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News: Tom Morello stars in Guitar Hero III
Activision has announced that Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, will guest star as a boss character in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Click here to read the article.
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The Thing
The Thing, yeah it was a movie. Is this game based on the movie, yes and no.
No, meaning that it is not a game where you play through the movie, rather this
is an actual sequel to the movie by John Carpenter. A sequel? Yes, that's right,
a sequel to a movie in the form of a video game, which I think is the first ever!
In case you didn't see the movie, the story goes like this: A team of American
scientists in the Antarctic encounter an alien creature that lives in a living
organism. In the movie, it is a dog who is "the thing" or rather, it is a dog who
has been infected by "the thing". The dog runs away from a Norwegian base where
he encounters the scientists who take him in not knowing that it was infected.
They finally realize it when the dog and others in the area start to transform
into ugly beats! There's a lot of blood and gore, etc. and the last 2 men alive
battle "the thing" ... or do they? Go watch the movie! :)
Anyways, in the game you play a military team leader, Captain Blake, who has
been sent in to investigate the mysterious deaths not knowing that "the thing"
was still living. Your team is composed of engineers, soldiers, and medics. They
will fight with you till the end only if they trust you. If for some reason, say
they see a dead body, they begin to go crazy and decide not to follow, you must
change their mind, you must gain his trust. This is a great feature to The Thing,
the Trust/Fear system. You will meet many NPC's (non-playable characters) throughout
the game that can help you, or in some cases hurt you, as they may be infected.
Regardless of this, you must gain their trust first. An example of a way to do
this is by giving them a gun, or supplies. Fear, we all go through it, we are all
scared of something at one point or another. In The Thing, your team may become
scared of all the dead bodies on the floor or the attackin enemies and they might
decide to quit and stay behind. You must not let this happen as it could cost you your life.
The controls in The Thing are spot on and easy to learn. R is used for shooting
which has an auto-lock making it easier to shoot and not miss. Movement is just
like Halo, so all you Halo freaks out there can pick this game up without a problem.
The D pad is used for selecting weapons and items such as a test kit or a first aid kit.
You can also reload, crouch, and control your team and view documents that you have
picked up along the way. There shouldn't be a big problem getting used to the control,
as with any new game you play, it takes time, but once you have it down, it's a walk in the park.
The visuals in this game are quite good. The characters are modeled nicely with great detail.
The environments that you will play through very in style and are nicely rendered with a
great emphasis on detail to engross you in the game's mood. Enemies on the other hand are a
bit repetitive, but hey, what can you expect, they are all infected by "the thing" so I guess
they should resemble each other. Lighting is another plus in this game. When you are playing
through the game and there is an eerie room with little lighting then you known something's up.
This adds a great deal to the involvement of the player. You will mostly be playing indoors because
if you are outside in the freezing temperature you will die. That doesn't mean the outside doesn't
look nice. Actually, it doesn't look that good. But hey, it's Antartica, you can't really expect
much besides fog, which is rendered nicely in the game which gives you a feeling of 'cold'. Great
visuals overall, but could have been better.
Onto the audio section of the review. The audio is great, especially in Dolby Digital 5.1
surround sound. You'll be peeing your pants when you hear a critter sneaking up behind you because
they always travel in groups! The sound blends nicely with the environment. Since the game is at night,
it is dark, and the sound blends in perfectly giving you a feeling of suspence. Another great part of
the audio is the voice acting. The voice acting is pretty good for a video game, since most voice overs
tend to suck in video games. Hell, any game who's characters say the word $h!t is ok by me.
Overall, The Thing is a great game worth the purchase although there might not be much to do after
you beat it, but hey, buy it anyways! With a great story, good graphics, guns, gore, cursing, and
blood, is there really any reason you haven't gotten this game yet!? The Thing is an excellent game
to add to your Xbox library. Who knew making a sequel to a 1984 movie would actually work.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 9
Graphics = 8.5
Audio = 9
Replay Value = 7.5
Overall: 9/10
Click here for the Thing screenshots gallery!
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