The Thing Game Review

The AI is very good compared to other squad based shooter I have played. Teammates are effective in aiding you in combating your opponents. Each team consists of three members. Protecting your teammates when they are in the line of fire will greatly help you in the progress of your game. The medic will help to heal when you are seriously hurt. This will be useful when you when you are under heavy fire or when medipacks are hard to find. The engineer can help to break into certain rooms. These rooms normally contain a save point or additional ammunition or medipacks. Your teammates can also provide tactical cover when you are attack from behind by monsters. The monsters are excellent opponents to play against. There are many different monsters. Players will not get bored playing only against one type of creature. Different monsters are best killed with different weapons. As you progress further in the game, you will meet several boss characters, which required you to use different techniques against them instead of the normal shooting. Since it is a shooter game, you can expect quite a lot of gunplay. There are many different weapons to choose from. You can choose to burst into the room and killed the monsters or you can choose to ambush the monster. Choosing to go in gun blazing may remove much of heath but it is more fun. Alternatively, stalking the monster is more tiring but it does save much of your health. The game due to the team dynamics requires some tactical planning. If you are into planning, you can choose to just go in shooting. Both ways of approaching the game are equally addictive.

By using a three-dimensional interface, the player can observed the well rendered environment. When you are running in the snow, you can clearly see your footprints. When you look up at the sky, you can see the snow falling.  The textures used give the impression of a constantly decaying army base. Damaged pipes dripped water continously. Paint peeling from the walls. The walls are covered in blood.  All this textures and shading effectively bring out the claustrophobic army base. The developers have also allowed older cards to be used for the game. This helps gamers with older machines. They need not worry about inferior graphics of the game getting in the way of their game play.

The player is required to navigate round the army base. As the weather is perpetually cold, the player is unable to stay out too long. The cold will gradually eat up the life of the player. This is a challenge as clues may lie outside the base. Players will need to search outside the base for them. Poor visibility caused by the weather further worsens the situation. These two problems make the game more challenging but it also heightens the tension thus providing an immersive feel for a player. Each monster has its own difficulties and characteristics. The AI throws several monsters at the player at the same time. The player must be skilled enough to effectively combat them. Each weapon provided to the player is tailor for different monsters. Knowing the effectiveness of the weapons can make a difference between winning and losing. The action comes to you thick and fast. Yet in between, there are lull periods which help to build up atmosphere in the game. There is a constant palpable sense of fear in the game. Although the action is a plenty, the developers doesn’t sting on the pacing of the story. The plot slowly unfolds, building up the tension, as you attack monster after monster. The character you play as is a military figure and you have a group of fellow soldiers to help you. The three soldiers are combat engineer, medic, rifleman. Each of them will aid you in defeating the monsters. Occasionally, there will be rooms that require an engineer to break in.

 The rooms may contain extra ammunition or a save point. Not breaking into the room doesn’t stop you from completing the level but doing so will make the game easier to complete.You can easily configure the various keys for efficient usage. As a beginner you might need some time to get use to the many different functions. It is hard to get things to work perfectly with so many functions when you are first playing it. For frequent players of first person shooter games, the controls are similar to many games in the market. The battle is simple, and there's a first person shooter switch for precision shots. The weapon list is standard. Shotguns and assault rifles flesh out the list of usual suspects. You also often have to arm your squad members when you find them, and this adds extra dimensions to tactics and inventory management. Another thing that further enhances game play and demonstrates the AI use in the game is the squad controlling feature. Other squad based games I have played results in ton of problems with the most basic of functions. The AI is better here, and reflects very distinct personalities for each and every one of the NPCs you’ll encounter. This not only makes the game more real. It also helps the player to get invested in the story.

Characters are not one dimensional but have different facets. If you happen to be with someone that is particularly squeamish, they’ll vomit when you come across a disfigured corpse. You might encounter a character that has bowel problems when you get up-close and personal with a giant creature. You have to watch your squad carefully, because their reactions are very important. This can be seen when they go berserk and shoot everyone in your squad before killing themselves. It's your job to calm him own. Lead him outside for a short breather or, if he's unarmed, give him a weapon. If none of that works, shoot him full of adrenaline as a quick fix. Icons above a character's head indicate changes in mood, and the squad menu allows a close look at everyone's faces. If someone's freaking out, you'll see it. If they lose it completely, they'll stop listening and can even become dangerous. As far as your team is concerned, you could be the Thing, too. Gaining trust is closely related to allaying fear, and things like distributing weapons, taking a blood test, or gunning down bad guys will all serve to bolster trust. Conversely, shooting them, ignoring their mental stress or even abstaining from combat will sap their trust in you. There are several levels of trust, and each character's level can be found on the squad menu. If you don't like what you see, use the menu to dole out supplies or medical kits. A great deal of attention was given to the development of the Fear/Trust management system; it's the crux of the game

The only problems I encounter are with collision detection during NPC movement. NPCs will occasionally get lost or snagged on corners or around boxes. 

The concept of the game is very novel. Due to the addition of the team dynamics, this elevates the game from a normal first person shooter. Although other games like Rainbow Six have the team dynamics, the team is mainly there to aid you in the completion of your mission. In The Thing, the team can both be a boon and a bane. The game provides a tool known as an “injection” which the player can use to cure the infected character. This enhances the game play as the player is constantly on the toes to keep track of the colleagues around them. The game mimics real life. Since the main character is a military figure, the game has created a team around him. Thus, the developers were able to bring in team dynamics. The player(main character) is able to interact with his team. In reality, a team encounters problems both internally and externally. The monsters are the external problems. The developers replicate the internal problems through a “trust system”. In the game, humans are mutated into monsters after they are attacked by a monster. What is interesting is the humans don’t mutate immediately. The human will gradually changed into a monster. Humans will have each have a trust meter. In this way, as a player, you can be wary of any character who is acting irrationally and kill him before they changed.

Ammunition conservation was also a problem. The bullets are seldom enough to go around. This is worsen by the fact that you will be giving most of your weapons and ammunition to your team members in order to earn their trust.

There are varying levels of difficulty which you can choose at the start of the game. If you choose a higher level of difficulty, you must be more accurate in your shooting. The scope of your weapons will narrowed at higher difficulty levels.

The animation of the characters are quite good. The walking and running is not too awkward compared to other games. You can see the expression of your teammates when they are angry or afraid.  

As there is a multi player mode, the game remains interesting when you replay it. The superior AI makes the game “different” during replay. Enemies don’t remain in the same positions. The team dynamics also played a part in whether to replay the game or not. As previously mentioned, having a combat engineer helps you to unlock some rooms. Replaying the game and ensuring the survival of this character allows us to view what is inside the room. We can also find out how much shorter the level can be as unlocking some rooms might lead to a shorter route.

Teams can log on to the server to engage in battle with each other in multiplayer mode. The multiplayer interface is effective as many players can play together. No AI build into the game can match the feeling of playing with real life opponents. The multiplayer option provides additional maps to further enhance the game play. This encourages players to replay the game after they are through with the single player mode. The multiplayer option is effective in this way.