Taking place immediately after the events of the famous John Carpenter film of the same name, The Thing is a 3D survival horror game that aims to wallow in the sheer, dark, brilliance of Universal’s 1982 cult sci-fi hit.

As a huge fan of Carpenter‘s film I was quite excited to play this, although now I can’t help but think that it was made a touch too early. Yes, it’s atmospheric and well-constructed, but the 3D models are all very simplisitic. If it had been made now I think it would have been much more interesting.

The human characters in the game are not particularly interesting either. Everybody feels expendable. Because they probably are…

Still, The Thing – as in: this game – is not bad overall. It could have been better – it could have been a lot worse. The game did have the approval of director John Carpenter, and he also provided a voice-over for one of the characters (though uncredited).

The Thing was developed by Computer Artworks and published by Vivendi Universal Games in 2002.

More: The Thing on Wikipedia