The Thing (video game)

The Thing
File:The Thing.jpg
Developer(s)	Computer Artworks
Publisher(s)	VU Games (North America) Konami (Europe) Konami (Japan)
Designer(s)	Andrew Curtis
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
Genre(s)	Third person survival horror
Mode(s)	Single player

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, on the PC on August 20, 2002 and on the Xbox on September 9, 2002.

Plot

The game begins at U.S. Outpost 31 in Antarctica several days 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 Captain J.F. 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 the 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 (Keith David), one of the only two survivors from the first movie who apparently died of exposure to extreme cold. Upon securing the facility, Blake is airlifted to the Norwegian research station to locate and reinforce Alpha Team. Colonel Whitley, the game's villain, informs Blake that they have lost contact with Alpha team. There Blake discovers that Alpha team has been decimated by an unknown enemy, that turns out to later to be scuttler's (limbs and appendages of much larger Thing Beast's). Eventually Blake and the surviving members of Alpha team (Cruz and Carter) find Pierce, Blake's second in command where a tense stand off ensues. The only way Blake can gain Pierce's trust is by agreeing to conduct a blood test (which can be found by the nearby kennel) on himself and the other survivors, which leads to the discovery that both Cruz and Carter are in fact imitators which both Pierce and Blake had to kill. Blake and Pierce then head off towards another nearby Norwegian outpost, and along the way Blake and pierce become separated. With no other choice Blake decides to continue on, where he meets up with an engineer by the name of Pace (nearly being blown up in the process). After learning of Pace's situation decide to enter the Norwegian base, in search of a radio where they encounter another survivor by the name of Williams (a medic). Williams states that the only way Blake will gain his trust and gain entry to the radio room is if he killed all of the walkers roaming the base. After eliminating the Walkers and gaining entry to the radio room (where the team discover's that somebody has trashed it) move on to the nearby medical center. It is here that the team defends the center and their lives against wave after wave of scuttler's, 2 Walker's and an imitator, before having to make chase to a Norwegian man that Pace had encountered at the previous base who had taken the radio from the medical center. Along the way the team see the Norwegian man running into the nearby warehouse and locks the door behind him. Blake having to find another way to get to the Norwegian man makes his way into the nearby weather observatory, not before discovering both Pace and Williams are both imitators. At the top of the observatory Blake again encounters Pierce, where it is revealed that he has become infected and will eventually become an imitator; Pierce pleads with Blake that he has no other choice but to kill him, Blake refuse which result's in Pierce shooting himself in the head. Blake shocked at what just happened moves on to the warehouse where he rescues an engineer called Colin, the only survivor from Alpha Team. Colin aids Blake in both dispatching the Dog beast's infesting the facility and repairing the hanger and is eventually revealed to be an imitator which Blake has to kill. As Blake moves deeper into the facility he r encounters the Norwegian with the radio that had either transformed into or had just been assimilated by the hanger Rupture which had to be killed using incendiary grenades. Moving on Blake enters the Pyron sub facility and learns of a company called Gen Inc. (Genetics Incorporated) which had both constructed the facility and had placed a research team there lead by a man called Dr Sean Faraday. This corporation conducted experiments on the alien life-form where it had infected and killed all the members of the team, save for a few. Blake rescue's Dr Faraday before a tense stand off ensue's between Blake, Whitly and his black-ops soldier's which ends with Blake being shot by a tranquilizer gun. Blake awakes in the now abandoned and destroyed Strata research facility Where he teamed up with new squad mates, and discovered a government conspiracy where Gen Inc isolated a microbiological form of The Thing called the "Cloud virus" to be used in biological warfare, where Eventually the Thing broke and infected 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 (some unknown deluded idea that it could be controlled). With a new group of survivors, Blake fights his way through the numerous research facility's, battling numerous black ops and Thing creature's before preventing Whitly from his first attempt at global infection through a fleet of airplanes which Blake destroys. Eventually being again the only survivor of his team Chases Whitly through the snow fields, battling even more soldier's, before confronting him in a dome facility. It is here that Whitly tell's Blake his true intentions, horrified Blake races to track him down to end it once and for all. At the site of the alien's crashed spaceship, During the last battle with the gigantic Cloud B4 carrier (previously Whitly), Blake has the assistance of a helicopter pilot, revealed to be R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell), the hero and survivor from Carpenter's film. After defeating the Cloud B4 carrier, Blake and MacReady fly off and disappearing into the snow storm leaving their current fate ambiguous (but it is assumed that they escaped the continent, unless MacReady is an imitator.

Gameplay

Since the whole game is set in several bases located in Antarctica, 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 illumination 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 monster 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, 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, 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.

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.

References

• 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 IMDb
• The Thing at GameFAQs