| Publisher: |
Developer: |
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| Black Label Games |
Computer Artworks |
Horror/Action |
1 |
Mature |
The Thing
Reviewed by: Infestator
The Thing, for the XBOX, is the continuation of the 1980’s classic horror movie, The Thing. The game allows players to play as Blake, a special forces marine that is sent to a military base that has been is tsupposedly “attacked”. Blake’s main objective o find as many survivors as possible, but as players progress through the game, they will find that there is much more to do than rescuing others…survive.
Gameplay: Gameplay in The Thing is not too complicated and can easily be caught onto. Whether you are blasting aliens with your machine gun, or trying to survive in the wintry outdoors.
At the very beginning of the game, players are forced to choose the difficulty of the “auto-targeting system”. The auto-targeting system automatically locks on to a creature whenever it’s near your character (pending on the difficulty chosen; hard, medium, and easy). However, players don’t have to play with the auto-targeting system. There is a manual aim button available. This allows players to shoot in first person view, which may seem hard at first, but proves useful later on.
In many occasions, players must frequently control Blake through a large wintry world that you can easily get lost in. If Blake stays outdoors for too long he will freeze to death; nonetheless, this can be prevented simply by walking into a nearby building; however, this is not always the case.
Throughout the game, Blake is greeted by many other men that follow him around and do certain tasks (depending on their class) such as healing, repairing, etc. Some of these men may be possessed by “The Thing”, and others may not be. Each of Blake’s men can be easily frightened by dead bodies or the things. If any of them get extremely frightened then they will go crazy and start shooting rampantly. Insanity can easily be treated by an in-game item that will decrease the fear bar greatly.
Players have the choice of giving Blake’s men a weapon or taking one away from them. Giving a weapon will help decrease fear and increase trust, but taking a weapon from them will increase fear and decrease trust. Trust is another important factor in the game. If any of Blake’s men have a low trust, they will not follow any of his orders.
Graphics: Graphics are extraordinary in The Thing, so extraordinary that it runs choppy at times (it may be my XBOX, but if you’re planning on buying this game, I’m warning you now).
Everything in the game is very well designed. The models are carefully detailed from head to toe; even the in-game scenes show accurate mouth movement when someone is speaking! The ‘things’ in the game are so detailed that they look almost identical to those in the movie!
Controls: The default controls are not too difficult to learn. Players have the option of changing the default controls to any of the other two preset controls placed in the game.
The default controls are as follows:
Left thumbstick: Move
Left thumbstick button: Free look
Directional pad left: Next item
Directional pad right: Previous item
Directional pad up: Previous weapon
Directional pad down: Next weapon
Left trigger: Sidestep left
Right trigger: Sidestep right
Right thumbstick: Crouch
White button: Reload
Black button: Access inventory
Y button: Squad Menu
B button: Pick up items/interact with environment
X button: Use items
A button: Fire Weapon
BACK button : Access documents/mission objectives
START button: Pause/Options
Now that may seem a lot to memorize, but trust me, it is fairly easy to learn and catch on to.
Replay: Replaying The Thing is not really worth the time. Once you have beaten it once, nothing changes. Although, if you’re really addicted to the game, you could try to beat the game at a higher auto-targeting difficulty.
Sound: There’s nothing much to say about sound. If you’ve heard one bang bang shoot-em-up, you’ve heard em’ all. On the other hand, the voices are done very well and the music played when something freaky happens is somewhat scary.
Overall Presentation:
Scores:
Gameplay:  8
Graphics:  8.5
Controls: 8
Replay:  5
Sound: 8
Total Score: 7.5
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