The Thing - PS2

Something has survived. Twenty years after the brilliant film by John Carpenter was released to theaters and scared the pants off of moviegoers, a video game that picks up where the movie left off is delivered into our hands. Does it pack the punch of the movie? The answer is a resounding yes.

In this game, you take control of Blake, leader of a rescue operation sent in to figure out what exactly happened to the outpost from the movie. In addition to Blake, you also have partial control over a squad of soldiers and engineers and medics which translates into telling them to stay put, fix stuff, and giving them weapons to cover your ass from monster attacks. It sounds daunting but you'll get the hang of it quickly and be hunting down monsters with your team in no time.

One catch--some of your teammates are the monsters.

That's right in the spirit of the movie, squad members that you meet throughout the game (the orignals leave and others disappear and die during the course of the story so you need to pickup replacements) have a chance to be infected, meaning they will turn into Things and try to kill you, usually at inopportune moments when you are already beset by creatures. Fortunately there are blood test kits that will help you weed out the monsters from the humans as you go and the guys that do become monsters drop their weapons when they turn so you can pick up all that ammo you've been giving them.

As Blake learns more about what went down those fateful days at the base, a deeper and more sinister plot is discovered and it's up to you to save yourself and all humanity from becoming part of the alien virus.

This game is phenomenal and a worth successor to the genius film. There are quite a few more monsters than in the movie, indeed you end up fighting legions of scuttlers at one point, this helps keep the action and fear level up. If there was only one monster it would be a shorter and easier game made up of simply walking around. Instead it's a tense battle as you try to take little damage and conserve ammo to make sure you can fend off the hordes. There are no puzzles in this game. Most obstacles are overcome by either finding a key, fixing a breaker or killing things. The story is strong and the bosses and other monsters fun to fight again and again until you get it right. A great game to play at night when you're home alone and hearing things go bump. It'll scare the pants off you and then you can burn the pants off of them.

Did I mention the cold? Since the game takes place in Antarctica, the weather is quite cold and if you or your team stays out there too long as you work your way from building to building, you will take damage and eventually die, so stay warm. And don't forget, man is the warmest place to hide.