The Thing Game Review: Fun (If Flawed) Horror

there is an Evac team on its way to this location once I take the chopper I will begin Global infection game over this game is just beginning The Thing game from 2002 is a fun little action horror romp it captures the spirit of the film although some of the execution is spotty the developers had high Ambitions of building a trust and infection system that did the film Justice that said due to execution and Technical limitations they're not able to stick the landing as well there are stretches that can drive you up the wall and make you want toss your JB Scotch at your computer overall it is an enjoyable experience that any fan of the film should check out rough edges and all it's just a scratch and this area looks all right a note before beginning I'll be making mentions of the film several times throughout so full spoilers on the film if you haven't seen it I'm playing the PC version with an HD mod you can find the game on my abandonware check the description and pin comment for a link to the mod the game starts off with some Norwegians meeting the ren from a thing we get a long look at it I'm a bit conflicted by this intro instead of building up to reveal we gotta see it in all its Glory that said there's a good chance those play in the game have seen the film so it's not like it's anything new to us the game takes place sometime after the movie I've seen three months written on wikis so let's go with that we play as Captain Blake along with a strong resemblance to composer Tommy talarico wonder if his mother is proud of his line of work we come to Uso Post 31 where the film takes place to see what happened there are some nice Throwbacks to the movie we could find in the first stage the remains of the UFO that the infected Blair Wilford brimley's character was building what the hell what do you think it is Captain I don't know and I don't care looks like a goddamn UFO to me the creeps yeah yeah we're not alone in the universe and all that crap check it out and move on the tape recording from McCready Kurt Russell's character I'm gonna hide this tape when I'm finished of us make it at least there'll be some kind of a record the storm's been hitting us pretty hard now for 48 hours we still have nothing to go on one other thing I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over Windows found some shredded long johns but the name tag was missing they could be anybody's we're all very tired there's nothing else I can do just wait R.J McCready helicopter pilot U.S Outpost North 31. seeing child's Keith David's character frozen to death but no sign to McCready what have you got one body identification says Childs no survivors and what appears to be one body and and and and what and some kind of unidentified craft it looks well like a UFO let's put the theory of whether Childs fell victim to the infection to rest that was such a great element of the ending of the film The ambiguity of childs or McCready being infected how child runs off for some time before reuniting with McCready John Carpenter director of the film considers the gang Cannon so there you go I have to note this time frame of films was John Carpenter while they had mixed Commercial Success his 80s run of films became cult classics with longevity now in the note of longevity Kurt Russell and Keith David are still prolific to this day Kurt Russell already had a prolific career as a child star before the film he still pops up in various films to this day this was Keith David's second film while he still appears in many works on screen he's had quite the voice acting career some very notable roles in the gaming space Tartarus the prophets have betrayed us knowing the truth about Sovereign is brutal it's nightmare stuff I can't blame others for not wanting to believe it but I know how important it is so I keep trying late Wilford Brimley continued to appear many noble Works after the film although if you're below a certain age you likely know him best as a diabetes guy if you have type 2 diabetes like I have you're confronted with choices you can choose to feel sorry for yourself I hope you don't I hope you choose to get involved with a good doctor find out some things about diabetes in your own body in the bargain as the game begins we get lots of text pop-ups many many text pop-ups this is 2002 after all still a few years before the hand-holding era began it's nicely been more integrated into games Beyond a bunch of text boxes although not the hand-holding makes the game seem more complex than it really is once you get a feel for it this being Antarctica there are stretches where we need to Brave the cold we need to keep an eye on our depleting meter to not freeze to death we have guiding poles to lead the way which makes sense from a game playing location perspective not much to say about these sections keep an eye on your meter and step inside to replenish It games with cold systems tend to have this approach some games have gotten more creative like cryostasis but for the most part it has the same fundamental idea don't stay out in the cold too long I do have to question some characters choices of not keeping their heads bundled up in the cold then again some characters did the same thing in the movie bro the thing will assemble squads with those we come across soldiers engineers and medics Blake you need anything repaired or even a simple bypass and I'm Your Man if any of you take on any damage get back to me ASAP and I'll help you out I'm not carrying any dead bodies back locked loaded and ready to make [ __ ] soldiers have the highest accuracy with a weapon Engineers can fix junction boxes that we can't I need an engineer Medics can heal us in our comrades although they can't heal themselves we have to do that with the med kits we find this should help it's just a scratch we could give commands but how they act around us can vary we may need to earn their trust gain trust by giving them weapons and helping them out healing them lose trust in hitting them by accident or take away their gun and if they got spooked like seeing dead bodies or too much combat they're going to be on edge they might vomit they start vibrating with motion like a tweaker they might start shooting at nothing it might even take their own lives foreign they give when fear kicks in or they see something unsettling everywhere man he's Double Dead as far as their AI goes it works fine for the most part you could give them weapons and have confidence the lottery do a good job of killing enemies sometimes they'll get stuck on something but you could shove them around to get them out of their way that said you have to be careful of what weapons you give as they are easy to lose in a literal sense there are points where level transitions result in their squad disappearing not all the time but more often than not I learned early on to ensure I always had a flamethrower blowtorch on hand I wasn't too thrilled when my squad mate with the flamethrower vanished and there was no way to get it back if you do have a squad in tow for the next level you have to re-enable them to follow there are several times during the start of a level I'd walk off and then realize they weren't following speaking of level transitions they could be a bit odd some continue right where we left off others can have stretches of time and distance pass thing is the way it's done it feels like my game glitch and I miss cutscenes establishing how I got there there were discussions early on to have the game be open world as opposed to linear interesting to think about how different the game could have been if it turned out that way remember this was 2002 2 and the open world was still in its infancy the trust system is interesting an idea the execution isn't quite there on several fronts something the developers mentioned that they weren't able to get right due to Technical and design constraints it never nails that feeling that the film has a loss of trust amongst those at The Outpost which leads to the other key system the infection system but we all know and love about the IP are those we travel with infected are we infected well Blake himself never becomes infected but with the others it is possible [Music] and once again it's a case of an interesting idea but the execution is off and by far the game's biggest flaw throughout our Journeys we'll find these blood test kits quite different in how they work compared to the ones in the film all right do this it is possible that a squad mate can turn to a thing at random but the major issue there are several scripting moments throughout our playthrough where an NPC will turn into a thing there's nothing we could do about this this led to some comical moments I would do a blood test on a squad member they'd be fine then I walk a few feet forward and hit the script trigger where they would turn all right let's do it we got some company again this is something a developers shared as a frustration it was their main focus of tackling the game's sequel that never came due to the studio shutting down unfortunately there are a couple intense moments that blend the trust and infection system together one is the introduction with the first tests now I'm gonna show you what I already know [Music] maybe you will get us out of this [Music] kill it Jesus [Music] the other comes later in the game where we come across two individuals at each other's throats are you crazy those things are everywhere then why don't you go find him no I think I'm gonna stay right here down stalls [Music] screw you I don't know what kind of game you're playing here but it ends now yeah and it ends with you these two sections show a glimpse of what the system could have been imagine if you had a bickering Squad with limited blood tests what would you do they could have gone the morality route that became popular in games around this time frame and if someone does turn into a thing they're not too hard to defeat give them a few torches and some lead combat is pretty straightforward I'll be playing the third person perspective you could switch to first person for better aim although you can't move around the game is pretty generous in regards to auto aim especially on consoles could still do that for the PC version although I enabled Mouse look combat isn't the game's strong suit but it's fine as is not what they were focusing on I did look at various points where the game would cut to fix camera angles some used to build atmosphere throw a gotcha our way thank you we have a mixture of creatures to deal with lots of small head crabs bolts are enough to take them down it's the larger things that take more work you need a combination of bullets and fire you have to be careful that you don't light up your teammates or yourself the blow torch I found to be very inconsistent you have to get up close and personal and even then can be iffy [Music] speaking of iffy I can't recall the last time I played a game where I felt Less in control of where grenade toss would end up before we moved through the major story beats it's unfortunate I could never get a squad member to do the River Dance glitch like spoonie did in his video on another spoonie here's the obligatory mentioned that I hope he one day makes another video now is the time for the year of the spoonie as it's been for several years now I know I know it's a long running joke it was either his video on the thing or Final Fantasy 8 that was my first video I watched of his I haven't played the thing before this well I've since come across other reviews of this game for a long time his impressions of the game are what I Associated it with as of writing he is doing streams with a guy who played Curtis in phantasmagoria 2. so who knows perhaps 2024 will be the year of the spoonie this time for real anyways let's now go through some of the highs and lows of the game and the story so spoilers ahead the first stretch of finding out what happens with the Americans Norwegians is the most enjoyable the closest it gets to the feeling of the film spending decent stretches outside hopping from long location to another trying to piece together what happened using a survival horror staple thing makes use of note to some way of delivering Exposition funny thing is how short they are especially compared to the tutorial Tech Scrolls or notes from other survival horror titles most are one or two sentences before moving to the next there's amusing bit later in the game hopping from one computer to another to read what's going on when one computer would have been fine there's a nice callback to one of the funnier lines from the film about the Norwegians but me and Williams were tracking this weird animal through the base and we lost him in the storm and then we ran into a Swede Norwegian yeah the Norwegian guy it's written not Swedish there is one level where we have a long section of holding off waves of things it goes on far too long where I know it's welcome when you have so many of them running around it does take away from the survival horror element it's more on the lines of action horror this is fine but does feel like the choice to dial up on action came from up on high [Music] then when you get to the first boss fight these boss fights can be quite frustrating it can be difficult to tell if you're doing any damage more or less they turn to Circle strafing and whittling them down with bullets and fire I have to note how much of a godsend it is to have manual saving with the PC version you have this option along with set save points some stretches can get very frustrating otherwise points where I'm ready to toss some J B Scotch into my computer we head underground which is how a good chunk of time is spent for the rest of the game under the Norwegian base we find research facilities looking into the thing I'm guessing where it got out from the Norwegians and gen Inc a biotech company set up base to do research quite the sad they have here considering it's an Antarctica feels a bit too much how much time did this take how much time did they have I can't understand why they needed them for levels for us to go through still it feels a bit forced we have the classic Sci-fi Trope of evil corporations doing research into something that should be left alone or destroyed we come across Dr Faraday who has done extensive research on the infection voice and modeled after director John Carpenter I love the enthusiasm John Carpenter has for video games considering how stuffy some of the film business could be around video games he's been a huge fan since beginning with Sonic the Hedgehog in the early 90s as I'm writing there is a recent reveal John Carpenter's talks at Commando set for release in 2024. maybe I'll cover it one day at this point we come across Whitley who captures us he takes out Faraday I'm not doing anything until I get some goddamn answers you're out of your league Here Blake [Music] foreign [Music] so I guess this isn't my mental water ceremony isn't quite the contrary I'm proof that the infection can be controlled no no that's not possible the results can't be ignored doctor I will be remembered as the first successful test subject no not if I can help it I don't need your help [Music] the section of us escaping from this facility is great it's much more in the vein of survival horror we're stripped of our gear we have to be careful in what doors we open before we re-arm ourselves there are several things on the Loose as challenging as they can be to deal with we can't exploit their true weakness their inability to open doors or climb ladders [Music] thank you [Music] then the game adds human enemies into the mix I mean it was bound to happen combat with them is pretty conventional they can kill in a short amount of time if you're not careful their AI can be pretty Bare Bones at times although it's nice to hear them use the same sound for the alarm from the film [Applause] [Music] there are some stretches where they'll be dealing with things so you could hang back and clear out the winner and that second boss man I thought the first boss was bad again thank goodness for manual saves the rest of the game continues to ramp up on more combat mixing in soldiers and things and these damned turrets you can't hit them from a distance you have to let them open up first I'm sure this would be easy with auto aim but without it you have a short time frame before they fire on you before you know it you're dead we make our way to escape and deal with Whitley the man who captured us his little speech that I started that you video with reminds me of Wesker from Resident Evil 5. once I take the chopper I will begin Global infection [Music] duration he turns infected in which we're picked up by a familiar face in the helicopter we end the game with a Turret battle against Whitley's thing form who is this pilot excellent timing there pilot early retirement from Jan Inc on my way back from an extended Arctic vacation so what's your name smart ass McCree RJ McCready us Outpost number 31 . and I'm on the most 2002 things ever the Yen credits features a song by saliva uh simpler times I have so many questions about McCready here where did he come from how did he escape what happened after the end of the movie was he picked up and taken in for experimentation how did he manage to keep his hat so many questions something that no doubt a sequel would have gone into something that they were working on before the studio went under leaving us with no Sequel and so ends the thing the game an ambitious title with ideas that don't quite stick The Landing it's a fun little romp but it could have been so much more they honored the spirit and tone of the movie but the execution wasn't quite there I would love to see how they would have done things with a sequel or if they waited a few more years for access to better Tech with what they have in mind it sounds like it's something they could have pulled off with 7th gen Tech the PlayStation 2 and Xbox they weren't able to as far as my thoughts on the movie here's a little mini review covering this game gave me a good reason to re-watch the thing it's been a few years great film a simple yet intriguing premise great characterization and acting and fantastic practical effects the way trust breaks down in Camp is so compelling and tense along with a great ambiguous ending even if the game did cleared up its classic John Carpenter 40 years later it's remained a staple in the sci-fi horror what's interesting about the thing is that as of writing there's no mention of any developers working on a game with the franchise you think with the success of Among Us which pulls heavy influence from the thing the IP owners would be chomping at the bits to make a game with it and who knows it may be under wraps as of writing it seems ideal for a asymmetrical multiplayer game that said they could also leave it as is we've seen enough IPS dredged up for a quick Buck or without an understanding of what makes it work but the premise does have legs in regards to building a game around it whether that be single player or multiplayer they have proof that there is interest in this style of game who knows maybe one day I'll be covering that release on this channel but in the meantime the game from 2002 will have to do a fun little romp even if it falls short of its Ambitions and premise now Excuse me while I go pour myself a j b Scotch thanks for watching everyone identify yourself Captain is Carter Christ where's everybody what happened here some I don't know what they were but they attacked us I thought they was part of the the wait a minute don't you come any closer where the hell did you come from anyways a chopper brought me in from the U.S research station five clicks south of here uh I'm hurt pretty bad don't move I'll see what I can do

Channel: Boulder Punch

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Id: LKXnCiL06hY

Length: 21min 47sec (1307 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2023