Genre: Survival Horror
Developer: Black Label Games
Publisher: Universal Interactive
# of Players: 1
ERSB: Mature
Also On:Xbox
Introduction:
We’ve all witnessed terrible videogame incarnations based off movie, TV, and comic book franchises… Developer Black Label Games has done something with The Thing that developers these days barely pull off, and that is make one terrific movie based videogame. The Thing for the PS2 continues from where the 1982 John Carpenter horror flick left off, a special Search and Rescue leader (you) is sent to Antarctica to uncover the reasons behind the mysterious deaths of the previous US team from the movie. Little did you know that the cause of your comrades deaths were little green men from Mars. (Well they’re not little green men, but actually scary pink monsters. I think you get the point…)
Get ready for one messy alien Slime Fest!
Presentation:
There isn’t much to bitch about here. Load times are some of the best around on the PS2, menus are nicely done and easy to navigate, and most importantly of all, the dark and spooky atmosphere is represented excellently. Ohh… and more thing, don’t forget about the vast amount of blood and guts.
Gameplay :
When I first picked up The Thing I was expecting another Resident Evil clone, and thankfully it’s nothing of the sort.
The Thing starts you off in the icy wasteland of Antarctica with 3 teammates, a medic, an engineer, and a soldier. You first realize that when you’re outdoors in the freezing cold a blue bar appears on the screen, this blue bar is your “freeze” gauge which informs the player of how long you and you teammates can stay outdoors before the cold air of Antarctica begins to take a toll on your health and theirs. The player must always keep an eye on this gauge at all times when outdoors, but the “freeze” gauge can be easily refilled when you find shelter.
If you didn’t know already, The Thing is a tactical based 3rd person shooter, you the player give commands to your 3 other teammates. The medic can be used to heal you and other teammates but cannot heal himself, in order to heal the medic (you) the player must use a med kit on him. In your squad you also have an engineer; the engineer can be used to fix certain things you yourself cannot, such as complicated fuse boxes, etc… Your 3rd member is a soldier which along with the rest, when equipped with a weapon helps you frag tons of baddies. In the heat of battle each squad-member does their fair share of killing aliens but you must not forget that they place their trust in you just like you do with them but after witnessing so many gruesome scenes they begin to freak out.
This is where the Trust/Fear system is introduced. The more gory scenes your teammates witness the more their sanity begins to plummet (No, not like Eternal Darkness), they start vomiting and pissing their pants (which I found funny) , they also begin shouting out obscenities and other comments that make you aware that they’re just about ready to shit in their pants. To calm them down you may give them a weapon, some ammo, and prove to them that you’re not a thing yourself. A blood test can be initiated to prove whether or not you yourself or your teammates are actually things in disguise, but I have one big problem with the blood test. Many times I’ve tested some teammates then all of sudden just minutes later they transform into things and cause all hell to break loose, I don’t know exactly why this was done but it really pissed me off.
The Things themselves are available for the kill in all sorts of sizes. The ones you encounter most are little critters that attack you in hordes, these guys are easy to kill and the auto-aim feature makes it as easier. Not too much later , you’re introduced to the bigger Things which can only be killed by using a blowtorch or flamethrower (all the larger things can only be killed by setting them on fire, shooting them with any other type of weapon barely makes them stumble…) . These buggers are nasty looking freaks and the bigger they get the uglier.
With an easy to master control scheme and learning curve (assisted by some tutorial pop-ups early in the game) The Thing is one hell of a game but with minor flaws.
Visuals :
Though it’s not the best looking game on the market for the PS2, it sure uses everything the PS2 can dish out and it uses it well. The character models are excellent and nicely textured, especially the different type of Things that will just downright gross you out. Both outdoor and indoor environments are done very well, with large well designed surroundings and in the outdoor environment’s case great particle effects are displayed with the raging Artic winds. But, what this game does best is its display of blood and gore, blood and guts spill everywhere, bodies lay around torn apart, and chunks will be flying way too often.
The game isn’t the best looking title out there for the PS2 but the amounts of gore rival those of Resident Evil.
Audio :
The Thing is a rather quite game, background music is practically non-existent and by no means is that a bad thing. Silence provides an excellent atmosphere in this game, just imagine walking through the artic, you can’t see anything ahead of you in the bitch black darkness except for the snow you walk upon; all you hear is the howling winds of the Artic and the sound of you feet struggling to get across the icy wasteland. Indoors is just as moody… The voice acting in this game is some of the best around, your squad members shout out foul phrases such as “This mission is Bull Shit” and other phrases that make you aware that they fear for their lives. The squad-leader himself (you) sounds somewhat monotone but there’s no problem with that. The aliens themselves have various amounts of screams, howls, and moans, the bigger the alien the larger the noise. Gunshots, explosions, flamethrowers and the rest of your artillery all sound true to life as well.
Lasting Appeal :
One time through and basically that’s it, sure there are different difficulty levels but there’s nothing here to motivate you into actually going through the game more than once. You may want to test your alien fraggin skills, but I know I didn’t. The first time through gives a good enough experience…
Final Thoughts :
The Thing is one of the most gruesome and disgusting games I’ve played in awhile, and I love it. This one is worth your hard earned money, tons of action and basically a non-stop thriller. Maybe all game developers should wait 20 years to make a movie inspired videogame…
