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A great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm a gamer from india, i bought The Thing a week back and i never got disappointed, like what happened for half life.
Game play is great, u get nevrvous some times and even sometimes scared , graphics is really inspiring!!!.
The negetive part of the game is, u lose your life when u cross your team mate fighting with the thing, the story is not so good and objectives are not very clear.
overall u wont be disappointed with THE THING.

A treat for fans of the old movie

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"The Thing" is a good game, but it could have been better. I wish that it had been released on the PC first. It was originally released on consoles, and this becomes obvious while you are playing through. They did a lousy job of porting this title. It still has the stupid console saving (or lack thereof) system, and an annoying auto-aiming feature that is totally unnecessary when you have a mouse and keyboard. The original PC game had no mouselook feature, but you can download a patch which fixes that. Still, they should have done a better job with this.

Other than, that, "The Thing" combines a lot of different elements into a pretty good game. The best part about this game is how faithful it is to the movie. You can tell that the developers were huge fans of the1982 horror classic. Granted, this game is an action game, so instead of a half-dozen things like the movie, there are hundreds to kill and shoot. But they look incredible (part of the outstanding overall graphics for the game). The Things are horribly gruesome. They drip blood and spit goo. They morph into weird forms and form tentacles. Early in the game, you visit some locations that you will recognize in the movie, like the US and Norwegian outposts. One scene recreates the recreation room in The Thing, with the pool table and pinball machine. You actually stumble upon the tape recording that MacReady makes in "The Thing". There are some lines in the game that are taken directly from the movie, like "Now I am going to show you what I already know".

You have the main character, Blake, and then up to 3 squad mates with you at various points of the game. You choose what to arm your squad mates with, and you give them simple orders like "follow" and "heal". The AI for squad mates is very good, and that is another area where this game excels. Firefights with Things are fun, and your squad mates can help kill them off without blowing you away by accident. The guns in this game aren't very well done, but the flamethrower is awesome.

The game tries very hard to re-create the "trust and fear" aspects of the movie, where you are wondering whether your squad mate is your friend, or whether he is about to morph into a Thing and kill you. There are a very limited number of blood test kits that you can use on your squad mates to see if they are things. They have limited usefulness, since a lot of thing changes are scripted, and a squad mate can test negative when he is actually an alien waiting to change.

This game is supposed to be "Survival horror", but it just isn't scary. "Thief" and "System Shock 2" give me the creeps, but this game doesn't. It's more of an action game. It does that part very well, but it fails to capture the suspense and overall sense of dread that the movie was so good at. The trust and fear aspects of the game only have mixed success. Your squad members come and go quickly in the game, so you don't get to know them very well. The game's scripting also quickly becomes predictable and repetitive. That is what spoils the horror aspect of the game.

Overall, I enjoyed this game one time through. "The Thing" is worth your money in the bargain bin, especially if you are a fan of the old movie.

A further review of The Thingee...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ok, I'm back. I've played the game for over a week now and as I said before, it has some really fun and exciting spots. And yes, it might even scare you at times. And yes, the trust thing is kind of interesting, although I never really like squad-type games where you have to babysit somebody else. One thing that really bugged me with finding an "engineer" to fix some junction box and open a door for you, is that the SOB wouldn't stay put! I'd tell him to stay in one spot and as I went to clear the way of evil critters, I'd find the jerk standing out in an exposed position, where he could get killed! I finally resolved that by crouching and pushing the idiot into a corner or locking him in a room. There are a couple (so far) spots where you have to battle a HUGE alien critter. THOSE spots really got me screaming and cussing. The character moves too slowly, and firing is awkward and it always seems like you have no place for cover! I don't like that. But overall, I really DO like the game. I think the graphics are excellent, and for the most part, I enjoyed the scenery. I still don't like that you can't save on the spot and have to search for the room that holds the save machine. It's always a mile away from the action, so you have to run forever to get to it or to get back to the action! I do agree with the criticism of the whining character when he uses the flamethrower. I mean, c'mon... I fired that and/or the fire grenade a safe distance away and got killed! That really bugged me... And, right after saving the game, I get a loud "BOOM!" sound and my health is down by half - which I certainly don't appreciate, considering the lack of health packs... Right now, I'm stuck in a room with a huge critter hanging from the ceiling and another in a glass case and no way out. I finally figured out that I could push the engineer towards the door to get it to open and then shoot the critter in the glass cage and kill it. Then I just killed the engineer... No need to keep excess baggage... I found out that I could kill the critter hanging from the ceiling by firing constantly by running in circles and then when I see it's weakened, switch to the flame thrower and circle it while I sprayed fire on the ground surrounding it and it would die. But, I got way to the end of the game where I have to kill a humongous critter outside, from a helicopter. Problem is, the computer keeps crashing at this point! I don't know why it does that! I tried to download the two patches, but every time I do, it totally screws up my computer! So, Like Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb and Angel of Darkness, I now have a ANOTHER game I can't finish... I don't like that... Is this game worth the money? Not if you buy it new in the store. I'd recommend buying a used copy to get the value from it. It's not as bad as the detractor's say, but it DOES have some considerable flawes that seem to make it very frustrating at times...

A great PC game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: February 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

What....this game is what?! true you have to get used to the computer controls but you can play this game on any PC.
Provided it has a high enough processor of course.
I played this after going to my sister's house; I played it on her Play Station. It was fun but I actually liked it better on the PC. yes the game does get challenging(don't they all?) and i had to play some parts over and over but on my PC it kicked!
I love this game the other reviews are just negative perhaps they are used to Play Stations or whatever. This game rocks it is a good challenge whether on PC or Play Station.

Pretty cool

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I want to clear one thing up, the movie is not about some virus that causes it's victims to slowly mutate. There is no virus or disease what-so-ever. "THE THING" is an alien that eats or digests (or something) it's victims first, however, each part of the thing, down to the cellular level is an individual animal, so this alien, will then assume the form of it's victim, whether it be a human or animal, and act just like it's victim. It can then get more victims, however, this doesn't mean that the alien no longer imitates it's original victim and only imitates it's newest victim, but rather, both victims are now perfect imitations of their former selves. So it sorta multiplies with each victim.

Alright, with that out of the way, I will get into the gameplay. I think the reason a lot of people are unhappy with "THE THING" is because they expected a first person shooter. This game was _never_ intended to be part of that overdone genre. It comes from the mainly console genre of "survival horror". Think more in terms of "Resident Evil" and you begin to get the idea. Unlike the original Resident Evil, the whole game is real time 3D instead of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds. You can look around with the aim feature, and I personally feels it works well enough, and generally you really don't need to really look around that often.

It is a bit annoying that you can't jump. It feels odd and out of place, knee high obstructions can stop you, but this is due to it's Survival Horror roots. That's an explanation, not an excuse, I think the game should have included jumping but this does not ruin the game.

How correct is it in terms to relating to the movie? I haven't gotten all the way through but I'd say it's pretty correct. It's not 100%, they put more stuff to shoot at in the game than was in the movie, but this is a game, not a movie, less things to shoot at makes a boring game and I feel it does _not_ detract from the game in terms of a movie translation.

I play this game with my friends around and we take turns because it's also fun to watch. It made all 3 of us jump more than once (including those just watching), and is a pretty good game overall. Ever got that creeped out feeling while playing Resident Evil? THE THING will give you that same feeling, just far more of it, this is the best and most creepy Survival Horror game I've had the pleasure of playing.

I will say thet the flame thrower could be better, it appears to aim down too much, and doesn't have enough range, how about something like RTCW? Though RTCW's range and power may not suit THE THING's enviroments.

If I had not seen the movie, I wouldn't like this game as much, though I still would like it, and I would still recommend it. The game has it's flaws, it's not perfect, but I'd say it's pretty darn fun, ESPECIALLY if you love the movie, I am very happy to see such a great movie that died in the box office immaturely due to unfair (and just plain foolish) reviews reborn in such a great game.

Violent, visceral, and rated M for Mature

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

John Carpenter's The Thing, which is a remake of a 1950s film based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, was nothing like what came before it. This game is very much like it, in the vein of survival horror you must lead a rapidly "evolving" team of special forces operatives and survivors of a terrible conspiracy. The imaginative use of sound effects, voice acting, and gory effects pioneered years ago is amped to the maximum for this unique experience. In addition, you have the ability to manage a team's morale and sanity with the trust-fear component of this game. If you think your Medic is your friend, give him a gun, if he becomes frightened, give him a bigger gun. If he starts to lose it, take away his guns! My only gripe with this game is the lack of Instant Saves; so that you must go through the annoying horror of trying to make it to the next Save Point to save your game. There is a simple mod/hack you can easily download and install, but if you're not comfortable with using mods or don't know what that is, then be forewarned. However, the game is very addictive and well-written. Also, the flamethrower, perhaps by intent and not by error, is dangerous and tends to set your own feet on fire, but then again, it's an incentive to learn to aim before you shoot. Finally, multiplayer was sadly omitted.

a licence off target

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I knew that a game from the Thing had to be released I was excited and eager to play it; also knew from some previews it had new features that made the game different from others. Now that I played I was disappointed: the graphics are top notch (wonderful storms) but all the rest is quite repetive and uninspired, the gameplay is the usual find the button and smash the monster/soldier. The movie was set in a little Antartic Base with few men fighting for survival, in the game we have everybody available from the Army and monsteropoly, a festival of people who help you and die little after, some become a monster because infected also if you checked and were sane few seconds before(the test kit is useless)! Also the thrust and fear method is relatively used because most of the time (and in the most difficult parts) you are alone; people are scripted persons at the right moment to help and go away.
Also the "Army wants kill you" is an usual clichè introduced firt in Half-Life and here repeated to make you kill more in the game.
In conclusion too many monsters and shoot-around; the thing was one, here we have the whole family. The only "things" similar to the movie are the snow and the title. If you like a normal shooter with little additions it is good entertainment but, please, forget about the movie and you'll have more chances to enjoy it.

eh. it's only the thing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I thought this game was going to be cool with your teamates turning against you if your a bad leader. I was wrong. Your teammates turn on you and turn into monters no matter what you do. It's damn annoying and fighting the same monsters over and over again...boring! Get something else. anyTHING.

Stinks

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game stinks.
The graphics are good but you can't save (or at least I haven't found it) and always have to start from the beginning.
You can't adjust the video card setting to 1280 X 1024. .
Can't jump, can't look up or down, can't do diddly squat.
Don't buy it. Spend the money on Return to Castle... Medal of Honor, or Jedi Knight Jedi Outcast.
I give it two stars for the graphics.

Creative, realstic and scary!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: November 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has so many great qualities - the monsters are cool, the weapons logical and effective, and, probably most importantly, the characters are realistic and believable. There are no annoyingly complex puzzles to solve; no repetitive scenarios; no predictable outcome. There are challenging battles, scary situations and lots of surprises. I didn't experience any runtime errors (as stated by other reviewers) and even without the in-game save feature (which can be activated by editing the registry) there are enough save terminals placed strategically throughout the game to prevent the need to play the same sections over and over again.

Nevermind the fact that you have to switch to "look mode" to see what's above or below you - it's an interesting change from the same-old peripherals, and makes for a more challenging experience.

One problem. In the movie, the Thing never looks the same, because when it's observed, it's in various stages of copying a victim. In the game, the programmers introduce "types" of monsters, then use them over and over again in various situations. For instance, one type of monster has a claw that extends from its abdomen. Later in the game, a similar monster extends a tube from its abdomen that spawns little crab monsters (called scuttlers). There is no major differences in these enemies other than the extensions from their abdomens. Though I think the monsters were rendered well and are generally quite creative, they could have created more variants.

This game will scare you, and, if it doesn't, I'd suggest you've been desensitized. I mean, hey, I've played lots of different games, and I'm certainly no wimp, but this game did one thing that no other game has done. It scared me.

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