Comments on: Retro: The Thing

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By: Late comer

Late comer — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:24:20 +0000

Alec, you really need to go back and play Dead Space. It’s been year, now you can get it for cheap and do a new retro piece.

By: BoltingTurtle02

BoltingTurtle02 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:10:56 +0000

I think the game that most gets to me with as few enemies as it has is Penumbra: Overture. I think bioshock took a lot of cues from it and would have done well to imitate it more closely. The combat was agreeably terrible, but I think that it works to discourage you from standing and fighting. I mean, you’re a physicist- not Gordon Freeman… errr…

By: Daniel Purvis

Daniel Purvis — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:29:24 +0000

One of my old University Professor’s wrote his a thesis on The Thing. Can’t remember much of it, but then again I can’t remember much of my days at University. Shall have to dig up a link for it.

By: Alarik

Alarik — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:52:12 +0000

Regarding scripted change into Thing – I think it is mixed – sometime it is scripted and sometimes it is not (I got the impression people can get ‘infected’ – or maybe turn into Thing when heavily injured – or maybe it is really random).

Good example is the game’s most difficult level (that descending spiral pathway with medic companion – sometimes he would turn into Thing right almost right away, sometimes he would last till the – rather bitter – end of pathway).

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:50:24 +0000

The Thinglie-Dinglies? Better? Worse?

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:47:31 +0000

“So surely it should have been called “The Things”?”

That was the porn remake.

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:10:49 +0000

So surely it should have been called “The Things”?

By: Crispy

Crispy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:05:31 +0000

@Calabi:
I think there are two arguments here: whether The Thing is a good game and whether it is good enough, or appropriate enough to bear the name of the film it’s based on. Even though an attempt has been made to carry the story on, I would say it’s a fairly poor spiritual successor, but as a game it doesn’t do terribly badly. I just think that as a game if it had focused on doing one thing very, very well and not got drawn into ticking off the ‘shopping list of features for a profitable movie tie-in’ it would have been a lot better and worthy to wear the name it does. It is way, way better than most movie tie-ins, but I don’t think it goes far enough to be a truly good game. And whether you agree the whole spiritual successor thing is even an issue, the game still has some horrible design points that shouldn’t be forgiven just because it introduced some novel features and did okay with creating an atmosphere.

@Tom Camfield:
The Thing is better than Dark Star. Can’t really comment on the other two, but I’d be happy to debate just that argument alone on the forums. I’ve made a thread, so put your arguments in here ;)

@Brokenbroll:
The tension in the Alien crew is very present, I watched it just two nights ago as part of my improv horrorfest (The Thing on Friday night, Alien and Aliens back to back on Saturday night!). In Alien the tension is manifested much like in The Thing in terms of how the crew act towards one another, but with more muttering and behind-the-back retaliatory insults.

To compare the two as horror films, I’ll give you an account of the girl watching all three for the first time, but I’ll do it on the forums to keep this post on topic.

By: matte_k

matte_k — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:55:53 +0000

I remember thoroughly enjoying this game, until one particular sequence near the end where the two save spots were MILES apart at either end of a big spiral staircase, and I always got obliterated before getting to the next save. Gave up on it for a few weeks, then came back and somehow miraculously made it second try, thus being able to complete it.

Not a bad game, some great ideas, but the criticism here is valid (blood tests pointless, scripted transformations-usually before a boss fight so you’re forced to do it on your own, etc). It could, however, have been a lot worse, so i’m thankful for that.

As far as the film discussion here goes, I love The Thing for the way everybody loses it over the course of the film, but Big Trouble in Little China has Lo-Pan, possibly the funniest villain i’ve ever seen, so that gets my vote :D

By: Brokenbroll

Brokenbroll — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:53:44 +0000

Re:Tom Camfield

Alien is no more tense in its presentation than The Thing. With the exception of the air vent scene ( a truly great piece of filming) it follows pretty standard monster movie conventions.

As for foolish splitting up:Come now, up until the very end the crew in Alien try their damned hardest to separate as often as possible.

The Thing, to me, was more about watching the men break down and become less trustful of each other, knowing that they had every reason to feel so, as opposed to waiting for the monster to jump out of the closet, as in Alien.

The characterization is not daft. Keeping with Ebert’s Alien comparison: Are the crew of the Nostromo anymore fleshed out than the Antarctic ice station team? What can you say about Parker’s character that you can’t say about Clark? About Ripley that remains unknown when discussing McCready? Having viewed both films recently, I’d say the characters in Alien are more two dimensional and playing into familiar roles. From their actions and dialog, the crew of the nostromo, with the possible exception of Ripley, all fall comfortably into standard movie characters.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:24:28 +0000

A horror game that works with just one enemy? Clock Tower. You’re faced with an invincible serial killer that’s attempting to search you out and murder you, so you have to constantly keep on your toes and know exactly where the nearest viable hiding spot is should the killer appear.

There are three sequels (two on PSX, one on PS2) of varied quality and enemy-numbers, but I think they mostly still focus on that style of play. And there’s the spiritual sequel Haunting Ground, also.