In the Summer of 1982, John Carpenter’s The Thing was released, but it bombed at the box office because it was released the same week as Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Over time, it found its audience and has been reevaluated. It is widely considered one of, if not the greatest, sci-fi horror films of all time and established the blueprint for body horror.
In the 2000s gamers saw many movie tie-in games based on classic films from the 1960s through the 1980s. From Russia with Love, The Godfather, Scarface, The Warriors, RoboCop, and even The Great Escape were getting PlayStation 2 and Xbox adaptations. The time had come for The Thing, especially because it was a cheap license to acquire attached to a bankable name.
The Thing for Xbox and PlayStation 2 made some lofty promises back in 2002. Some features were a trust system with squad-based gameplay and an infection mechanic that would prey on players’ paranoia. Regretfully, it was a subpar game, but now Nightdive is taking a crack at remastering it. How much can Nightdive polish a turd? Find out in The Thing: Remastered review!
The Thing: Remastered
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Computer Artworks
Publisher: Nightdive Studios, Black Label Games, Vivendi Universal Games
Platforms: Windows PC, PlayStation 2 (as The Thing), Xbox (as The Thing), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: December 5, 2024
Price: $29.99
The Thing: Remastered is a direct follow-up to the ending of John Carpenter’s film. At the start, players find out about the fates of many of the film’s characters and explore the remains of Outpost 31. Sadly, gamers won’t don the big hat and play as R.J. Macready from the movie. Instead, make way for Capt. J.F. Blake, a poor man’s Macready who steals the iconic line from the film.
Blake isn’t much of a character. He talks gruffly and lacks the alcoholic swagger that made Mac so fun. The story unfolds like a series of disjointed events that are haphazardly connected. Characters will be introduced and unceremoniously vanish or die offscreen.
The Thing‘s best moments are early on when the action is at its most restrained and players visit environments based on the film. It feels like entering the set of the movie and fans will catch cheeky details and homages that will make them point at the screen knowingly. When the story further develops and stops being grounded and becomes more like a half-assed seventh-gen Resident Evil, it becomes bland and forgettable.
The original movie was very desolate and set in one of the most hopeless environments known to man. This game introduces all kinds of really stupid ideas like secret underground bases and laboratories. Story elements get retconned, like the alien being already known to the government which cheapens the story of the film.
What The Thing: Remastered lacks in narrative, it makes up for in atmosphere and mood. The 2002 game was not much of a looker for its day, but Nightdive transformed its subpar graphics with new lighting, weather effects, and enhanced textures.
The ambiance is marvelous and the howling wind and hazy blizzard visuals create a palpable sense of confusion and disorientation. The new lighting changes the look and feel of the game, making it closely resemble Dean Cundy’s lighting from the film. Regretfully, the game never uses a single piece of Ennio Morricone’s score or any music inspired by it. There is almost no music at all.
The 1982 movie had a very distinct look, relying on intense cool blues, and lurid purples from lit flares. Darkly lit areas would contrast with the sickening moist sheen of the visceral and pulpy monsters. The Thing: Remastered beautifully captures the look and feel of the film and makes the game more immersive to play now that it doesn’t look sterile and lifeless.
Nightdive didn’t just revamp the graphics and leave it at that. The gameplay is much smoother now and is much fairer… and is rebalanced to be easier. Perhaps too easy. The original game was notorious for being unfair with how it forced uninfected squadmates to transform and how easy it was to accidentally set yourself on fire or fall to your death from some poorly designed rafters.
Nightdive did the best they could with what was given to them. It’s still possible to accidentally explode Blake, but now flamethrowers are rebalanced to be less of a liability. Squadmate AI is far more capable now. In fact, they are too capable and will dust monsters without much help so long as Blake arms them. They’ll detect a threat before you will see it coming and start blasting away.
If you do find yourself alone and taking on aliens, then expect basic strafe running and shooting. There is not much thought when fighting these things. Once in a while a big one will show up and after weakening it with gunfire, Blake will need to set it on fire with a blowtorch, flamethrower, or fire bomb. Most of the time Blake will encounter dozens of scuttling head-things.
Shooting feels more accurate in this version. There is still a soft auto-targeting mechanism, but the new 360-degree free-aim brings The Thing to modern standards. This is a very playable game now and feels on par with the first Max Payne.
The main selling point of The Thing that was supposed to make it stand out from other shooters was the trust and infection systems. Unfortunately, they didn’t work as intended, but that didn’t stop Nightdive from trying to improve what was already there. It’s just too bad there wasn’t much that they could do without fundamentally changing the core game.
Blake’s squad can become infected and transform into a monster, or they can lose their mind from terror when witnessing mutilated corpses. You can always tell when a guy is having a nervous breakdown and Blake can calm them by giving them a weapon or an adrenaline shot. If they get too crazy, they’ll kill themselves or puke and become worthless.
Infected squadmates are harder to detect and require a blood test to see who’s human. Giving suspected teammates the test is counter-intuitive since it will trigger a transformation. Not giving them the test will let them stay human as long as it takes and if players reach the end of an area, there is a good chance the squad will vanish or be killed offscreen between stages.
Apart from engineers who can fix switches, there is no point in trying to keep everyone alive or with maximum trust. Chances are players will pal around with engineers who are infected and it won’t matter. The game requires the engineers to follow Blake’s orders regardless of infection.
Regretfully, The Thing‘s two main selling points still don’t work as intended, but at least squadmates won’t be scripted to transform regardless of infection level. The reality is that Nightdive can only do so much and that The Thing‘s concepts were probably better suited for a different genre than a third-person shooter. Unfortunately, the world is not ready for a CRPG based on The Thing.
Where Nightdive put the most effort was the attention to detail. They added a lot of dressing to what was originally a very bare-looking game that bordered on being unfinished. The generic dead guy in the first level has been redesigned to be Nauls from the film, a character who gets killed off-screen late into the climax.
The Norwegian camp was given a sign, naming it “Thule”, a reference to the 2011 prequel, and adds a fire pit for the burned remains too. There are many readable signs and labels now. Extra props were added to various rooms to make the environments feel lived in. These details go a long way in making the game feel more complete than it ever has.
Nightdive has made an exceptional remaster of a very mediocre game. The Thing does not deserve this kind of attention. There are better games out there that could have gotten this treatment, but hopefully, it inspires someone else to take another shot at adapting John Carpenter’s immortal classic. Its premise is still fertile and novel and maybe one day, someone will get it right.
The Thing: Remastered was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch using a copy purchased by Niche Gamer. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. The Thing: Remastered is now available for PC (via Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Play Station 4, and PlayStation 5.
