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The Thing Review - Xbox

If The Thing doesn't kill you, the freezing cold of a winter night just might. Do you trust your team? Are they strong willed enough to defeat The Thing? Chances are..no. They will end up in the fetal position crying to their mummy. Or worse they will turn on each other and you!

Story

The game storyline is based on the 1980's cult horror film by John Carpenter, The Thing. The movie was a psychological terror flick, revolving around a virus life-form from outer space frozen during the arctic freeze and then thawed out by curious scientists at a remote scientific station. They soon were to discover the grim reality of such a virus the hard way. They weren't able to escape due to the impassable weather conditions and then the terror set in.

The Xbox game The Thing relies heavily on the actual storyline of the original movie, the intro consisting of two scientists in a remote science station being killed violently, from The Thing. After not hearing from the science officers, the military decided to send in Capt. Blake and his team. Of course there is a severe arctic storm hampering any retrieval of the team or the bodies of the science officers. What makes this situation worse is that the team are ill equipped with little weaponry or ammunition and no proper arctic uniforms.

GamePlay/Controls

You would expect a simple 3D shooter and kill'em all attitude. There is plenty of killing, not all your own either but The Thing has been developed to go further than a 3D shooter with a fear/trust system. Throughout the game you need to manage your team and make sure they aren't "losing it". This is quite often the case when confronted with a grisly corpse or the fact he's become hypothermic due to the freezing temperatures or has become affected by the eerie, quite often creepy environment.

You have to be decisive with your orders to the team otherwise they start to lose trust in you as a leader. If they distrust you they may not obey orders, which can result in you not being able to complete a task. They can start to become fearful if they see experience a close encounter with a corpse, in which cause you can lead them away from the scene, restoring his confidence. Alternatively if he's too far gone you can inject him with a hypodermic filled with adrenaline to calm him down. If you feel they have become too unstable and a liability to the team and your mission, you can take his weapons away from him and distribute to other teammates.

What I liked about The Thing's gameplay was the realism involving the emotion of the game. Soldiers do get emotional in combat. What soldiers wouldn't get scared by an unknown virus killing at random and with such ferocity? And it's the Commanders responsibility to ... (continued next page)