The Thing: Remastered

[h1] FINALLY PLAYED THAT THANG! [/h1] I had some old-school fun with this one. Give it up to Nightdive. They're doing God's work. And this was the first time I played this game, though I have no excuse whatsoever: For decades now, I've owned disc copies, both of them sitting right there on my big shelf o' games (a PS2 version and a PC box version). I even have foggy memories of booting it up on my well-worn PS2 circa 2005 or so. My first impressions? Oof, it was an ugly game. And worse, it seemed too damn...fiddly. All I wanted to do at the time was shoot slimy monsters in the snowy arctic, and this game was asking me to juggle multiple menus to dole out weapons and ammo to NPCs? And friendly fire was always on? And the game wanted me to periodically check to see if my squabbling squad mates were freaking out? And if they were, I might need to coddle them? Yeah...no. After about 20 minutes of that, I put it back on the shelf to collect dust. Until now, that is. Of course, the Nightdive remaster is the definitive way to play it. And now that I'm an older, greyer, and (slightly) more patient gamer, I understand the squad-based gameplay; Computer Artworks, the original developer, was going for something deeper, something more reactive, than just a bonehead, run-and-gun TPS. And to be honest, I think they pulled it off. Sure, it's all pretty basic when viewing it through the lens of 2026. But if I squint my eyes and pretend I'm 20 years younger (with less back pain, more hair, and a weaker lens prescription), I can convince myself to be impressed: Squad members need guns and ammo, they can follow you or be told to defend a point, they can revolt and ignore orders, they can get infected and transform into monsters, they can lose trust and even think you're a monster in disguise, they can be tested against infection, they can be useful and fix electronic door panels or heal you in a pinch. Ya know, it's 2002, I weigh 50 pounds less than I do in 2026, and I'm sufficiently impressed by all that squad-based NPC gameplay. Neato. But it is, ultimately, a game of its time. And that means it bites off more than it can chew sometimes. You can give squad mates a blood test to see if they are infected. And while the test is negative, you turn around five minutes later and that same dude is transforming into a monster since it's a scripted event required by the narrative. Uh...okay. Then you find yourself managing the hell out of a four-person (and sometimes even a five-person!) team in order to keep them all alive only for the chapter to end where they are all unceremoniously blown up because there's no way the game would be able to carry them over to the next chapter due to technical limitations. Or worse, sometimes they just...disappear when that time came. Kind of like they never existed. Oh...okay. Of course in 2026, we demand more continuity than that. Imagine playing Mass Effect and Garrus or Wrex just didn't show up on the Normandy after a mission. We'd never let a contemporary game get away with those shenanigans. So yeah, this twenty-year-old title does some over-promising, no question about that. But lucky for me, I've stored up 20 years of forgiveness in my heart since this game was originally released, so it's all good. And I gotta say, Nightdive's new coat of paint is quite pretty. The game ran smoothly and even scaled correctly on my 5120 x 1440 super ultrawide monitor, which I was not expecting it to do. And, to my surprise, there were even a few helpful Nexus mods I applied--specifically one that replaced the too-large, distracting reticule with a small dot instead. And another genius mod added an FOV slider to the menu. So helpful for us money-wasting super ultrawide folks. And seeing John Carpenter's cameo in the game was a delight (though his character model--pretty much like all the character models for the time period--are turn-of-the-century ugly). But there were some hiccups too: I had a few weird sections where my dude would just stop moving forward. At first I thought I'd gotten stuck on some geometry, but nope. He just decided to stand still for a few seconds. But it fixed itself rather quickly. Then at one point I noted that the game had become unusually dark, and I suspected that some shaders had not been properly loaded. So I quit and rebooted the game and...I was right! We were back in business. Anyway, since I enjoyed this sampling of Nightdive's work, it's time to go back even further in time and play the System Shock remake (which I actually supported on Kickstarter, though I feared it would just sit in my backlog of shame...but now I'm not going to let that happen.)

Carpenter considers this the canonical follow up to the film, and its easy to see why. This game is awesome.

If you're a fan of the movie, give it a try. The game itself is painfully average at best, as for an early 2000s game, but it has some interesting ideas such as fear and trust mechanics for the NPC. (Although it's half-baked and doesn't work properly most of the time.) It took me around 8 hours to finish it and doesn't really have any replay value, but I'd say it was an enjoyable experience overall nonetheless.

Игра пройдена на обычном уровне сложности и надо сказать очень разочаровала меня, ибо какие-никакие ожидания всё-таки были. Безусловно вокруг проекта присутствует некий вайб популярности игры 2002 года, а во главе угла и вовсе стоит культовый статус одноимённого фильма Джона Карпентера. Посему возникает резонный расчёт на то, что игра обеспечит нам интригу, ореол таинственности и загадочности, трепет перед неизведанным и саспенс вокруг расследования инцидента на норвежской полярной станции. Так ведь, дорогие телезрители? Да хрена с два! Лишь пролог игры, пожалуй, напоминает нам о том, что игра имеет непосредственное отношение к фильму "Нечто". Заснеженный пейзаж полярной станции, исследование полуразрушенных строений со страшными следами после каких-то загадочных событий и, наконец, обнаружение таинственного объекта, похожего на классический НЛО. Вот всё, что нам напомнит о связи с легендарным кино. Ещё добавляет разнообразия в игровой процесс очень нервное поведение некоторых персонажей, которые без видимой причины не доверяют мужикам в форме, заставляя тех доказывать свою "нормальность" через анализ крови. Игра, к сожалению очень быстро забудет то обстоятельство, что инфильтратором может быть абсолютно любой с виду обычный человек. Что же до игрового процесса, то он неприлично устарел. Даже желая поностальгировать от версии 2002года, я бы не рекомендовала тратить время на сие творение. Под словом Ремастер тут подразумевается возможность запуска игры на современных системах и чуть-чуть подтянутые текстурки. Графика из прошлого века по-прежнему, управление топорное, интерфейс нелепый игромоздкий. А ещё в игре отсутствует напрочь ИИ, который якобы призван управлять NPC. Ну и вряд ли вы с ходу назовёте другую такую игру, где настолько отвратительная и кринжовая стрельба. Никакого приятного ощущения от оружия нет. Ни отдачи, ни звука, ни эффектов. Прикрученный менеджмент управления отрядом имеется для галочки и попросту не нужен. Он громоздкий, кривой и визуально отвратительный. На поведение и потребности ваших бойцов или случайных союзников в будущем вам будет просто наплевать. Игра проходится ГГ соло и никакого боевого братства, командной работы и важности наличия отряда попросту нет. То обстоятельство, что только инженер может ремонтировать некоторые особенные поврежденные щитки скорее раздражает, а не как-то разбавляет игровой процесс. Инженеров, без которых продвинуться по сюжету дальне не выйдет, игра всегда предоставит. Тревожиться за их эмоциональное состояние никакого смысла нет. Получается разработчики напихали разных механик в игру, чтобы они просто были. До ума доводить хотя бы одну не стали наверное принципиально :) А ещё в рамках путешествия по увлекательным одинаковым коридорам вам предложат какие-то фугасные, обычные, свето-шумовые, зажигательные, прости Господи банановые гранаты. Я ума не приложу, а зачем всё это? Нафига тут столько барахла, когда для прохождения нужен собственно автоматик и огнемётик :) Потеряв интерес к игре уже через пару часиков, всё-таки решила её не скипать и пройти до конца, так как она простая, линейная и не очень продолжительная. Такие занятости как гринд, исследование или поиск уникальных предметов тут просто отсутствуют. Закрыть пожелала некий гештальт! :) А так, не единой причины играть в эту поделку на мой взгляд нет. Хотите ностальгии - посмотрите кино лучше. Я бы даже не назвала проект ремастером, откровенно говоря. Diablo II: Resurrected или Command & Conquer Remastered Collection - это скорее ремастеры, в которые не стыдно поиграть при желании. А The Thing: Remastered не стоит вашего внимания. Никто никогда не вернётся в 2002 год. Всем добра :)

If you're a fan of the movie definitely give this a go. A very fun game from start to finish. The old graphical style gives it charm

Pretty cool game, I like how it has some unique mechanics, like having to manage your team-members sanity, and having engineers fix electrical panels. If you are a fan of The Thing you should like this game, there is a bit of "fan service" in the game, which I found actually pretty cool. It can get pretty intense at times. It is a bit janky by todays standards, but its still fun to play, and has some cool monsters. If you like The Thing give it a try. Tho I would try to find it on sale, cause I do feel its slightly expensive for what it is, only being a 5-6 hour game. But im down to support Night Dive they been killing it the past few years.

MacReady is alive AND helps kill the boss. 5/5 Nips

The Thing: Remastered is one of those rare cases where going back to a cult classic actually feels worth it, especially if you played the original PS2 version like I did. What really stands out immediately is how well the atmosphere holds up. That constant paranoia, never knowing who’s infected, never fully trusting your squad, it’s still one of the best implementations of “team horror” in gaming. Even in a remaster, that core tension hasn’t been lost at all, and in some ways it feels even sharper with the cleaner presentation. The squad system is still the game’s biggest strength. Your teammates aren’t just background support, they feel like fragile, unpredictable assets you have to manage carefully. Keeping morale up, deciding who to trust, and dealing with infections turning everything upside down creates some genuinely memorable moments that modern games still struggle to replicate. Combat is simple but effective. It’s not trying to be a precision shooter, it’s more about survival under pressure. Ammo management, positioning, and panic all matter in a way that fits the tone perfectly. When things go wrong, they *really* go wrong, and that unpredictability is part of the fun. The remaster also does a good job of modernizing the visuals without stripping away the grime and isolation of the original. It still feels cold, claustrophobic, and hostile, which is exactly what you want from a game based on "The Thing". Of course, it’s not flawless. Some mechanics feel dated, AI can still be inconsistent, and there are moments where the pacing drifts a bit. But honestly, those rough edges also add to its identity as a survival horror shooter from its era. For me, The Thing: Remastered succeeds because it preserves what made the original special instead of trying to reinvent it. That paranoia-driven gameplay loop is still incredibly unique, and it holds up surprisingly well even today. If you enjoyed the PS2 version, this is an easy recommendation. It’s still one of the most interesting squad-based horror games ever made.

okish game. alot more shooting then anticipated

I loved the various movies. I loved this game.