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Given the bleak track record of movie-to-game translations, The Thing--based on John Carpenter's 1982 horror film, which was itself a remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks original--comes saddled with some understandably low expectations. Against the odds, it's actually good. In fact, if it weren't for a general scarcity of terror and a control scheme unsuited to its action-oriented gameplay, The Thing would be great.
Rather than retelling the movie's plot, the game starts right where the movie ended. You're sent to investigate the pair of Antarctic research stations that provided the setting for the film's events. Along the way, you'll run across various survivors and fellow investigators, with whom you can team up. This is The Thing's most innovative idea. At any given point, you can have as many as three computer-controlled teammates traveling with you. You can hand them weapons and ammo, heal them, and give them simple dog commands such as stay and follow. Because the thing itself is a parasitic infection, nobody knows who's infected and who isn't. Teammates each have a trust meter that gauges how firmly they believe you're not a thing. Various actions, such as healing them, helping them in combat, and giving them equipment, all raise this trust level, while other actions lower it. If a companion doesn't trust you, he (they're all male) won't follow your orders and may eventually even attack you. Each person also has a fear level. As his terror rises, he becomes more unhinged. If nothing is done to relieve his fear, he'll eventually go crazy, at which point he may become totally unresponsive, kill himself, wet his pants, or start firing his weapon blindly. Roughly the same actions that increase a team member's trust in you will also quell his fears. Of course, any of your companions may actually be a thing, meaning at some point he'll transform into a monster. |
