The Thing (video game)

The Thing
Developer(s)	Computer Artworks
Publisher(s)	VU Games (North America) Konami (Europe) Konami (Japan)
Designer(s)	Andrew Curtis
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
Release date(s)	NA August 21, 2002 EU September 20, 2002
Genre(s)	Third person survival horror
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M)
Media/distribution	CD, DVD

The Thing is a third person survival horror game. The game was presented as a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing. It was developed by Computer Artworks and published by VU Games. It was released in North America for the PS2 on August 19, 2002^[1], on the PC on August 20, 2002^[2] and on the Xbox on September 9, 2002 ^[3].

Plot

The game begins at U.S. Outpost 31 in Antarctica a short time after the events of Carpenter's 1982 movie, where a team of U.S. special forces called Beta investigate the destruction of the American base. The player controls the character of Blake, a member of Beta team and the game's protagonist. During Beta Team's exploration Blake finds the small craft made by the Blair-Thing in the first film and also a tape recorder with a message from MacReady describing how the base was over run by an alien life-form that imitates the body and mind of any living organism. The soldiers also find the body of Childs, one of the only two survivors from the first movie who apparently died of exposure to extreme cold. Upon securing the facility after facing off with several small Thing monsters, Blake is airlifted to the Norwegian research station to locate and reinforce Alpha Team. Colonel Whitely, the game's villain, informs Blake that they have lost contact with Alpha team. There Blake and his group encounter swarms of bigger humanoid "Things" that slowly rip apart Beta team as Blake rescues a soldier called Colin, the only survivor from Alpha Team, and learns of a government conspiracy with a company called Gen Inc. (Genetics Incorporated). This corporation conducted experiments on the alien life-form and isolated a microbiological form of The Thing called the "Cloud virus" to be used in biological warfare. Eventually the Thing begins to infest everyone involved at the company's secret research facility in Antarctica. Blake learns that Whitely was behind the breakout the whole time, even injecting himself with a dose of "Cloud Virus B4" strain. With a new group of survivors, Blake fights his way inside the secret base battling numerous black ops and gruesome Thing creatures before facing the horrific mutation of Whitely, taking place at the site of the alien's crashed spaceship. During the last battle with the gigantic Thing monster, Blake has the assistance of a helicopter pilot, revealed to be R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell), the hero and survivor from Carpenter's film.

Gameplay

Since the whole game is set in several bases located in Antartica, during the action taking place outside buildings the player's health bar will slowly reduce after some time unless an enclosed spot is found for cover and protection from the extreme cold weather.

Weaponry for the player's character includes pistols, grenades, sniper rifles, flame-throwers, shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers and fixed heavy machineguns. Other items that can be found during the game are health packs, explosives, body armor and ammunition.

Portable test-kits to discover assimilated characters can also be used. If any of the non-playable characters tested is discovered to be a 'Thing', it will change immediately and attack the player and the rest of the squad members.

Non-playable characters are divided in classes and can be ordered to perform certain actions according to their class that range from attacking the enemy, healing other characters or the player, guarding a place, opening doors or fixing equipment.

The game also uses a fear system and a trust system to increase the feeling of paranoia and the realism of the game. This was implemented by making it possible for one of the player's teammates to be 'turned', and for the player to not realize that until it is too late.

In the trust system, the player may lose or gain the trust of his squad if he kills a teammate on the belief that that teammate had been 'turned'. The squad will react to the killing depending if the slain teammate was or wasn't a Thing. If the teammate had been 'turned', the squad will praise you for killing him and their trust will increase. However, if the teammate was still human, the squad will lose faith in you and may even try to kill you. Also, if a test is performed on a team member and he turns out to be human the trust of that character will reduce. However, if the player tests himself the level of trust of the other squad members increases. Giving weaponry and ammunition to the non-playable characters will also increase their trust in the player. Their level of trust may be hinted by the different phrases and the mood that the characters will show during dialogues.

In the fear system, the non-playable squad reacts to the environment of an area. An area that is covered in blood, with lots of alien remains or an area where there is dwindling or no ilumination at all or even a lot of wreckage present, might inspire fear in the squad members. Also, the number of 'Things' present or the sizes of the monsters may frighten the squad members during battle. If the level of fear of the non-playable characters increases they will start shaking and ignoring orders after some point. Depending on the level of fear, the individual members of the squad may run away, simply give up and commit suicide or become irrational and start shooting indiscriminately. As this places the player and the squad in significant danger, the player often has to kill this teammate. If the player kills this teammate, the squad will neither gain nor lose trust in the player.

There are several different ways that a player may kill a 'Thing'. A small monsters may be shot to death, while a larger one will have to be shot to near death with a regular gun and then torched with a flamethrower. This does not carry over to the boss 'Things'; it varies from situation to situation as to whether a player can kill the boss with a traditional gun or kill the boss with the flamethrower. Also, different types of grenades may stun, blow up or set on fire the different types of monsters.

Cast

Voice actors include Kathryn Cressida, and William B. Davis as Col. Whitely. John Carpenter also lent his likeness to the character Dr. Faraday.

Music

The song "After Me" performed by American rock band Saliva is heard in the end credits of the game. The song is also featured on their second studio album "Every Six Seconds".

Reception

The Thing received a generally favorable critical reception with an average critic score of 80% for the PS2 version, 78% for the PC and 77% for the Xbox at GameRankings. Edge magazine awarded it 7 out of 10 in issue 116,^[4] highlighting the well-managed tension and atmosphere, and the impressive weapon effects (such as the flamethrower.) However, the reviewer was ultimately disappointed by the game's linearity.

GameSpot also awarded the PC version 7.7 out of 10,^[5] while giving the Xbox and PS2 versions an 8.4 criticizing the "fear/trust/infection" system (one of the main features of the game) as having little impact. However, the reviewer felt that the game still worked as a good shoot 'em up with almost flawless presentation. IGN rewarded The Thing with a 8.5 out of 10 for the PC version and their complaint about this game was its lack of replay value. GameZone gave it a 8 out of 10.^[6][7]

Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine was very taken by the game's high quality, awarding it a 9 out of 10 and describing it as "top-class survival horror meets one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. Excellent".

Cancelled sequel

A sequel for the game was in development by the same videogame company a year after it was released, but was later cancelled when Computer Artworks closed down in 2004. Several pieces of official production art for the unproduced game as well as two cinematic videos do exist and can still be found online. According to some screenshots a beta of The Thing 2 videogame supposedly also exists but is yet to be released to the public. The images of the unproduced sequel show a similar gameplay interface with improved graphics and new levels in infested locations set in refinery installations, oil processing bases, access tunnels and an aircraft carrier. New monster designs for the unproduced game sequel inspired those of the creatures in the 2011 film prequel.^[8]

References

1. ^ "The Thing for PlayStation 2 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/the-thing. Retrieved 2011-10-01. 
2. ^ "The Thing for PC Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-thing. Retrieved 2011-10-01. 
3. ^ "The Thing for Xbox - GameRankings". http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox/561544-the-thing/index.html. Retrieved 2011-10-01. 
4. ^ Edge Online: Search Results
5. ^ The Thing review at GameSpot
6. ^ "IGN: The Thing Review". http://pc.ign.com/articles/370/370554p1.html. Retrieved 2008-03-18. 
7. ^ "The Thing Review - PC on GameZone". http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r16136.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-18. 
8. ^ "The Thing 2 [XBOX/PS2 - Cancelled"]. http://www.unseen64.net/2009/02/19/the-thing-2-xboxps2-cancelled-2/. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 

• http://pc.gamezone.com/gamesell/p16136.htm
• http://au.gamespot.com/xbox/action/thing/index.html
• http://au.ps2.ign.com/objects/016/016864.html

External links

• The Thing at the Internet Movie Database
• The Thing at GameFAQs