Rating

B-

Specific Ratings

GameplayB
GraphicsB
Learning CurveB
Replay ValueD
SoundB

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Interesting story continuation
  • Music is well suited
  • Price is nice
  • Good length
  • Does John Carpenter justice
Cons
  • Lousy AI
  • Team gets annoying
  • Graphics could have been cleaned up a lil
  • Controls could have been better

The Thing (Xbox)

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Summary

"The Thing" was one of the most compelling horror movies of our time, eventually growing into John Carpenter's remake in 1982. This game does the movie good and at a nice price.

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Description

The Thing was one of the greatest horror movies of our time. The original black and white movie came out sometime in the 50's. The movie's plot centers around an Antarctic expedition that finds an alien and his ship trapped under an ice shelf. After using dynamite to blow up the ice encasing the ship and the grisly figure, they move the alien back to the base where it proceeds to wake up and wreak havoc.

The 80's version of The Thing, which was directed by John Carpenter and was the version the game was based on, follows a wee tad different plot. The basic story is the same -- Antarctic expedition finds alien spacecraft and body. Only after this alien thaws out, instead of looking like Frankenstein, is an imitator that mimics whoever it infects. A really interesting movie to be viewed by the broad minded.

The Thing for Xbox takes places directly after the 80's Thing. It acts almost as if it were a sequel that follows up the story and answers questions that we were left asking after watching the movie. Now that the technical background questions have been answered, let’s take a look at the game itself. I thought that it was an overall nice job and a good play but I thought several things could have been corrected.

The graphics were good, however I did notice a lot of pixelization in certain characters and areas. Twas a nice attempt however. The music was also good, with notable bands such as "Saliva" playing the theme song. It also had the notable "The Thing" theme, however I thought there could have been improvement on the choice of tracks in the game.

The gameplay in the game is frustrating at times. Some of the bosses are hard and some of the enemies take a bit to get used to. But perhaps the most difficult part of the gameplay is getting used to your team members' AI that you constantly have to monitor and make sure they are ok, etc.

Replay ability is nil as there is nothing that I could imagine that would want to make me play this game again. This is pretty much a one-time-only game, but it is good for that one time. I was completely content with the story progression as well as the ending. The game left me content as well, but because of the fact that this was a one-time play, I gave it a B- due to my minor complaints about the graphics, music, etc.

All in all, I liked the game. It was a good extension of the movie. It was definitely worth the $19.99 I paid for it. Anybody who is a fan of survival horror or sci-fi should pick up this game.

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