Following the events of 'John Carpenters': The Thing', 'The Thing' picks up right where the game left off, with you, (the player), taking the part of Captain Blake, one of the soldiers sent into investigate the destruction of the research base.
Soon, you realise that there is more than what meets the eye.
Things appear everywhere.....they are infact "Comming out of the Goddamn walls!"
First, the graphics and characters are well animated, with good dialogue to boot. The Trust/Fear system used to interact with your squad members is very clever.
The Things, (aliens), themselves will suprise you on several occations.
The layout of the game, (the film bits), stick amazingly close to the film sections, and you can easily realise certain parts.
Even Childs from the film appears.
This is a survival horror with an incentive on 'survival'.
Another thing, the controls are well set out, and not complicated in any way.
Fan of the film? Even if you're not, BUY IT!

Not the most original idea, 'hey, lets make a Thing videogame based on the classic movie!' but it really works!
'The Thing' game picks up straight after the final events of the movie, as you and a squad of troops are sent to an Arctic base to find out what has happened to the survey team who have suddenly gone quiet...
In a similar vein to classic survival horror, such as Resident Evil, the action is mostly in the 3rd person as you and your team search inside the complex and through the blizzards outside, looking for humans, collecting items and weapons and shooting 'Things'.
It's got all the great sfx and atmospheric lighting of good survival horror games that get you absorbed in the action with some cool little details like an exposure meter that runs down when you are out in the cold (You've gotta be quick out there or you'll get frozen!) and the funny comments that your squad make when they are left standing.
But what makes it different? Well the squad members you have with you are an excellent addition to this kind of game. You must keep them happy by healing them and giving them weapons or they turn against you, making comments about you behind your back and even shooting you if you accidently wing them in combat! They can 'bug out' and go postal if you dont get them out of bloody areas quickly and lastly, how do you know they are not infected with the 'Thing' virus??
The attention you must pay to your squad made this a much more involving game for me, adding an angle that is missing in other games of this type as you keep them out of danger, fight alongside them or even use them as bait!
Other strengths are the mission-based approach as you complete certain goals to advance but be warned, some have a time limit to them! Its also a large game with lots to explore, find and solve as there are a few puzzles to occupy you. Some of the levels and bosses are far from easy so you need to keep saving at regular intervals.
Basically this is a detailed, atmospheric and involving game that keeps very close to the paranoid spirit of the original movie with shades of the Alien trilogy too. A must for anyone that enjoys the survival horror genre!

I tried playing "The Thing" last night and man was it GOOD.. It was soo good that I bought my own copy the next day.. If you love the movie and love survival horror games... then forget Resident Evil.. get the thing which is "The Thing".

With the survival horror behemoths of Resident Evil and Silent Hill failing to make any significant progress from their PSOne days, it's taken a London team to properly update the genre for the next gen consoles. Relying on slow and careful build-up of tension to create the unsettling atmosphere, rather than the film-like (if sometimes unplayable) camera angles of the Capcom series, this takes the basic survival horror and splices it with extra action to form a highly effective hybrid that compulses the player to continue until the final showdown. The main innovation is the ability to form a squad whose loyalty is not absolute - the ever-present possibility that anyone might be infected with a "Thing" requires the trust of squad members to be earnt and maintained, creating a sense of paranoia that neatly mimics Carpenter's film. This is not just a gimmick, as squad members are sometimes essential, such as engineers who can fix a wider range of broken interfaces than you, and at other times just very useful, such as the medics with their unlimited ability to restore your health, as long as you can keep them alive. That is not to say that the game is faultless - for instance, the number of keypresses required to reload from the last save point is excessive, and with no selectable difficulty level beyond the degree of auto aim, there is little incentive to replay once the 10-15 hour plot has been finished. Still, it's a good 10-15 hours, and given that it's now easy to find a cheap copy of the game (amazon.co.uk are currently selling in for a measly 15 pounds), anyone over the age of 15 would be mad to pass this one by. Highly recommended.

Team cooperation is what distinguishes this game from other survival games. One could compare it with Project Eden, where you also have 4 team members, but Project Eden is much more a puzzle game. Here, survival and scary atmosphere is what it is about. What makes The Thing unique, is that you have to take into account/manage your team members' feelings (fear, trust etc) by means of a well developed interface.
Graphics: 3/5 : nice snow, nice levels, detailed characters, but I would have liked dynamic, scary shadows (see Silent Hill 2), also flames aren't convincing
Sound: 3/5 lots of ambient sounds, better than average voice acting, but I miss a dramatic soundtrack
Storyline: 5/5 : building further on the cult movie, the script is excellent
Gameplay: 4/5 : equally divided parts for exploration, puzzle solving, fighting (shooting), some strategic insight for team feelings management
Overall, the game manages to evoke the atmosphere of paranoia that made the 1982 cult movie renowned. If you were intrigued by the movie, you won't be disappointed by the game.