The Thing - PlayStation 2

Okay, i wanna get the bad out of the way, cam kinda bad, controls arent spot on, first person kinda sux, and controls take quite some getting used too. The good is its an official canon sequel to the thing, the gameplay is kinda scary, really suspenseful, and rather crazy at times. The graphics are good, the enemies are cool, the story is awesome and first time around you'll never know who'll kill you or themself outta fear or cuase theyre a thing. Gameplays good with a trust and fear feature, weapons are kool and fun to use, and puzzles arent hard but arent repetitive either. Fun to explore as youll catch lil movie sites in game. Not much replay but still fun too, if only to freak members out. Again it has flaws but not bad enough to overlook a classic game of a classic movie.

Arrived really fast and is exactly as described. Disk is like brand new and playing perfectly. Very happy with purchase. Thank you.

The Thing is one of my favorite horror movies of all time, so I was excited to find out that there was a game that was a canon sequel (according to John Carpenter, who also makes a fun appearance in the game as an NPC). Needless to say, my feelings were very mixed by the end of the game.To start, I love the story overall; if this was to be turned into a movie, it'd be a worthy sequel to The Thing. Strong lead character? check. Corrupt corporation? check. Betrayals? check. That's about all the positives I have to say about the game, gameplay is where everything starts to lose its luster.Why do I fear fire more in this game than the actual alien creatures? Maybe because fire is everywhere and drains your health way faster than any Thing creature will. Seriously, maybe they should make fire the last boss in the game, I'd be terrified. Not to mention the floaty controls that will insta-kill your character trying to walk across a simple beam, leading you to think that maybe your character had a little too much Jim Beam himself, and decides to fall to his death with the slight twitch of the left control stick.The worst thing about this game is the "survival horror" aspects, where you may find yourself stuck at certain points out of ammo or health, and with the nearest save point 20 minutes of progress away before facing a boss that throws in a cheap shot during the cutscene (seriously WTF, really?). I know of quite a few people who have stopped playing this game because of just that reason, unable to progress.Even for a very conservative ammo & health spender, you'll eventually end up running into your old friend fire (sometimes courtesy of your own NPCmates), and you may find yourself in the aforementioned can't continue situation.The game also only seems to have one difficulty level (frustrating), although changing the difficulty level changes the "cone" of your bullet spread, with "Easy" almost guaranteeing you'll hit whatever is in front of you, not necessarily making the lack of ammo and health any easier in turn.Lastly, the whole "team" dynamic that was a big selling point in this game is insignificant. Certain teammates will turn at predetermined spots, and others will disappear as soon as you add them to your team. Sometimes, putting them out of their misery and taking their weapon is the most efficient course of action.The last part of the game is fighting other human enemies, and at that point I was just eager to finish "The Fire: Subtitle The Thing" game and go back to watching the movie a few times every year.

Man, I'll just categorize here...The good:- If you are a fan of the movie, you will find yourself saying "Awesome!" a few times during the game. It really follows the mood of the movie. It just has this "cool" feel to it that I haven't experienced in other games before. It is dark, cold, and lonely just like the movie. Atmosphere gets 5 stars.- It is really disgusting, disturbing, and sometimes spooky. The gore fits right in with the story. Most disgusting game ever. This is a good thing...? YES!!!- Good weapon selection, freaky looking monsters. Exciting firefights.- Many people complained about changing weapons and equipment, but I liked the system a lot.The bad:- The social features of this game were heavily advertised. They are garbage. Your "companions" cannot truly be blood tested. They just turn into things when you pass certain points in the game. Everything is predetermined, and your friends are not with you for long. You can test some guy and he comes up negative - then you walk 5 feet, while looking at him the whole time, and he suddenly turns into a thing. Dumb. Real dumb.- One of the last couple of levels is too long. There is no save location for like 30 or 40 minutes of gameplay. And it is a pretty hard level. Its like they just missed it or something. Or they just want you to try 15 times and get bored and frustrated out of your mind, I could be wrong...- The boss encounters are ridiculous. If you stand toe to toe with a boss, you will get creamed. There is no creative way to go about killing a boss. So you have to conduct a trial and error glitch search. Never fear, you will find a glitch for each one. "Oh, if I stand here, he can't see me, even though I am in the middle of his field of view!" Dumb. It just seems stupid that you have to depend on glitches to complete the game.- Not enough health packs. You have to go back and do levels perfectly if you want to make it further. You can kill a boss and still have to continue on into more danger, with no reward of a save location or health packs.- Too short, too hard. Should have been longer and easier. Video games are for fun, sometimes programmers forget these things.All in all, I had fun, the atmosphere was the best ever for a video game (I LOVE this movie), but found myself saying "That is retarded" way too many times. The #1 advertising pitch (social interaction with NPCs, and wondering if they are things)was a joke. DO-OVER!!! This game could be the best ever if they spent some time on it.