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4/5 |
Alien style
(July 27, 2004) |
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The Thing picks up where the 1982 film left off centring on the military investigation of enigmatic deaths of an American scientific team in the frozen wastelands of the Antarctic. Within these inhospitable surroundings your team encounters a strange shape-shifting alien life-form that assumes the appearance of people that it kills. |
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5/5 |
Really enjoyable game
(March 01, 2004) |
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First time I have played a game like this for 10 years and what a pleasure. One of the very best ganes I have ever played. Fantastic story. Great (creepy) atmosphere. Superb game play.
Took my 7 weeks to complete. Not too difficult BUT certainly not easy either. I did have to "cheat" in finding out how to kill one of the creatures...but after one week of being stuck on the same level I had no choice. I thought it could have ended a little better.... that is my ONLY small compliant. Buy it. Play it. Enjoy it. |
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5/5 |
The Thing - Not A Sequel But A DAMN FINE GAME
(October 14, 2003) |
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"Why don't we just wait here awhile...see what happens..." The last line from "John Carpenter's The Thing" is one which screams SEQUEL like no film has done before. "The Thing" is not really a sequel, but it IS a really good game. It starts off as your (you play a military captain, J.F. Blake) team is dropped off at U.S. Outpost #31 - the site of the original game. When I first played this game, the computer exploding about 30 seconds into the game gave me the biggest shock I've had in a while...I'm a big fan of the film and I expected something to happen. It didn't, but the atmosphere still remained tense. Those who have seen the film HAVE to buy this if you have a PC or console which can support this, the references to the film aren't used as a constant reminder that "this is the thing, you have to like it," they're used to amplify the tension by leaving you with a reminder of the events of 1981, Outpost 31. In a nutshell, the game, related to the film, is awesome. Related to other PC games, it's also awesome...but it's not without faults... The game has a few daft glitches, like team mates running back and forth for no real reason, the fact that they will turn into things minutes after you give them a blood test, but nothing you wouldn't expect with a new team system like this (the thing about the blood test...it just adds to the surprise when they burst out in front of you :P) I couldn't find any faults with "The Thing" and I've played it through many times, and THE THING ISN'T THE SAME PERSON TWICE!!! It runs well on most computers, although the torch effect does slow it down a bit on my PC. Almost flawless game, and where there are flaws they're not that big. |
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4/5 |
Surprisingly good
(September 22, 2003) |
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As a fan of John Carpenters classic remake of a sci-fi classic, I had to pick up this game. At first I was a little cynical as this game labels itself a survival horror in the style of Resident Evil, one of the most predictable gaming series in existence. You play Blake, who discovers that his place of work has become a breeding ground for shape shifting entities. The thing (no pun intended) which separates this game from the Resident Evil/Silent Hill series is the inclusion of interaction with NPC’s, which help you take out the armies of aliens and later on, human soldiers who realise you’re out to destroy their governments little plan. NPC’s help you, but sometimes turn out to be shape-shifters themselves, which results in them changing into monsters in Incredible Hulk style and attacking you, when they may have helped you out the entire level. The suspense in whether they really are the enemy, results in a lot of drama and increases tension. The game is a little easy, but tense in places. For one thing, you get a nice little “aimbot” which targets enemies as opposed to targeting yourself. If this get a little easy, you can choose to aim manually. As for the harder moments, there are a few occasions which I found frustrating but ultimately rewarding. Interesting moments are few and far between, but intriguing; one level has you taking out both aliens and marines, and they engage in wars themselves which is reminiscent of Half Life. The depleting health and ammo stock keeps you on your toes especially in the early stages, as you depend on your computer friends to take out the enemy as you search desperately for more resources. The puzzles are no more taxing than finding a key and flicking a few switches, which is fair enough as the storyline is about as complex as an episode of Itchy and Scratchy, so no need for endlessly hunting for clues and hoping something will work out. The save game feature is suitable and is one of the reasons this game becomes so re-playable. Instead of the new-age “save where you like” trend, it has you saving your game on a tape-recorder, hidden around the level. That there are one or two of these at most, has your heart racing that you don’t screw up, the fear of having to fight through the tense moments again is always there. This feature works without the chores of old-school games. Especially rewarding was working through the last level on 5% health, which had me pleading for medpacks. Eventually I got through thanks to my Counter-Strike sniping days. The Thing is a little short, and some of the NPC’s have some unforgivable bugs. In one level, a doctor ran through red-hot steam casually, injuring him with little care. This came at a moment in the game where you depended on him, but he caused me to die through his stunning incompetence. Predictability is something which is obvious in the survival horror genre, here it is never too bad, although there are too many occasions where the little scuttlers just run out in predictable form. The storyline is simple but well done, and there’s even room for a sequel. The graphics are crystal clear, beautiful, and run perfectly. At no point in the game did slow-down occur, which is even better. The polygonal effects are beautiful, with great detail. The Thing is surprisingly good. If the first few levels seem a bit dark and depressing, later on things get more interesting. Overall surprisingly good for a survival horror, with great graphics and gameplay. Probably the first one of its genre with decent acting and a great ending. |
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4/5 |
The Thing
(June 02, 2003) |
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The game is supposed to be set after the horror based movie John Carpenter's The Thing. The game was played on a AMD Athlon 2 Ghz 512 Mb Ram with a Radeon 9000 graphics chipset, and the Graphics were stunning, the facial animations were especially excellent. The game has a simple idea to it, kill Thing creatures then solve a puzzle to get through one door to another. The game however gives you a chance to control your own team. During the game you will find medics, engineers who are essential to progress further and so keeping them alive is sometimes essential depending on the situation. You must make them trust you, you can do this by giving them a weapon and giving them health at times when they need it. One bad thing about this game is that your team will always change into one of those things, the whole game has been scripted- one minute you give your team those blood tests to test whether they are infected and a negative response is given, the next minute you turn your back and they have turned into creatures. The atmosphere in this game brings out a truly terrifying experience similar to that of the film. The game is very similar to the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill in terms of playability . For fans of these games or the film, you might want to check this game out. |
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