in the way. The AI varies. The aforementioned teammates relatively seldom get stuck or hit you, and are fairly decent at using the weapons that you can give all three classes. The Things tend to be aggressive, and it does occur that they are slow to act. No, they do not have all the abilities that they ought to... meanwhile, I challenge anyone to, after seeing someone "turn", not be satisfied with the way they did that. The guns are well-selected, and there aren't so many, aiding in preventing this from becoming just a straight-forward, all-out shooter. The flamethrower is impossible to do without, exactly as it should be in this. This is faster paced than one might think, and there is focus put on the action in it. Don't get me wrong: It *is* mainly survival horror. It doesn't dare be as bleak. It isn't unlike AvP(either, both are better than this). One problem, I've seen other places, and may be on account of it being made (primarily?) for consoles. The view can only be moved left to right and vice versa, never up/down. Third person is the usual camera, with a handful of odd angles that are briefly forced upon you here and there, and the option of using 1st, if you stand still. As in Enter the Matrix, your precision when firing is considerably improved in the latter, for no readily apparent reason. The auto-aim is great, and only comes up short in the rarest of instances. This has freedom, yet at its core, it is linear. In fact, there are one or two bugs that keep you from proceeding if you don't do it how they planned it. Graphics are magnificent, with well-done effects. Nearly glitch-free, too. The voice acting ranges between average to pretty good. The story-telling is OK, mostly done with the plentiful cut-scenes, all done in-engine. As far as design of enemy units and attacks go, you can kinda tell that this is done by Computer Artworks... as in, they also did Evolva. It shows. That doesn't have to be bad; on the other hand, you can see that they had played Half-Life... that one's worse. The similarities, thankfully not all over the place, are obvious. The audio is fine, music and sounds can be marvelous. The boss battles are a nuisance. The items hold a few gems. The saving doesn't cover that this is a short, and not that re-playable, game. There is bloody violence/gore and a moderate amount of harsh language in this. I recommend this to fans of John's The Thing. If you're going with one or the other, I'd watch that, instead. 7/10
Better then the movie!
LaserPoint19 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Now I know its hard to compare a movie to a video game, but in this case I had to clash the 2 together. For those who don't know, this video game picks off from where the movie left off/ended. You are sent in the frozen wastelands of Antarctica to stop a shape-shifting alien life form whom has wiped out an American scientific outpost. You play as Blake the leader of a military rescue team/group to investigate the carnage. You must keep your squad members together and control there fear, there trust, and there survival. Now The Thing is a great video game no doubt about it but it has its faults, a couple of them being the blood-testing kits which don't always work, for example you might test a member of your group and he may be clean but then 10 seconds later he will transfer in to The Thing even through the kit told you that he was alright.There's also a couple of glitches through the gameplay, but apart from this The Thing is really a top game that will have you having to earn trust, kill all sorts of different Aliens, and survive.
The Thing is available on PC, PS2, and the original XBOX.
The Thing is available on PC, PS2, and the original XBOX.
"We're Gonna Die Here!"
Brain Cleaner10 December 2002
Great game but could have been better. Set some time after the events of the movie, the game sees you as leader of a rescue team trying to work out what happened in the south poll. After going solo to look for the other half of your team the action begins. Finding guns and staying alive is only half the story, you have to find, lead, equip,earn the trust of survivors who then help you out before meeting a bloody end, you must also keep up their moral or they will freak out p*****g their pants or worse, eating a bullet. That is a problem, it feels that there are set times when you squad "has to die so you are forced on alone" and it's annoying, it would have been better with a set team that you have to keep alive from the start. But other than that really, the games good and plays well on lower spec systems, has great pitch battles, out numbered solo fighting, puzzles, great plot and keeps you on your guard all the time...just who in your team is infected?!
8/10
If you like resident evil style games this is for you.
8/10
If you like resident evil style games this is for you.
No One Can Trust Anybody
TEAQUIEMORO4 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I love "The Thing" movie was the greatest movie ever made by John Carpenter and now they made "The Thing" the video game, what more could you ask. I'm speaking to all of "The Thing" fans to save some money and buy "The Thing" video game, you won't be disappointed after playing it. I have to say they should have made it long ago but they still made it. This video game shows the rest of the film from "The Thing" and the plot was amazing, it beings with a thing monster attacking two workers and killed while someone was watching. Then showed Blake and his team searching for survivors but what they had was a thing adventure. Many died and only one rescue team person will survive but the question is can you survive "The Thing". This shows blood, monsters, curse word, three main thing monster and the fourth thing is the mother-load of the things, can you have trust with you and your teammates, do they have what it takes to survive with your or would you feed them to the things.And there are many bodyguards to kill from the middle to the end. Now can you handle this creepy monster game and beat the mother of the things and beat Whitly and your team to help you or will you die and on never to know what happens at the end. Two more "things", I want to thank the band "Saliva" for the ending song which is very "cool".And lastly the ending and the mid-beginning show a special someone from "The Thing and you'll find out only if you play the game.
10/10
10/10
Mixed: Good start bad finish, good points, bad points
owen_twistfield4 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Summary The Thing is potentially a game that has some strong points going for it, like the feeling of being isolated, by the Antarctic conditions from the world and from your fellow teammates because any of them could turn into a thing at any moment. Yet the entire game struggles to a bad end, with annoying boss battles, bad visuals, mediocre music and bad implemented game features.
This game is set after the happenings in the movie The Thing from John Carpenter and you play the commander in charge of a team sent to find out what had happened. This first part is really great, while you work your way through the partly destroyed bases in search for clues and missing team members.
Then of course the s*** hit's the fan and the things turn up, first in the single spider form, then in waves, and later on as the more robust humanoids. In the meantime your companions change into things themselves at the most inconvenient moments. At the end you find yourself not only up against things but also against soldiers protecting a secret base.
But the game kicks the bottom out of the horror part. Horror in general takes common persons who, with meager resources, are at the mercy of a unknown powerful threat. When they are armed, the weapons in general are ineffective(pistols won't hurt ghosts). Through luck or quick thinking some survive the ordeal, but most of the time it is just an temporary escape because more often then not the monsters will be back.
The first thing the game does is end the common person bit as you realize that everybody is turning into monsters except for you. The danger should be that you can get infected by the thing and then become one yourself, like zombies or vampires. It is therefore important not get infected, hence not get wounded by things. But you are not infected whatever happens. At first you think it's a game bug but then halfway through the game an explanation is given. But the explanation given hurts the horror part even more. You are no common person: you are a bio-engineered soldier.
The second way the game hurt's the horror theme is by giving the player a huge amount of weapons. You will soon find that the Antarctic is apparently a weapon dump of sorts bursting with shot guns, automatic rifles and flamethrowers. So the game become's an extermination game instead of an horror in which you fight of hordes of monsters with a large supply of weaponry.
The game is weakened even further by the ridiculous boss battles. I don't like them in general, but in this game they are even worse than normal. Boss battles general put the player in a small enclosed space against a incredible powerful enemy that takes a lot of hurt to stop. In this game it's the same and sometimes taken to extreme. In one battle you have to stand on one particular spot, otherwise you get killed. There is no hint where you have to stand, so it can take a lot of trial and error to win that one. This is not counting for the fact that standing on the spot will not make you win this battle: you have to stand there not to lose it. And that is not even the end boss battle!
The story sinks even further halfway through the game as you discover that there is a bio-engineering project that wants to create super soldiers by mixing humans with things. Apparently between the movie and the game so much time has progressed that a complete project has been launched and executed. Alternatively: apparently someone has spent a huge amount of money on a project on the Artic without having a clue about the progress of the project. And why the antarctic? Why not take samples of thing-specimen to a place elsewhere where it is cheaper to built a base and maintain it? You don't have to conduct experiments with specimens on the place where you found them.
Finally the horror genre somehow should have a mystery. The less is explained the more scary things are. But this game is crystal clear after you have been informed by the bad guy. No odd encounters here, no strange conversation or partly destroyed papers. After being explained what is going on, the game turns into an amusing chaotic situation as soldiers from that secret base battle it out with you and the things. By this time the entire horror thing has gone out of the window. It's has become a shooter.
The last thing that makes the game weak is that no effort has been made to make it visually or musically attractive. Proper sound and vision make half a movie and this is up to a point also true for a game. It would have been unnerving if for instance in the deserted base a radio is still playing and you hear it's sound get stronger and weaker while you work your way through the rooms. No such mood enhancement has been done.
The game is but half a game and weak at many moments. By taking out the fear of the unknown and the mystery it has become a dumb shooter. It's a pity because it started so promising.
This game is set after the happenings in the movie The Thing from John Carpenter and you play the commander in charge of a team sent to find out what had happened. This first part is really great, while you work your way through the partly destroyed bases in search for clues and missing team members.
Then of course the s*** hit's the fan and the things turn up, first in the single spider form, then in waves, and later on as the more robust humanoids. In the meantime your companions change into things themselves at the most inconvenient moments. At the end you find yourself not only up against things but also against soldiers protecting a secret base.
But the game kicks the bottom out of the horror part. Horror in general takes common persons who, with meager resources, are at the mercy of a unknown powerful threat. When they are armed, the weapons in general are ineffective(pistols won't hurt ghosts). Through luck or quick thinking some survive the ordeal, but most of the time it is just an temporary escape because more often then not the monsters will be back.
The first thing the game does is end the common person bit as you realize that everybody is turning into monsters except for you. The danger should be that you can get infected by the thing and then become one yourself, like zombies or vampires. It is therefore important not get infected, hence not get wounded by things. But you are not infected whatever happens. At first you think it's a game bug but then halfway through the game an explanation is given. But the explanation given hurts the horror part even more. You are no common person: you are a bio-engineered soldier.
The second way the game hurt's the horror theme is by giving the player a huge amount of weapons. You will soon find that the Antarctic is apparently a weapon dump of sorts bursting with shot guns, automatic rifles and flamethrowers. So the game become's an extermination game instead of an horror in which you fight of hordes of monsters with a large supply of weaponry.
The game is weakened even further by the ridiculous boss battles. I don't like them in general, but in this game they are even worse than normal. Boss battles general put the player in a small enclosed space against a incredible powerful enemy that takes a lot of hurt to stop. In this game it's the same and sometimes taken to extreme. In one battle you have to stand on one particular spot, otherwise you get killed. There is no hint where you have to stand, so it can take a lot of trial and error to win that one. This is not counting for the fact that standing on the spot will not make you win this battle: you have to stand there not to lose it. And that is not even the end boss battle!
The story sinks even further halfway through the game as you discover that there is a bio-engineering project that wants to create super soldiers by mixing humans with things. Apparently between the movie and the game so much time has progressed that a complete project has been launched and executed. Alternatively: apparently someone has spent a huge amount of money on a project on the Artic without having a clue about the progress of the project. And why the antarctic? Why not take samples of thing-specimen to a place elsewhere where it is cheaper to built a base and maintain it? You don't have to conduct experiments with specimens on the place where you found them.
Finally the horror genre somehow should have a mystery. The less is explained the more scary things are. But this game is crystal clear after you have been informed by the bad guy. No odd encounters here, no strange conversation or partly destroyed papers. After being explained what is going on, the game turns into an amusing chaotic situation as soldiers from that secret base battle it out with you and the things. By this time the entire horror thing has gone out of the window. It's has become a shooter.
The last thing that makes the game weak is that no effort has been made to make it visually or musically attractive. Proper sound and vision make half a movie and this is up to a point also true for a game. It would have been unnerving if for instance in the deserted base a radio is still playing and you hear it's sound get stronger and weaker while you work your way through the rooms. No such mood enhancement has been done.
The game is but half a game and weak at many moments. By taking out the fear of the unknown and the mystery it has become a dumb shooter. It's a pity because it started so promising.
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