PS2 Underrated Gem: The Thing
75This is a series of gameplay vids I'm doing highlighting overlooked games for the PS2.
Admittedly, I've never seen the the original John Carpenter movie The Thing this game acts as a sequel of sorts to.
The Thing plays like a mix of a squad shooter, and survival horror game. The original movie was about an antarctic research team who comes across an alien lifeform that can take over and imitate it's host.
The game plays off of this concept with you having to earn your squad-mates trust before they'll help you. They have to know you're not infected. It's a really neat concept, but overall, it's not developed that well. You never get the feeling of paranoia, like you can't trust your teammates, or that you have to watch your back, because you are so heavily armed. When your squadmates do finally turn, it takes them long enough to change, that you're already spraying them with the flame thrower by the time they even get to attack you. So that aspect was a cool concept, and adds soemthing extra tot he game, but could have been developed better.
The game also doesn't really give you that feeling of tension like other survival horror games, and though it's based off of a movie, it's storyline is basic and poorly implemented. In fact, you probably won't be playing this game for it's story.
That being said, the squad shooter elements are really fun to play. Very few survival horror games let you be this well armed, so, in a sense, the game feels more like an action squad shooter at times than a survival horror game. That's not to say there aren't some tense moments, the game just overall does the action elements better.
The big enemies in the game can only be killed with the flame thrower, however the range of the weapon is poor. When free gunning, your character will only shoot the flame thrower at the ground (so don't run forward, and shoot it or else you'll kill yourself rather quickly), and when aiming in on an enemy that's a few feet in front of you, you'll miss, because the flame doesn't go that far. However, you can learn these quirks of that weapon, so it will only be a big problem at first.
My other minor complaint, is that when you die (and you will die a lot in the game trust me), it doesn't give you the ability to load your game from the death screen. It'll let you restart the level, but you have to exit to the title screen to reload your data, even if you made it to a save point in the level.
Overall, though the game wasn't everything it promised to be, there is a fun, and completely solid experience underneath. It's not perfect, but is overall an enjoyable well made experience. Don't expect an in-depth story, and don't expect it to be filled with big Hollywood scares, but if you're looking for a good squad shooter in a horror environment, then look into The Thing.
The Thing is also available on the Xbox, and PC.
NOTE: I seriously got this game for exactly $1.