Discount The Thing - PC

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The Thing attempts to spruce up the shooter genre with some novel elements and largely succeeds. One of the most obvious is the squad-based aspect of many missions, requiring you to keep your engineer alive so he can fix a vital control panel while the soldier provides extra firepower and the medic dishes out healing kits. This works a lot better than in previous attempts, though the squad only really comes into play later on in the game, as almost all the members you recruit early on have a habit of turning into Things... This is further enhanced by the need to keep your team trusting you and stop them from freaking out, though this is usually easily accomplished.

The game is based on the aftermath of John Carpenter's excellent 1982 film The Thing, in which an alien entity takes over an Antarctic base by infecting people with a virus that causes them slowly to mutate in bloodthirsty monsters. The game puts you int he persona of J.P. Blake, a marine sent to discover what happened. After a few levels of chasing around in the snow, you discover you aren't the only one sent in after the aliens...

The graphics look like a spruced-up version of Half-Life, which isn't bad, though it's not quite as pretty as games based on the Quake III engine. The control interface unfortunately betrays the game's multi-platform target, displaying the clunkiness normally found on console games. Still, they've managed to avoid the worst excesses of console kludging, and it is fairly usable. The action itself is mostly third-person with auto-aiming (adjustable), though you can switch to a static first-person view.

Another console hang-over is the inability to save anywhere you're restricted to save stations that are sprinkled around the levels. When entering a new level you often need to run around for 10-15 minutes of game-time before you find a save point, and while occasionally irritating, it does add to the tension of the game.

Overall, an excellent new shooter, well worth your money.

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I was lucky enough to come across an early beta of this game, and I'm glad I did. The Thing game, by Computer Artworks (makers of the acclaimed organic-action game 'Evolva') was made for consoles, and you can tell (no mouselook, you 'lock on' to targets, etc.) but that doesn't mean it doesn't control well on the PC.

Be forewarned before you play. This game contains all manners of highly explicit gore, entrails; disemboweled, decapitate, AMPUTED corpses lie everywhere around the Antarctic stronghold which you explore. This game is also, I think, the second game in history of gaming to have the characters saying F-words, scatalogical terms, religious exlamations, etc. A bold step.

The graphics are very well done, and the game runs fluidly on my Celeron 800 MHZ processor, 256 megs of RAM, and a GeForce 3 Ti200 video card. The game, obviously, is an action game, you command a small squad of people. Anyone can be a Thing, and you must blood-test your "friends" to see if they are who they say they are. If they do turn into fully grown Things, and you don't have a flamethrower on hand (the only weapon that can fully kill a full-grown Thing), you're screwed. If you protect your teammates, it will minimize their chances of turning into a Thing, but in some circumstances it is inevitable.

As I said before, this game is dripping in blood, gore and swears so this isn't for the young'ns :). But, if you're older than 17 and have nerves of steel, have fun! ...wetting yourself.

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The Thing is marketed as an enhanced first person shooter by Black Label Games and promises "an awesome blend of action, evasion, trust, and fear". I picked it up because I am a huge fan of John Carpenter -Rowdy Roddy Piper in "They Live" consistently makes my Sci-Fi top ten. Unfortunately, this game fails to deliver on this promise, and even worse, it fails to deliver on even the fundamentals of first person shooter games. Net/net: I find it difficult to believe that any serious gamer could recommend this title. Here's why you should spend your money elsewhere...

1) Hyper linear, childishly simple, mouse in a maze game progression

2) No jump function (this is made even more ridiculous by the programmers use of a fence that comes up to the main characters knees to draw game boundaries)

3) No look-up or look-down capabilities

4) VERY limited weapon selection -the weapons that they do offer have truly uninspired affects

5) Unforgiveably inefficient user interface

The reason I gave it 2 starts instead of one is because the programmers have made a moderately successful attempt at enabling the gamer to manage a squad. But since everything else about the game is so tremendously [bad], the novelty of this wears off in five or ten minutes.

Sorry Mr. Carpenter, looks like you'll need to file this one alongside of "Escape from L.A.".

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Ok. A lot of people say its horrible. They can't look, its boring, whatever. The point is, this game was not made to be the best in gameplay. It was to be the most suspenseful and chilling game yet. If you liked Half-Life for its puzzles, plot, and sense of mystery, You'll probably like this game. As for lokking around, If you simply aim you can lokk well enough, and besides, You can take in enough with a few glances, which may be all you have time for with the possibility of ambush at anytime. I read a review in which someone complained about the fact that the rifle didn't shoot straight. Let me put it this way, The first time I see someone accuratly fire a rifle in one hand at moving targets in a life or death situation with his heart throbbing,I'll pay that guy $20. If you find it boring, There's nothing to be done, Some people like sensless slaughter found in deathmatches while others like games with an actual plot.

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I always tell people of this game when they ask about the horror genre. Here is what makes this game stand out from other games.

Yes it is a shooter but it has other aspects that other games don't.

You can have people that you find join you and help you progress to the next location. You may need an electrician to rewire a box in order to open a door so finding this guy is important.

Fear factor. If a member of your group comes into contact with too much gore and horror, they can become so scared they freeze up and can't help you. You have to be the leader and calm them down, kill the enemy that is scaring them, give them medications, etc. Anything to calm them down.

Frost is a factor. Sometimes, you have to move from place to place quickly or you will freeze to death.

There are complaints that you can't aim in every direction. Yes it is true but you don't need to shoot the ceiling. You never will.

I recommend this even for the current gamer that wants a little retro gaming.

There are complaints it won't work on certain CD drives?? I had this since it's release and I have installed it on 3 different laptops and my desktop with no problems.