"Excellent game, not for everyone however"

Graphics 9/10
The Thing's graphics are excellent. All the models are detailed, there are very few of those fuzzy lines on them. The dead bodies are extremely gross, and its easy to see why your men barf/crack up when seeing one of them. This game is very bloody mind you as a lot of the rooms are detailed with blood literally covering the room from ceiling to floor, with hack and mangled bodies that will surely make you shudder when viewing them up close. The lighting effects are very cool, and this is easily demonstrated with the flamethrower effects, which have some of the best effects since RTCW. Seeing a monster run around on fire is definetly cool! The monsters look terrific; I was definetly chilled when I saw a walker thing for the first time, moving passively by me outside the room I was in. However I took a point off because the character facial animations and expressions look zombified, although I have to say they potray the fear and anxiety expressed by your men in the team interface very well. Overall, graphics are great.
Sound 9/10
The Thing is packed with both creepy and cool sounds. The noise of the blizzard definetly potrays the intense cold, the monster roars and growls are chilling, as are the omnimous footsteps of an approaching thing. The voice acting is perfect, each voice clearly represents the kind of character it is from. Noises like footsteps, flamethrower noises, explosions and whatnot are all done well. I took a point off because I thought the pistol and smg sounded a bit too weak, but this is really minor so it shouldn't deter from the game.
Gameplay 8/10
This is where the game shines. The Thing's controls are a combination of survival horror and Fpshooter schemes. On one hand you cannot jump, you cannot look up or down, you can't target in 3rd person because there is autoaim like in most survival horror games(and the autoaim is flawless), you can't save anywhere you like, and you keep an inventory of keys, notes, and other gear. On the other hand, it operates like a Fpshooter in respect to strafing, running, crouching and a first person view where you can target and lean left/right. The game dynamics operate much like a normal Fpshooter, since you can move and fire at the same time and so on. Although some may gripe about not being able to look up or down, I easily got through that problem because the camera pans up if there's an enemy above you, and the First person view which allows you to look anywhere, operates very smoothly and effectively so you can stop, look around and shoot, then return to 3rd person very easily. The trust/fear system which you should know of does what it does. Your men can react in many, many ways if they are in a situation that would affect them mentally. Once one of my men panicked so much he died of a heart attack. In another time he was running around the room screaming, while firing his weapon like mad. Your men also have the potential to be infected and turn on you when the time is right. Here is where I take one point off. Some of the 'burst outs' are scripted, so its really quite dissappointing when you go through all the trouble to protect your men and keep their trust, only to find out they die anyway. Note that this does'nt happen for all the men you meet. For the non-scripted burst outs, you can check to see if a man is infected by using a blood test which is quite suspensful since your character after extracting the blood, looks at the syringe in suspense, waiting for either nothing to happen, or watch the syringe explode with a bang indicating infected blood. The action sequences requires some thinking and team work too. Your enemies, for the most part, can't be killed by bullets. You can weaken them, but they can only be killed with fire. Hence, each 'thing' you encounter isn't just something you blow away with ease, you have to rely on your team as well. Now speaking of teamwork, I took another point off because this game is screaming for a co op mode. This game is perfect for that sort of thing, but there isn't one. Now, in my synopsis I said 'not for everyone' because most people will be turned off by the inability to look up or down, or the inability of a save-anywhere feature. Realize that this isn't entirely a Fpshooter, because it blends survival horror rules into it. Also some people will be turned off by the interface which takes a while to get used to, it took my 3 days to master it, and I wasn't griping because I enjoy a challenge. Overall, the gameplay is unique not only because of the trust/fear system but because that it is part survival horror, part fpshooter.
Value 6/10
There isn't much to do once you finish the game. It is quite short but the overall experience is great. I would gladly replay this game over and over again, but most people won't find much to do after it. I like the sci fi genre of games very much, and I also like the movie this game is based on so I don't have a problem with replaying the game. Also you can try different things with how you play. You could have your men infected or killed time and time again, and you could play the game again and not get them killed which unlocks a different experience to different routes and so on. I gave it a 6/10 because the replayability won't be liked by most players, but if I had to rate the value with gamers who love this game in mind, then I would give it an 8. Overall, value, won't appeal to many but it will to some.
Story 10/10
Rather than do a remake of the story, The Thing is a sequel to it. You are the leader of a rescue team sent to investigate outpost 31(I must note here that your character, Blake, is a remarkably obvious cross between Solid Snake and Havoc from C&C Renegade). You will run into familiar environments from the movie, though most of the environments are in the norweigan base, which allows the designers to be more creative since barely any of it was shown in the movie. Along the way you will encounter plot twists and so on. I can't say much of the story, its just good. I will tell you, though, that John Carpenter(director of the movie) himself liked the story so I think that is good enough.
Buy or rent?
It depends. If you're like me and have been anticipating this game for many months, and if you like the idea of the game then by all means buy it. If you're just looking for a game to buy because you're bored then please rent it. This game doesn't appeal to everyone because it is unique and it isn't without its problems. And, just as it is with any game you burn, its illegal.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/02, Updated 09/10/02