The Thing

aka: Das Ding aus einer anderen Welt, La Cosa, La Cosa, Nechto, The Thing: O Enigma de Outro Mundo, Yuusei kara no Buttai X: Episode II
Moby ID: 7168
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Set after the events of the 1982 John Carpenter movie, The Thing is a squad based 3rd person shooter, where each member of your team is equipped with a range of weapons and items to help you in your quest to destroy The Thing.

You must use every player in the squad if you wish to proceed through each level, and once you find one of the thousands of alien creatures through-out the complex, weapons such as flame throwers, pistols and more come into play.

20 levels are on offer, with humans scattered around the area. But are they friend or an infected foe? Trust is the key to success.

Spellings

  • Нечто - Russian spelling
  • 突变怪物 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Promos

Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

147 People (112 developers, 35 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 50 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 73 ratings with 6 reviews)

A great game that flew under the radar

The Good
The Thing is a sequel to the original 1982 movie of the same name. The guys who made this game stayed true to the movie's premise to make it feel like a true sequel.Even though it was given good reviews by the press such as Gamespy and IGN, it wasn't really a best-seller. It has great storytelling, the AI is impressive with the Trust/Fear interface, and its full of action that would make John Carpenter proud.

The Bad
Sometimes the npc's would get stuck behind doors, however it rarely occurred.

The Bottom Line
If you like 3rd person action games, the original movie, or survival-horror, you NEED to play this game. It truly is a classic. Best thing of all, its cheap now. So get out there and pick this one up.

PlayStation 2 · by Mike K (5) · 2004

Not a "bad" game, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, really.

The Good
The story is pretty good, and the intense feeling of knowing that you're really on your own throughout the adventure are probably the game's highest points. Knowing that your own comrades can turn on you at any moment added much to the excitement, and you're never really sure if they're infected or not. Not unless you put the detect-o-matic needle into their arm (note: the device used is not actually called the "detect-o-matic"). And during the game, there are times when your allies are so great that you'll actually feel something for them. You'll love'em when they're fighting by your side, and you'll feel bad when you watch in horror as they transform into a mutated beast wanting only to destroy you!

The Bad
Well, as I said, during the missions you can get a real feel for your allies in the game...but unfortunately, you can't bring them into other missions! I remember one particular set of levels in which I continuously loaded back to older saves just so I could keep my ally alive. He rocked. I didn't want him to die, and dammit, I wasn't going to let him no matter what! And then to my horror, the mission ended, and he was nowhere to be found in the next one. So sad...I guess the game really expected him to become infected.

Also, what the hell is the point of using the detect-o-matic? Sure, it can tell you when your ally is infected, but if it registers positive, your ally instantly turns on you! Even if he is infected, at least he can fight by your side for a bit longer until he mutates. It seems the detect-o-matic is useless, except for rushing the transformation.

The story is pretty vague all the way through, and the end makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, it sort of finishes up what the entire game was about, but the events that take place (not to say what they are as to not ruin the game for any potential players) at the very end are just plain stupid.

Also, I'm a big ammo hoarder. In games like Resident Evil, I'm never low on ammo because I never use it unless I have to. That's because I'm scared to death of fighting some hard sucker and not having the resources to beat him. However, in The Thing, it's just plain silly that wherever you are, there is always a stockpile of so much ammo that if you ever run out, you should seek help.

Your allies have to register trust with you if you want them to follow you...but trust is easily gained just by handing them an empty gun, or just a clip. I don't know, for me, I'd probably trust a guy less if he handed me an empty gun and said "knock yourself out" with a wink.

The Bottom Line
It's really not a bad game, but it's mediocre at best. Good for a rental, because it will take up most of your weekend ot beat, but probably not more. There are some memorable moments (like once when I really pissed off my own ally, and he took MY gun from me and SHOT ME!), but since you can't bring your allies with you into other missions, and you'll end up alone at the end no matter what (you'll realize this very soon in the game anyway), it just didn't feel very good to play through it. Not a waste, but...just not great.

Xbox · by kbmb (415) · 2003

Man is Still the Warmest Place to Hide

The Good
Picking up where the 1982 film ended, The Thing puts the player in control of Captain Blake, a member of a Special Forces group sent to find out what happened to US Outpost 31. Braving Antarctic winds, Blake leads a small contingent through the ruins of the American research station. Here Blake learns that it's no longer a recovery mission; in fact, it's something else completely. Something has torn the outpost apart, slaughtering the inhabitants, and perhaps the Alpha team sent in earlier. Every clue points to this being a medical emergency of extraterrestrial origin.

The Thing is basically a squad-based shooter, equal parts action and adventure. Blake spends stretches exploring derelict buildings, restoring power and repairing switches and then entering into intense firefights as Things either reveal themselves by tearing through infected teammates or bursting through windows or doorways. There are no real puzzles, but there are plenty of environmental obstacles to overcome—including the freezing temperatures which can kill Blake if he remains unprotected for too long. Blake finds notes and computers which expand on the game's story, but most of the inventory is dedicated to killing or healing.

Unlike the movie (or the title), the game is more about killing Things than a Thing. Early on, Blake finds small Things which look like bodily organs with legs ('cause they are) which are easily dispatched with a shotgun blast or a few machine gun rounds. Larger Things, like manThings need gunfire to weaken them before facing incineration via the flamethrower. Actually, the amount of "Thingage" running around Antarctica makes one wonder about the Law of Conservation of Matter; physics aside, it makes for a thrilling adventure.

What made the movie so effectual was that alien life form acted as an agent of infection, hiding inside people. The game retains that aspect with much of the squad mechanics relying on a trust meter. If Blake's troops trust him, then they'll follow him and carry out orders. If they don't trust him, then they may become openly hostile. Blake may have up to three party members: soldiers, medics, or engineers, and he'll need them to gun down Things, heal fallen comrades, and repair broken machinery.

For the most part, trust is easy to gain and hard to lose. Equipping teammates with guns and ammo, healing them, or defending them raises trust while taking their weapons away, engaging in friendly fire, or sitting by when they come under attack lowers it. Conversely, isn't it weird the way Carter keeps wandering off, how Pierce never seems to have a clear shot, and why doesn't Cruz react when the Things leap out of the air ducts? Well, if anyone acts draws too much suspicion, you can always run a blood test on them and see what happens.

Regardless of their size, the Things are pretty smart. They avoid fire and figure out the fastest way to get to you. Human opponents (and fellow soldiers) are not quite as bright, but I loved the squad mechanics described above as well as the panic stages the troops hit. Seeing a blood-stained bathroom with a gutted corpse in the corner and a head in a urinal separates the men from the boys. Blake's a cool customer, but his troops vomit and wet themselves at the drop of a hat. Freaked out party members open fire at shadows or just cower in the corner and refuse to go on. Blake can lead by example, chill out until they others regain their composure, or shoot them full of adrenaline and march on.

The Bad
The Thing looks great, sounds great, and plays great, but the story is mediocre. Teammates come and go either bursting into Things (as scripted) or simply disappearing between levels. There's no real interaction with characters, either between them and Blake or between each other except for a few scripted responses. I can only imagine how much stronger this game would have been, if you tried to keep the same team throughout the whole game.

There's also an unwelcome military subplot—lifted from the Aliens franchise—involving a twisted colonel (voiced by the Cigarette Smoking Man) and his desire to cultivate human/Thing hybrids. The final acts take the player along a nonsensical story where Antarctica is crawling with hundreds of black ops troops and Things who chase each other through large, sprawling military complexes. The real problem here is The Thing can't reconcile the twenty year gap between movie and the game.


The Bottom Line
The high point of the game, for me, came during one of those ubiquitous "been captured, start level unarmed" missions found in gaming. I've seen these so many times, I've come to hate them, but The Thing actually does something different—it treated the level as one giant environmental obstacle where I had to find a medic to heal a soldier who could defend an engineer long enough to repair broken doors. I had to use surveillance cameras to keep an eye on Things and enemy troops and eventually I was rearmed but using remote controlled machine gun turrets against the enemy to defend my team. Brilliant level design, but don't ask me how we got there.

Ebert says in his review of the movie, "…it seems clear that Carpenter made his choice early on to concentrate on the special effects and the technology and to allow the story and people to become secondary." It's amazing how well this description works for the game. I highly recommend this game for the game play and the great squad dynamics, but don't expect an engaging story.

Windows · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2004

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Audio files

If you use WinRAR, you can extract a hidden audio file from The Thing's data folder. The file: "creditsspeech.ogg", is an easter egg featuring Presidents Bush II, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, game characters, and others congratulating Blake on a job well done.

Cameo

John Carpenter himself makes a cameo appearance as Dr. Faraday, the head of Gen Inc you meet halfway through the game. Apparently Carpenter went down to the programmer's studios and had his face scanned into the game. This explains why Carpenter says the game has "an incredibly cool and handsome character in Dr. Faraday" in his praise of the game on the inside cover of the box.

German version

There are various changes in the German version: * Almost all blood effects removed * The mutation animation was shortened * Headless corpses used as level decoration were replaced with regular corpses and cut off limbs removed altogether * Team members don't perform suicide * Death animations of humans were removed * Removed death cries * In two cutscenes violent scenes were removed

A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Inspiration

The Thing is based on the 1982 cult movie The Thing by John Carpenter. That movie is actually a remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World by Howard Hawks and that movie in turn is based on the 1943 short story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell.

Transformation

When your NPC teammates turn into the Thing, they generally turn into the same monster... one with a head that looks a little like a skinless lizard. However, there is one character called Fisk who, if infected, transforms into a slightly different looking Thing with a distorted, stretched-out human face.

Since Fisk is a Gen Inc trooper, and since the troopers were originally supposed to be infected humans who would burst out to attack you, it's possible this is a leftover from the original game design, especially since the Fisk-Thing seems kind of buggy as it's head tends to disappear when you look at it from different angles.

References

  • Near the beginning of the game, you'll find the sign seen at the first part of the movie noting where you are.
  • A few moments later you will get into some pit, where you will find the remains of MacReady's shack. Inside the shack, you will find the recorder with MacReady's message. It is not the original recording done in the movie. Rather, it was done by a soundalike, and was timed differently.
  • In the room where you encounter the character named Carter, you will find the infamous Norwegian who cut his own throat to avoid being taken over.
  • The first set of CCTV camera controls you get to mess with will switch you to a view of the room behind a door needing an access code. Fans of the movie will instantly recognize this room: Look around and you'll find the ice block the Thing was originally thawed from!

Trailer

If you let the game's menu screen sit for a minute or two, the game's trailer starts. The trailer is also available if you explore the installed FMV folder.

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, CaptainCanuck, Dr. M. "Schadenfreude" Von Katze and Terrence Bosky.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: MAT, Zovni, Unicorn Lynx, Quapil, tbuteler, Christian Munive, Patrick Bregger, Danfer.

Game added August 26, 2002. Last modified March 6, 2024.