The Thing: Remastered Review – Realized Potential

John Carpenter’s seminal horror film, The Thing, greatly influenced video games and horror as a whole after its 1982 debut. It’s no surprise that a video game adaption would happen, but nobody could have predicted it would turn out as superbly as Black Label Studios’ 2002 effort. For one, it wasn’t a lazy 1-to-1 retread of the film, but a genuine sequel. The Thing also featured some revolutionary mechanics at the time, with its single-player squad gameplay demonstrating intelligent AI. Seeing squadmates randomly transform in front of you was just as terrifying and cool as it is today, and thankfully the remaster preserves that feeling with added polish.

At the forefront of that polish is the enhanced graphics. Textures are razor sharp, as expected from the newly implemented 4K resolution. And the quirky characters all get a makeover with rebuilt facial textures and animations. Thankfully, players can actually see characters’ faces a majority of the time due to the volumetric lighting and brighter rooms in place of the original’s pitch-black areas. This effort by Nightdive Studios pretty much comprehensively renovates all the visuals of the game, and it runs at a consistently solid 144 frames per second too.

"One example of asset flipping I quite like is replacing the generic infected corpse at the beginning of the game with Nauls from the original film."

I particularly appreciate how Nightdive has added cut content from the original game along with all-new assets in certain areas. One example of asset flipping I quite like is replacing the generic infected corpse at the beginning with Nauls from the original film. If you look at side-by-sides, the original body is more exposed and gruesome, but the choice to pack some continuity from the film in place of that is an inspired and appreciated one. That said, there’s no shortage of gruesome moments in The Thing Remastered.

Transformations are still as grotesque as ever, and certain characters take desperate measures, sacrificing themselves to avoid a dreaded transformation. None of the swearing or dialogue is altered or censored, and the overall vibe and tone doesn’t feel neutered or softened up at all from the 2002 classic. The only area where I can see some players complaining about a loss of grittiness is the brightened lighting and elimination of that ubiquitous PS2-era fog. I see the improved lighting as a win, considering how difficult it could be to see in many of the original’s pitch-black hallways. One may argue the remastered version’s new arctic-flavored color filter is closer to the film than the original game, making the slightly brightened visuals even more of a win-win. That said, The Thing Remastered is still plenty dark.

"Nightdive has graced us with much-needed autosaves throughout the experience in addition to better positioning of save recorders."

Visuals aren’t the only enhancement that’s been added to The Thing though, Nightdive has graced us with much-needed autosaves throughout the experience in addition to better positioning of save recorders. Oh, and since the original was known for its severe and often unfair difficulty, four different difficulty settings were added to give players a more forgiving experience.

Helping ease that sense of unfairness is the elimination of one of the biggest flaws of the original game: squadmate infections. As a single-player squad-based shooter, The Thing emphasizes teamwork to get through the harrowing Antarctic facility. Part of the genius of the original cult classic game was the intelligent way your NPC partners reacted to encounters and served their specific role. The Thing has a unique class-based system that makes each role useful. Locked doors and terminals require an engineer, while situations in need of healing rely upon a medic. And in cases where ammo is super low, you can depend on the smart AI of the soldier to shoot enemies. But back to the original’s flaw: AI was a double-edged knife.

"Squadmates don’t randomly turn, but each has their own levels of immunity to infections and, more importantly, only become infected when in direct contact with a Thing beast (which happens a lot, as you might expect)."

You see, a major part of this game’s schtick is your squadmates getting infected and mutating into grotesque ‘Thing’ monsters in real-time. This remaster finally realizes that ingenious concept and ditches the antiquated and flawed 100% infection rate the original seemed to have. Administering a blood test amounted to nothing in the original thanks to random ‘outburst’ infections that can happen at any time. That often meant a squadmate turning on you mere minutes after having them come up negative on a blood test.

Well, that’s been mostly fixed with this remaster; squadmates don’t randomly turn, but each has their own levels of immunity to infections and, more importantly, only become infected when in direct contact with a Thing beast (which happens a lot, as you might expect). The elimination of random infection outbursts helps the concept come closer to realizing its original intent, though there’s still an issue I have with the gameplay mechanic. Don’t get me wrong, the anxiety of never quite knowing when an ally finally turns on you is fascinating, but at the end of the day your companions always whittle down to the panicked cowering state since they inevitably come into contact with infected Things sooner or later. In short, the trust/fear system is better implemented than the original, but still doesn’t quite hit its full stride.

"You can command squadmates to follow, stop, and head to a set direction using a traditional four-way wheel."

The rest of the squad controls work wonderfully. Up to three squad members join you intermittently throughout the campaign, fulfilling the mechanic, medic, and soldier roles as they follow commands and banter among themselves. The personalities these NPC squadmates exhibit are fun to witness in action, thanks to great voice acting and the somewhat campy tone the game brilliantly adapts from the film. You can command squadmates to follow, stop, and head to a set direction using a traditional four-way wheel. The wheel shows you the squadmates’ facial expressions too, so it’s easy to see what state they’re in at-a-glance.

You also have a wheel for utility items and weapons, of which the game does a good job varying up. I appreciate how this game makes you actually use most utility items; after all, not every survival horror game makes your repertoire of items useful. I had fun collecting and conveniently placing flares in dark corners and blind spots, for example, and equally enjoyed divvying up medpacks between squadmates.

The range of guns here are balanced nicely so that each monster type is weak to something distinct; you’ll be using the shotgun and msg in equal measure. Unlike Resident Evil or Silent Hill, ammo isn’t so scarce; however, a lot of it gets dispersed between your squadmates so careful conservation is still advised. Shooting is improved from the janky original thanks to the auto-aim assist and enhanced sensitivity settings, but targeting Things still lacks the accuracy of other third-person shooters, feeling every bit like the early 2000s title it is. The flamethrower weapons are improved as well, with hitboxes that more accurately represent where you’re pointing the weapon.

"The flamethrower weapons are improved as well, with hitboxes that more accurately represent where you’re pointing the weapon."

Despite all the improvements to weapon controls, the gunplay still ends up feeling outdated and arcady, though it can hardly be considered bad or terrible. One aspect of gameplay that I still struggled with this time around was occasionally getting stuck on terrain, but again, it’s nowhere near as bad as it was in the original. The bevy of bug fixes and little quality of life improvements on the gameplay front are very welcome, but can only lift up the game’s age to a certain degree.

That brings me to one of the game’s greatest strengths: level design. There’s actually quite a lot of variety in levels despite the limitations inherent in the solitary Antarctic environment. Lesser film-based games of the 2000s would’ve been content merely recycling doodads and rearranging the dark rooms of the outpost, but The Thing successfully manages to surprise with unique environments around every corner. And the remaster ups the ante with some newly added objects to give the locations even more flavor. For example, some corpses now resemble side characters from the film instead of generic bodies, and some creature design assets were redone to look more detailed. The unique layouts in tandem with how distinct each location’s lighting are make Outpost 31 feel all the more memorable and enticing to explore. You’re not just running from room to room; the game has you walking atop vent systems, exploring small cavern outcroppings, or more commonly, battling the cold outside.

"The Thing successfully manages to surprise with unique environments around every corner."

I simply ate up the survival elements in this game, light though they are. You’ll be forced to journey out in the cold with your squadmates in tow throughout the experience, each second draining the characters’ temperature meter. When the meter reaches zero for you or your teammates, it’s paramount to get inside a building unless you want to be a Thing’s frozen desert. The game’s great level design accommodates these harsh outdoor conditions with well-placed indoor zones that replenish the temperature meter just enough to scrape past the harsh outdoor jaunts. My only complaint is that squadmates occasionally get hung up on geometry or lag behind you after closing a door, potentially keeping them out to freeze.

Overall, I really enjoyed my return back to this cult classic and feel that this remaster finally meets the lofty potential the original set up. The super dark areas of the original are lit up to see better, controls are improved, and the flawed random infections have been gutted to make the fear/trust system really work. The tone perfectly captures the original film, with a gritty and isolating atmosphere that simply begs to be explored. The Thing Remastered is absolutely worth the survival horror fan’s time, and if you like the original game or games from the era, it’s a clear must-have.

This game was reviewed on the PC.