The Thing: Remastered

When John Carpenter’s version of The Thing first hit theaters back in 1982, it was far from a hit. Making a mere $3 million in its opening weekend, the Kurt Russell creature feature debuted in eighth place at the box office, behind science fiction hits like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Thankfully, a whole new audience discovered the film’s brilliance at the rental store and on cable television. Horror fans raved about the disgusting yet mind-blowing practical effects, helping to turn the box office bomb into a genuine cult classic. Even now, four decades later, The Thing has become a staple of YouTube reaction channels, preserving its place as one of the best horror films to come out of the 1980s. And then, in 2002, Computer Artworks turned the movie into a video game. While not as good as the film and certainly limited by the technology of the time, it nevertheless had some good ideas that set it apart from all of the other first- and third-person shooters on the market, helping to turn it into a cult favorite. Now, two decades later, Nightdive has given the game a new facelift and added enough modern flair to give it the second chance at life that the movie had. But does that mean you should buy it? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review The Thing: Remastered.

In case you missed out when The Thing was released 22 years ago, it essentially works as a sequel to the 1982 movie. It takes place after MacReady, Childs and the rest of the Antarctica station comes face-to-face with an alien organism that is able to take the shape of humans, dogs and pretty much anything else it runs into. We play a new character named Blake who is sent in to rescue possible survivors and investigate what exactly went on. As you can imagine, this mission quickly spirals out of control, creating a level of tension where you never really know if your own team members are human or one of those sneaky aliens.

Just like with the John Carpenter movie, this is a great setup for a horror game. That sense of unease and not knowing who is friend or foe is genuinely unnerving, something that is only heightened by the isolation of Antarctica. It’s easy to see why a developer like Computer Artworks would be inspired by the premise, and they did a good job of weaving the best elements from the movie into the video game. This is the kind of movie adaptation that another developer could have half-assed, turning it into little more than Half-Life in the snow. But Computer Artworks had a few good ideas on how to translate that fear to the video game.

A lot of this plays out in the squad, which allows up to four NPCs to join Blake as he investigates the various outposts and facilities in Antarctica. You’ll team up with medics that will heal you (and the computer players), mechanics that can repair broken doors and soldiers that can, well, shoot at the aliens. In fact, all of your teammates can hold their own in a firefight, making them incredibly useful friends to have by your side. Of course, not all of them will immediately trust you at first, so you may need to show some loyalty by giving them a gun or providing a blood sample proving that you’re not one of those shape-shifting aliens.

What makes this squad system so cool is that, from time to time, a teammate will reveal that he is not what he appears. Everything will be going fine and then, out of nowhere, your medic will grow a new limb and mutate in front of your eyes. For this remaster, Nightdive has changed how the infection works, making it more random, as opposed to the scripted moments in the original game. This leads to a lot of unpredictability in each playthrough, as you won’t always be able to rely on having the same support. This adds to the general distrust you have of each and every person you rescue along the way.

For as much as I love this aspect of the game, it’s also a constant reminder that this is an update to a 2002 game and not something that is wholly new. When Computer Artworks implemented this mechanic two decades ago, it felt more like a proof of concept than a fully fleshed out feature. It’s the kind of thing you toy around with in the first game, only to then blow it up in a big way in the sequel. Unfortunately, there was no sequel, so they never had a chance to take the paranoia system to the next level. And even though it has been vastly improved in this new game, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if this were a brand-new game (or even a full-fledged remake) that could really take advantage of the advancements in computer A.I. It still feels like the game is scratching at the surface of what is possible.

If you were a big fan of the 2002 version of The Thing and are just looking for better graphics and some tweaks to the way infections work, then make no mistake about it, this will deliver everything you want. Nightdive does incredible work, and this is yet another remaster to be proud of. This is a huge improvement over the original release, and the changes they make go a long way to shaking things up in some great ways.

Even with the improved graphics and fresh scares, this is a remaster that reminded me why I found the 2002 game so disappointing in the first place. Part of the problem is that the story just isn’t very compelling. From the moment we step foot into the outpost from the movie, we know exactly what to expect. There’s no mystery here. No sense of discovery. We’re not surprised when a teammate transforms into an alien creature, because that’s straight out of the movie. The twists and turns the game tries to throw at you are both predictable and lame.

It also doesn’t help that Blake is a bland character and we never get to know the rest of the cast. Because this is a rescue mission, a lot of the interactions come down to finding a human, letting them fix a door or two, watching them die or turn into an alien, and find somebody else to repeat the process. The supporting cast aren’t real characters, so you don’t really care when one of them dies. Part of what made the movie work is that you could tell that there was a comradery between the handful of people in the research station. These weren’t strangers, but rather co-workers who had real human connections before the movie even started. There’s nothing like that in this game. This version of The Thing is really missing that human element.

I suspect a lot of this can be blamed on the dopey decision to make this a sequel, as opposed to a prequel. Yes, I know Hollywood eventually got there with a 2011 movie that was confusingly titled The Thing, but that was almost a full decade later. Had the developer set it at the Norwegian camp prior to the events of the film, it would have solved a lot of the story problems. It would have allowed Computer Artworks to construct a full cast of memorable characters that we bond with and like, all while introducing real surprises that we wouldn’t see coming. Add real social connections to the paranoia system and you could have something special.

Of course, this is more an argument for a modern remake or even a brand-new game. I can’t hold Nightdive responsible for decisions made 22 years ago, and, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. This is a fun 2002 action game with a really cool gimmick, something that helps set it apart from so many first- and third-person shooters of the time. Nightdive has done a wonderful job improving on what made the game unique, all while updating the graphics and gameplay. But even that can only go so far to mask the narrative and technological limitations that plague the game. The Thing: Remastered is a solid enough action game, but it isn’t on the same level as the 1982 movie, or even the 1951 adaptation starring Gunsmoke’s James Arness.