Official Website

Platform: Playstation 2, Xbox, PC

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Generally, basing a video game from a movie is never such a good idea. The list of bad movie to game adaptations goes on and on and regardless of how the gaming public at large accepts, or bashes as the case usually is, these titles, the list continues to grow. This can be traced back to the early days of gaming to the Atari 2600. One of the first great travesties in gaming history is perhaps E.T., The Extra Terrestrial. One would have thought that was enough to stop developers from taking a license from a film and ruining it, but that wasn’t the case. Things grew even worse as horror films began to have horrid games created. Movies like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street and there was even a time where game designers toyed with the idea of turning Hellraiser into a first person shooter.

But when it comes to taking a film and translating it to a game, once in a great while, someone gets the idea that in fact, a game shouldn’t be an exact translation from the film. When you have a license, there are a few other things that you can do with it. Take for instance The Thing. Back in 1982, John Carpenter took the science fiction classic and remade it, but went for more of a horror approach. The film plays out in a fashion that, along with many other horror films, served I’m sure as a template for many games in the surging survival horror category. However, now that The Thing has been translated into a game, the approach has been taken in a slightly different direction.

As a game, The Thing is a sequel to Carpenters film, taking place after the tragic events that annihilated the research team. Players assume the role of Capt. Blake, who has been sent with a rescue squad to determine just what happened at the Antarctic facility. As anyone who has seen the film knows though, there’s something quite alien, and quite horrible, lurking in the cold shadows of the barren Antarctic landscape.

The first innovative and interesting point of The Thing is that it utilizes NPC’s. While Blake is the main character of the game, you have members of your squad that you can talk with and command, and some have abilities that are vital to the success of the mission, and you’re survival as well. Some are simply soldiers, bringing some much needed firepower to the mission while others are medics, usefully for healing obviously, and others have the skill of an engineer. Engineers are needed for any sort of devices that you run across that may need to be repaired. So, how do you know who can do what job? They tell you essentially, but it’s not like they come up and tell you either. The Thing uses many overhead icons which will allow you to know who does what. If you find something that requires an engineer and one is close by, an icon will appear over their head letting you know that they can open it. NPC’s will also let you know when they have spotted the enemy, when they are taking damage, and when they nee to be healed.

It’s important though to not only pay attention to these icons to determine who can do what or needs help, but also their overall feelings towards the events at hand. Remember, the thing can assume just about any form and slowly, NPC’s will begin to suspect that someone, including you, may in fact be infected. The trust icons can be altered however, but that depends on how you interact with those that suspect you of being in league with the enemy. Aside from distrust, you also have to worry about fear taking over a squad member. As they become more and more afraid, they will begin to act irrationally, stop fighting, and even refuse to go into room. And much like the trust icons, you can help clam them by giving them various items and doing whatever else is necessary to ease the tension.

Of course, you’re not going to go on this little trek unarmed, especially since no one is exactly sure just what happened at the base. The Thing has plenty of weapons to even the odds, slightly at least. While some of the weapons are of the sort that you would find in the Resident Evil games, likes pistols and shotguns, there are some that are very unique to The Thing. Some a minor, like the tazer, but there are others that I certainly wish had been included, at least on a more regular basis, into survival horror titles. The sniper rifle is always a fun weapon, regardless of what game you’re playing, and there’s nothing more entertaining than taking shots at some alien fiend 200 or so yards out. The flamethrower is also a handy little weapon, great for starting up an alien barbeque. Of course, ammo plays an important factor as well, and you’ll have to pay close attention to what you have left. However, you’re teammates also are subject to the effects of low ammo, and running out during a heavy firefight is going to result in injury, or even death. Therefore, the strategy isn’t placed upon just how quickly you can eliminate your foes, but also how well you pay attention to what’s going on with your teammates.

There’s a slight amount of puzzle-type elements, but most of it is pretty simple. Find a code for a computer and things like that. It’s nothing that’s going to give you an aneurysm. Despite the fact that The Thing is touted as being another entry into the survival horror genre, it plays itself out more like an action adventure title than anything else. Most of the game play is centered around killing, but there’s nothing wrong with that, and picking up whatever clues you can as to just what happened.

The game visually comes across as being somewhat of a cross between the RE series and Sony’s Extermination. While the graphics don’t come across as being quite as clean as what has been presented in RE, they still are done fairly well, with plenty of dark shadows and below zero elements, adding somewhat to the realism. In fact, the cold temperatures will actually being to affect you and your squad if you spend too much time outside of the safety of the ruined research facility. However, the graphics do tend to be a little uninspired at times, not necessarily making the visual impact that you would expect. The lip synch often falls out of time as well, and while it’s not always noticeable, it does bring a slight amount of annoyance to the game, especially if you’re a nitpicker. However, it’s not nearly as horrible as what has been passed along to gamers in other titles.

I found the controls to be somewhat frustrating. While it’s easy to move and attack, the camera angles have a tendency to get in the way and even complicate matters, especially during a fight. The interface for accessing the sub-menus to communicate with your team as well as equip items and the like is very poorly designed. It’s the type of set up that is used more frequently in the world of PC games and doesn’t translate nearly as smoothly to home consoles.

The voice acting is isn’t badly done, however checking IMDB shows that many of the voice acting cast have done little to no work previously. There are at least two cast members that do however stand out more than others. Most notable is William B. Davis, a name that most people know as the man behind the diabolic Cigarette Smoking Man (or CGB Spender) for the “X-Files” television series. Another that people may not know by name, but if you have children you know at least one of the shows that she’s worked on, is Kat Cressida. So, what’s she worked on you might ask yourself. Well, she’s none other than the voice of Dee Dee on the Cartoon Network’s very own “Dexter’s Laboratory.” Really though, that ends the list of big names that were brought in to do voice work. These aren’t the biggest names in the world, just as I’m sure the license wasn’t the sort of thing that was necessarily going to break the bank, but it’s at least a good effort.

The Thing isn’t a bad game really, but it does tend to get a little boring and repetitive at times. I definitely wouldn’t equate it with being a true survival horror title though, just as I had mentioned previously, and instead it’s more or less a hybrid of several other game types. I’m sure that some elements will eventually be accepted and adopted by other game designers looking to make a quick buck with horror titles. And while the game is relatively short in length, it’s a bit longer than most of the horror titles that Capcom continues to churn out in boatloads. Much like those though, The Thing has relatively no fear factor at all, depending of course on just how desensitized you are to horror in general.

Still though, The Thing is worth at least a look, and with it being available on a variety of platforms, virtually everyone who is a gamer has some outlet to take advantage of. PC gamers may fair a little better with the controls whereas PS2 and X-Box owners are stuck with clunky controller configurations in order to navigate the game, but it’s something that you can get used to, at least a little. The Thing may not transform your life in some sort of drastic way, but it’s entertaining enough to walk away with at least a little satisfaction, especially due to the fact that there are multiple endings, and that’s good enough for me.

 -mike-