The Thing

"Gore and more!"

The Thing is truly a classic piece of cinema, a horror classic. Now as we venture into a new millennium The Thing is resurrected as a video game, but does it live up to the film? Mr.Carpenter seems to think so. Will you?

The Thing wastes no time introducing you to its dark and bloody world. You and a small team are assigned to investigate an Antarctic outpost. As if the below zero temperatures aren't enough, there's a blizzard to contend with as well. Obviously being that cold is hard on your health, whenever you venture outside a blue gage will appear. If the gage empties then you health will begin to go down as well. This adds an interesting element to the game, adding to its frantic atmosphere.

In the begging the basics of the game are explained, as well as the importance of teamwork and trust. The people that you meet during the game have a trust gage, in order to get the person to follow your commands you must gain their trust. I found this to be a little to simple. All you have to do is give them bullets and a little ammo and they're ready to kiss your boots. Earlier in the game there are some people that require you to perform a task before they join the team, but later it's just a matter of finding and arming someone. This could have been improved upon. Though it may be simple to get a helping hand you should be wary. Anyone could be a Thing!

There are three types of people to help you during your journey. Engineers are the most common. With their superior training in electronics they can fix fuse boxes that you couldn't. Medics are rare, but they come in handy. They can heal any unit to full health. This can be handy as medical packs don't grow on trees. The final unit is a soldier, basically he's there to do battle with monsters and is less likely to crack up due the common disemboweled body.

In past survival horror games traumatizing images were overlooked by characters. Even small children could pass by hideously disfigured bodies with no reaction. The Thing uses mental fragility to its advantage. When you access the team status screen you can see how frightened the a person is. Fright can be caused by a number of things, bodies and sometimes heavy structural damage can freak your comrades out. To remedy their waning sanity you may use an adrenaline shot or simply lead them away from what's scaring them. If you wait to long and they become violently afraid they will begin attacking living things at random and will turn the gun on themselves soon after.

This game has enough weapons to keep you satisfied, but not enough to really impress you. There's an assault rifle, shotgun, several types of grenades, a torch, a pistol, and a flamethrower. Not to mention the ever popular rocket launcher. You must ration these guns among your team and be careful to conserve ammo, which should be nothing new to a veteran survival horror player.

There are Things aplenty in the Arctic. The most common are tiny creatures that attack in packs. These little creatures are easily dispatched by gunfire. The same isn't true for the larger Thing beasts. In order to kill them you must decrease their health and burn them with a torch, flame grenade, or flamethrower. The task of keeping a healthy supply of flamethrower fuel will have people familiar with the genre cringing in fear, but the ammo runs down surprisingly slowly compared to other survival horror titles.

Now for the flaws, which are rather glaring. There is a point in the game where you have to go around a airport control tower. On the side is a fenced in dog kennel, where your allies always press themselves against it and refuse to move. The only way to get them to follow you is to physically push them away from the fence which is made difficult by your cold gauge and the fact that you sometimes pass through your teammate while pushing him. Another is that even though you use a blood test kit to see if a person is a Thing or not it's sometimes not effective. For example you can use one on Joe but once Joe reaches a certain point in a hallway he turns into a Thing anyway. Not only that but the element of surprise is removed as the character always changes at the same spot. The final flaw is that the disk is printed on a blue bottom DVD, causing many a dreaded Disk Read Error.

The Thing isn't a bad game, and it's worth a rent. You should be able to beat it in a few days. Although you've probably heard this before, buy it if you are a big fan of the movie. I've never seen it but I still found it to be somewhat enjoyable, and I think you will too. That's why I give it a well deserved 7/10.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/14/03, Updated 01/14/03