For those of you who grew up in the 80's, John Carpenter's The Thing set the standard for SCI-fi horror movies. It featured a younger Kurt Russell who had a special presence on the big screen. The movie itself was set in the Antarctic where a U.S. team of scientists resided doing a number of environmental tests. Their friendly camp was grossly disturbed one morning after a Swiss team of scientists were trying to hunt and kill what appeared a harmless husky dog. In the ensuing chase things go array and the U.S. team defends themselves by having to take out the remaining member of the Swiss team. Everything seemed fine in the following days until one evening the husky transformed into some sort of alien lifeform, a.k.a. The Thing. The rest of the movie follows the U.S. research team as they try to figure out the shape-shifting alien-form that assumes the appearance of everything it kills. Without spoiling it for those of you who have not seen the movie, the movie comes to a climax whereby anything is possible. It is at this point where the video game picks up. A military rescue team is sent in to investigate the enigmatic disappearance of the American scientific team. Naturally the team comes across The Thing and it is here where you must figure out what The Thing is and who can be trusted. The result is a unique twist on the horror genre of gaming.

The Thing is a solid looking game. Although the texture variance is better on the XBOX, the differences between them are not enough to warrant one over the other. Computer Artworks, the developer has done a very nice job of finding the right visual effects to enhance specific scenes without compromising overall graphic performance. The result is a very atmospheric game that chips away at your psyche. The feeling of being in the Antarctic is conveyed perfectly as are locales from the film. Atmospheric effects such as lighting, weather and particle effects look brilliant. Character design is also equally impressive with crisp clothing detail and smooth animation. The various forms of The Thing when encountered look identical to those from the film which is quite eerie when unexpected. My only gripe is that as the game goes on, the environments and levels look to similar and this sometimes caused confusion. The soundtrack featuring After Me by Salvia has been carefully selected by Computer Artworks to bring the atmosphere to life. Subtle sound cues can be found everywhere and are best suited in a 5.1 speaker set-up. The voice acting is top notch thanks to likes of William B. Davis (a.k.a. the mysterious "cigarette-smoking man" from The X-Files).

Computer Artworks knew they had to do something different with The Thing than simply have a bunch of guys run around trying to kill an alien. What they came up with actually is in part why the film was a success, the need to know who could be trusted and who could have The Thing hiding inside their bodies. The game features a unique blend of survival horror and trust management. If your Squad-Members do not trust you, they will not do anything for you. They watch your actions and react to any mistake you make. They will also force you to rove yourself and refuse to cooperate until they are sure you are one of the good guys. If trust is lost, they will simply turn against you. Therefore, each member has a trust meter that must be closely monitored. To gain trust you must do a variety of things like heal members, give away precious ammo, showing you are not afraid to kill a Thing and more. Losing trust usually happens if you shoot your men accidentally, shy away from combat and other things. In addition to trust, you must monitor your teams' fear factor. When team members get scared, they do not perform well. You have to manage their fear in order to keep them stable. Things like strange noises or dead corpses increase the fear in the men. To calm them down you can give them ammo, a bigger gun, killing big Things, getting them away from the area that is causing shock. The trust and fear components of the A.I. in addition to the mission objectives create a very intense environment and great gameplay. Sadly, the game falters in the control department. Was this overlooked or is it a result of trying to push a game out too early. The control interface is clumsy at best. Trying to manage weapons like the flame thrower is down right frustrating. We usually ended up burning ourselves or our team. In tight environments, trying not to hit your own team with weapon fire is difficult. This meant that the team would be pissed off and I would have to run around to try and calm them or make them happy. Level and objective design seem quite prescriptive. Rote learning of sequences and solutions in most cases is the order of the day.

Although the controls are weak, the game does a good job of recreating the psychologically taut atmosphere of the film. If you are a fan of the film or enjoy horror survival games then be sure not to miss this one. The Thing would have received a higher score if the control had been more tighter and responsive.