Nightdive Studios has been having a pretty strong run over the past several years, remastering classics like Bladerunner, Quake 2, Star Wars: Dark Forces, and Doom 1 + Doom 2 to extensive acclaim. Its next project is one of the more underrated titles of the early 2000s – The Thing by Computer Artworks.
The remaster doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s out sometime this year, potentially in December, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. Here are 15 things you should know about The Thing: Remastered, from what made the original so endearing to everything new being brought to the table.
“Faithful Restoration”
Nightdive has promised a “faithful restoration” of the 2002 survival horror, which offers third-person movement and a first-person mode, but what exactly is The Thing? Based on John Carpenter’s movie of the same name, it actually serves as a sequel with Captain J. F. Blake as the protagonist. Players are charged with investigating what happened at Outpost 31 in Antarctica. Unfortunately, they soon find themselves hunted by the same entity which wreaked havoc in the film.
Multiple Characters
While you’ll control Blake throughout the game, it’s also possible to give orders to other NPCs. Each has a unique role with Medics healing allies, Engineers opening locked doors, and Soldiers piling on the damage while being more skilled in combat than the other two roles. As a result, their cooperation is essential to survival.
The Thing(s)
The entity from the film is an alien, one that presents in all manner of grotesque ways. It consists of Scuttlers, smaller creatures that are easily dispatched; Walkers, which are larger and only defeated with the help of a flamethrower; and Bosses, who have their own mechanics but are also weak to fire. You’ll want to kill them for obvious reasons (read: living), but their grotesque structures aren’t the real danger. It’s the shape-shifting you need to worry about.
Impostors and Infection
And yes, that means killing any NPCs that you may come across and assuming their form. The challenge is that you won’t know who has been replaced, and thus, who to trust, which goes both ways, as they won’t know whether to trust Blake. Interestingly, if NPCs happen to be attacked by any of the Things, there’s a chance they could become infected and transform faster, which is far from ideal.
Trust
Further throwing a wrench into all of this is the Fear/Trust System. To gain the assistance of other NPCs, Blake must have their trust, which is challenging if they suspect him of being the Thing). Trust falls into red (complete distrust and attacking him on sight), amber (unsure), green (trusted), and 100 percent. While you can gain trust by protecting NPCs or giving them supplies, it can be depleted if you shoot them (accidentally or otherwise), among other things. If an ally is 100 percent on your side, they’ll continue following you regardless of how trigger-happy you get with friends.
Fear
Of course, you also have to account for fear, which occurs if you discover any gory sights or get attacked. If an NPC becomes too scared and enters Crack-up Mode, they can behave erratically, attacking you or even harming themselves. Certain decisions like giving them adrenaline, or killing Things will help alleviate the fear, but beware – once an NPC cracks up, you must find a way to help them before it’s too late.
Weapons and Tools
The Thing offers a decent selection of weaponry for Blake and the team to leverage. Aside from flamethrowers, you have assault rifles, submachine guns, grenade launchers, shotguns, and even heavy machine guns for fighting back against the Things. However, some of your most important tools will be adrenaline, ammo and health packs (since giving them to allies will gain their trust and help keep fear down), and the ever-essential blood test kits, which can prove that Blake isn’t infected. How you distribute these weapons and items is the real issue.
Total Levels and Playtime
A lot is going on in The Thing with its gameplay mechanics and potential outcomes, but it’s not as long as you’d think. There are 20 levels in total, but it’s set entirely in Outpost 31, the total playtime is around seven hours for the main story and about nine and a half hours on average for completionists. Nightdive hasn’t indicated whether it’s adding any extra content, but we’ll need to wait for more details.
Up to 4K and 144 FPS on Current-Gen Platforms
What you can look forward to in the remaster is 4K resolution support and up to 144 frames per second performance on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. Based on the gameplay thus far, The Thing: Remastered looks extremely crisp on higher resolutions and should perform even better, thanks to Nightdive’s KEX Engine.
Improved Lighting and Atmospheric Effects
On top of higher frame rates and resolutions, there are also improvements to the lighting and atmospheric effects, adding to the overall tension. Whether you’re wandering outside the outpost and taking in the frigid cold as snow rains down or appreciating the sweet fire and the shadows it casts, it’s a significant step up.
Improved Textures and Characters
Character models, textures and animations are also better, with the latter being hand-crafted by Nightdive and offering a more realistic feel. While that means the cast looks more endearing, it also means that all those Things running around (especially the Scuttlers) look even creepier and more disgusting.
Quality of Life Features
Nightdive is known for its quality of life features in its remasters, and you can expect as much from The Thing: Remastered. However, aside from Achievements on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam, they’re yet to be fully detailed. Mark Atkinson, who directed the original, did promise some fixes for areas where players could find themselves without ammo, so there is that at least. Unfortunately, those hoping for different difficulty options are out of luck.
Scalable Difficulties
In Nightdive’s Deep Dive series, Atkinson confirmed that The Thing: Remastered won’t have a “Story Mode” difficulty. Instead, there will be scalable difficulties, which could mean the game becomes more challenging depending on how well you’re doing. Either way, don’t expect it to be a walk in the park.
Plays As Well or Better Than the Original
Atkinson also promised that the remaster would play as well or better than the original. Given that The Thing faced criticism for its control scheme, perhaps there will be alternate options available. On the other hand, maybe it feels more responsive for those who stick with the classic layout. As always, we’ll need to wait and see.
PC Requirements
The Thing: Remastered is thankfully very undemanding for PC players, requiring a whopping five GB of installation space. The minimum requirements include an Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5GHz, 2 GB of RAM and either an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 TI (2GB) or an AMD Radeon HD 7750 (1GB). Recommended requirements include a Core i5-6600k 3.5 GHz or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz, 4 GB RAM and either a GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (8GB). The requirements for 4K haven’t been explicitly detailed, but unless you’re stuck on the wrong side of 2016 in terms of hardware, they shouldn’t be particularly challenging to hit.