The Thing

"A timeless classic reinvented for the next gen console"

The Game-

Those familiar with the movie classic the thing know that the plot is easily one of the best conceived. It starts with scientists being stranded in an artic outpost and having a not so friendly alien visit them. That alone would be blah not this one the alien has the ability to take on the look of it's hosts so that no one actually knows whose infected. The game takes off after the movie to where there is an investigating team sent in to recon the scene. You find bodies destruction and of all things a ufo.

The Graphics-

The Thing was revamped for the X-Box with very good graphics nothing so awe inspiring but crisp clean graphics. the bodies look good as with the members of your team and the scenery take in mind you are in the Artic and that means lot's of snow. The bosses are very good as with the everyday enemies. The game gives you the feeling of being there and you can tell time was put in creating this game.

The Controls-

Well here unfortunately I can't rave about this. The controls are rather very frustrating to get used to. To do a simple turn around requires use of both thumbsticks making it difficult to turn on the spot. When you are running around it is difficult to look around as you are running. You can get used to this it does take a bit of time. The camera angles are pretty good and do a good job following you around however there are the occasional blips. You have the ability to control your team mates if they have your trust I will talk more about this later. The controls for using items doing actions and communicating are well done and are easy to use.

The Gameplay-

The Thing has a unique aspect where you have to gain the trust of your teamates before they will listen to your commands. This means you cannot shoot them you have to be cautious of your actions to not draw suspicion on yourself. This adds to the game tremendously with very good AI. You will need your team mates to do certain objectives you have use of an engineer, a medic and a soldier all very useful to you. The suspense is indeed present in this game as anyone can be infected and you need to be wary of who is doing what.
You are in a third person view but have the ability to switch to first person good for surveying and focusing on an area. The basics are that you kill the aliens while trying to follow your objectives and figure out what is going on.
The game is very smooth with a solid frame rate. A easy game to watch.

The sound-

With extra music from saliva and soundtracks from the movie the sound is done well. The voices of your team mates are realistic and done well as with the cut scenes. The weapons sound realistic as with all effects your walking in the snow to the crackle of electricity.

Replay-

This game doesn't have a multi player death match but it does have 3 different levels of difficulty which does add some replay value. However the game is lengthy and one you won't want to rush.

Over All-

This game is an easy 8/10 closer to 9 but not quite that good with a multi player or a coop mode it would easily get there but on it's own it's an easy 8. This game along with Buffy shows us how good if time is taking a movie to game transition can be. This is a must by for those fans of the Resident Evil series and those who like a little jolt with there game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/03, Updated 01/08/03