| As a fan of John Carpenters classic remake of a sci-fi classic, I had to pick up this game. At first I was a little cynical as this game labels itself a survival horror in the style of Resident Evil, one of the most predictable gaming series in existence. You play Blake, who discovers that his place of work has become a breeding ground for shape shifting entities. The thing (no pun intended) which separates this game from the Resident Evil/Silent Hill series is the inclusion of interaction with NPC’s, which help you take out the armies of aliens and later on, human soldiers who realise you’re out to destroy their governments little plan. NPC’s help you, but sometimes turn out to be shape-shifters themselves, which results in them changing into monsters in Incredible Hulk style and attacking you, when they may have helped you out the entire level. The suspense in whether they really are the enemy, results in a lot of drama and increases tension. The game is a little easy, but tense in places. For one thing, you get a nice little “aimbot” which targets enemies as opposed to targeting yourself. If this get a little easy, you can choose to aim manually. As for the harder moments, there are a few occasions which I found frustrating but ultimately rewarding. Interesting moments are few and far between, but intriguing; one level has you taking out both aliens and marines, and they engage in wars themselves which is reminiscent of Half Life. The depleting health and ammo stock keeps you on your toes especially in the early stages, as you depend on your computer friends to take out the enemy as you search desperately for more resources. The puzzles are no more taxing than finding a key and flicking a few switches, which is fair enough as the storyline is about as complex as an episode of Itchy and Scratchy, so no need for endlessly hunting for clues and hoping something will work out. The save game feature is suitable and is one of the reasons this game becomes so re-playable. Instead of the new-age “save where you like” trend, it has you saving your game on a tape-recorder, hidden around the level. That there are one or two of these at most, has your heart racing that you don’t screw up, the fear of having to fight through the tense moments again is always there. This feature works without the chores of old-school games. Especially rewarding was working through the last level on 5% health, which had me pleading for medpacks. Eventually I got through thanks to my Counter-Strike sniping days. The Thing is a little short, and some of the NPC’s have some unforgivable bugs. In one level, a doctor ran through red-hot steam casually, injuring him with little care. This came at a moment in the game where you depended on him, but he caused me to die through his stunning incompetence. Predictability is something which is obvious in the survival horror genre, here it is never too bad, although there are too many occasions where the little scuttlers just run out in predictable form. The storyline is simple but well done, and there’s even room for a sequel. The graphics are crystal clear, beautiful, and run perfectly. At no point in the game did slow-down occur, which is even better. The polygonal effects are beautiful, with great detail. The Thing is surprisingly good. If the first few levels seem a bit dark and depressing, later on things get more interesting. Overall surprisingly good for a survival horror, with great graphics and gameplay. Probably the first one of its genre with decent acting and a great ending. |
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