The Thing PS2 Review @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on September 25, 2002

Full Review: I want a flamethrower for Christmas.

Survival horror was in a bit of a rut in the waning days of the Playstation and the Nintendo 64. Rehashes, sequels, rip offs of Resident Evil as far as the eye could see. But now in the last year things have really picked up starting with Silent Hill 2, moving to Fatal Frame, then Resident Evil, Eternal Darkness, and now, one of the best games I have ever played: The Thing. And just think, it's based off of a movie.

The Thing games picks up right where The Thing movie ends. Outpost 31 has been blown up completely in hopes of eradicating any last piece of The Thing. As Blake, searching these charred remains is your first job and movie fans will be happy to know that finding Childs' body is your first objective. From there you're sent over to the Norwegian base to find out what happened to the team sent there and that's when the real fun begins.

The thing that sets The Thing apart from other games in the survival horror genre is it's use of a fully interactive squad. While EA is busy spinning it's wheels on it's own squad based game based on the Aliens, Universal has shown them how it's done. Every squad member is assigned a job: medic, engineer, or grunt. Medics can heal you or any member of your squad without finding medipaks. Engineers can fix broken electrical equipment that is too complicated for Blake. And grunts are combat soldiers just like Blake. Mastering how to command your troops is key as the squad commands tie in completely with The Thing's other big innovation: the Fear/Trust meter.

Throughout the game your squad will be subjected to some horrific images and it's very likely will be begin to lose it. Possibly even culminating in them putting a gun in their mouth and blowing the back of their head off. So to keep your team calm you can give orders to make them leave the frightening area for someplace more safe, give them a weapon, give them a shot of adrenaline, or even execute them yourself if you think their behavior might make them a Thing. Of course doing something as drastic as laying waste to a teammate requires you to monitor the trust level of your other teammates.

Trust is the most important thing in The Thing because if your team doesn't have it they might just kill you. So you have to build trust by distributing weapons, giving orders that don't lead your team to an area that resembles a deathtrap, and the most important of all: performing blood tests to prove you're not infected. It is a testament to the guys at Computer Artworks at how deeply these three pieces of the game are intertwined. You can't command if your squad doesn't trust you. And they won't trust you if they're afraid. All three must be in a balance that shifts constantly throughout the game. I've never seen anything like it and I was amazed at how well it turned out.

None of those facets of the game would work quite as well without a frightening atmosphere to go with it and The Thing delivers. The environments are detailed enough, with plenty of gore painted on the walls stealing the show. Real time lighting effects show off the shadows very well but I was more impressed with the real time fire and blood effects. Yes that sounds a little sick, but because of the importance of the flamethrower, fire almost becomes another character you must control in The Thing. Almost everything is flammable and that can create plenty of problems if you back yourself into a corner. Using your environment and your fire extinguisher is oftentimes the only proper way to dispatch a Thing. The Thing earned every bit of it's R rating with it's gore and The Thing game is no exception. The blood flows in real time just like the fire. Shooting a Thing or executing one of your squad members will produce the appropriate amount of blood that will then splash the closest wall or floor. And if you're a true gore hound, after you get the sniper rifle use it to zoom in on one of your executed squad members. Depending on where you put the bullet you might still be able to see a piece of jawbone hanging off their face! It's totally disgusting, maybe not even necessary, but this kind of attention to detail is the mark of a quality game.

There is no music in The Thing, only ambient sounds that are ten times creepier: Things walking down stairs, the crunch of the snow, fire burning, howling wind, loud footsteps and good voice acting. At various points in the game FMVs will be used to propel the story forward and they're actually good. The voice work is outstanding and Blake even sounds a little like Kurt Russell. In fact, Blake sounds more like Kurt Russell than the tape you find that Kurt Russell left behind in the movie. Makes you wonder why Universal couldn't get permission to use the original movie clip. There are plenty of other nods to the movie just like that that should make fans very happy. In addition to the few I've already mentioned I don't want to give away any more, it'll spoil the fun.

The Thing is hard. Plain and simple the game is frantic with action. As you move deeper into the game The Things start coming out of everywhere and it's a good thing the control is tight and responsive. Unlike most survival horror games the scheme is intuitive and you'll be able to pull off some wild maneuvers when taking on The Thing. And a lot of it is just downright cool. There was a time that I turned my flamethrower on one of the little scuttler Things, which then caught fire, kept running around the room while on fire, which then set parts of the room on fire. Then it infected a member of my team, who turned his flamethrower on me, which set me on fire. So I had to use the fire extinguisher on myself to put out the fire then turned around and opened up some machine gun fire on my now infected teammate and flamed him after he "died" just to be sure he died. It was amazing, and I was literally jumping up and down screaming after it was all over. Much like the time I torched a walker, then blasted him with machine gun fire back into a fuel barrel that exploded and blew me out a blocked door. There are tons of moments like this, it's the most fun I've had with a game since Maximo and GTA3.

When a game is this good you have to look for little nitpicky things to complain about. Like occasionally your squad has trouble walking around boxes. And you can't switch between the Squad Menu and the Weapon/Item Menu on the fly, you have to go back into the game first. And sometimes the throw of a grenade is a little girly. These are marines, they should be able to throw a grenade right. And how you're not really sure if you picked up the items you're standing over. It makes the same noise whether you picked it up or not and there's no on screen message saying "Picked Up MP5 Rounds" or something similar. But these are stupid little things and only a completely jaded gamer would even give them more than five seconds thought.