The Thing, is a staple of horror movies. It's been 20 years since the suspenseful, paranoid classic was remade, and now gamers can enjoy the thrill of wondering whether their comrades will, at any moment, transform into a grotesque monster. Computer Artworks has done an excellent job of recreating the oppressive atmosphere of The Thing in their new game called, oddly enough, The Thing.

The movie The Thing had decent special effects for the early 80's. While not technically up to speed with contemporary movie effects, the scenes where people turn into 'Things' are still some of the most stomach churning visuals out there. These scenes in the game are not nearly as impressive, usually just showing some simple splatter effects as the soldiers turn into monsters. It certainly doesn't inspire the same dumbfounding fear as the creatures in the movie. I probably could have overlooked this had the game been trying for a Teen rating. But since that would have been a pretty vain attempt with this game, they should have just gone all the way. The good news is that's really the only downside to any of the graphics. The rest of the game looks wonderful.

While many of the visuals are just 'good' and pretty mundane to talk about, the facial expressions and body language are definitely something worth talking about. Since a corner stone of the gameplay is about people's fear and suspicions, behavioral animations can go a long way in conveying a good sense of atmosphere. Things such as characters looking around a little faster than usual, jittering, and increased breathing are very expressive cues as to your teammates' current state of mind, aside from the icons used to indicate a change in behavior.

As far as sound and music go, everything looks, err sounds, good. The quality of the sound effects is good. Everything sounds pretty much exactly like it would in real life, which is what you'd want in a game that tries to be immersive. The music is fairly theatrical, staying mostly in the background until cut scenes start.

One of the greatest things about The Thing is it's unique gameplay. It has more in common with other mission based 3rd person shooters, such as Army Men, than it does with survival horror games like Resident Evil. The game is set off into separate stages and you just try to stay alive while you explore the level and complete a series of objectives. What really sets it apart is having to manage your teammates.

You can have up three teammates at any one time and each has a Fear and Trust level. Everything you do affects these. If you lead them into a room filled with bloody corpses, they are likely to get a tad scared; give them a weapon and they'll feel a little more in control. Accidentally shooting them will make them a tad skittish around you, while killing loads of Thing monsters will instill some trust. Of course, what if you are short on weapons and have to give one gun to another guy? Well, taking a weapon away hurts trust and fear, so you have to do some careful managing. And then, at the end of all this, you have to constantly wonder, 'Are any of my teammates infected?' If you aren't careful, you can be in the middle of a huge fight when one of your guys freaks out and starts shooting everywhere, another decides your a Thing and starts coming after you, and the third turns into a monster; not a good situation to be in. When you're not trying to open a door, find a research document, or burn a huge beast to a cinder, these are the kind of things you'll be thinking about.

Keeping yourself and your teammates alive is the name of the game here. Your supplies are also pretty limited, as usual. So the real difficulty is in getting through situations using as few items as possible. This is balanced out pretty well. Making you hesitant to use any items, while not making you play through an event two or three times before you can get through it without using just about everything you have. You'd likely only have real problems if you find yourself stranded with almost no items on hand. The learning curve is pretty generous, giving you a good bit of extra equipment near the beginning of the game. Most people won't have too much trouble, and hardcore gamers will have a stockpile of items for a while.

The game is divided up into independent stages. Usually your teammates will change from stage to stage. The control scheme is fairly complicated and cumbersome. The X, O, and square buttons are used to fire your weapons, interact with objects, use items etc. The Left Analog stick moves your character around, and the right is used to zoom in and out when using a sniper rifle or cameras. Direction buttons are used to cycle through your current weapons and items. The L1 button brings up your Weapon and Item inventory. The R1 is used for free-look. The L2 and R2 buttons are used to sidestep. L3 is used for crouching while R3 is used to Reload your weapon. Triangle brings up your teammate menu. Select brings up your Document and keys menu, and Start is for the pause menu. It takes some getting use to, but it works out all right in the end. You are also allowed to save during and between missions.

Unless you're squeamish about shooting and burning monsters alive (and a few people), The Thing should definitely offer you some entertainment. In the end it plays out something like a popularity contest, with guns.