The Thing

"To hell with Resident Evil, get this!"

John Carpenter's The Thing. If you've seen the movie you know the score. Set in the Antarctic military base. Alien life-form running around taking over anything that comes in contact with it, right? Yeah. The game picks up right where the 1982 movie left off. 20 years later, or something.

The Story: You play guy named Blake. You lead your team on an investigation on what the hell happened to the base 20 years before. But something survived....

The graphics: There's nothing really groundbreaking. The graphics look just fine. The weather effects are the true scene stealers in this twisted tale. I mean it doesn't come close to the 2-d multi-billion camera angled Resident Evil. But this game can hold its own.

The sound: Here's where everything culminates. You get a good cast of voice talent. I swear I heard Cam Clarke in here somewhere. The sounds of walking on the snow, the winds of the Antarctic are something to behold. Plus the screams and shrieks of those little Things.

The gameplay: Here's the most innovation to happen to a video game in a long time. Fear. The more your compatriots get scared. The more unruly and paranoid they become. So much so that they will actually shoot at you. Some of the little things like control can get a tad frustrating but the camera is a dream. Stays right behind you all the time. You see everything that's forthcoming and no sneak attacks. The learning curve is short but when you get it right, it's just fine. One last thing I liked about the Thing, was when you're outside for prolonged amounts of time that you would suffer from hypothermia. This means, children, you can't take the outside for granted. But what's safer? Being out in the numbing cold or being in a warm location with The Thing?

Overall: The Thing is hands down one of the best survival horror games out there right now. I say, to hell with Resident Evil and it's ammo conservation. This is the survival game for the people who just plain like killing without worrying that the little beasties will get right back up an hour later. Hail to the Thing.

Good survivor horror, bad survivor horror, this is a different kind of survivor horror. You'll have a ball blowing away these beasties and wondering who is human or who is a thing. Trust. Paranoia. Will you survive the Thing? WHO GOES THERE?

Due to some minor control problems I give The Thing a 9/10. Man I wish they would have gotten Kurt Russell to come back.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/02, Updated 09/06/02