IGN Gives PS2 'The Thing' a 7.9 (1 Viewer)

[Lou Sytsma]

Anyone pick this up yet?

Talking about The Thing.

 

[BrianB]

PS2??

 

[ChristopherS]

I just got one. I'd give it a solid 8.5!
Chris

 

[Adam Tyner]

I believe he's referring to "The Thing", but...I could be wrong...

 

[Paul Richardson]

It took them long enough to review Sony's latest console, don't you think?

 

[NickSo]

yeah, i was confused by this post too

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Doh - sorry yes I meant The Thing - never type in a hurry.

 

[Romier S]

Actually they gave the game an 8.3. Looks to be pretty damn solid. Definitely have to pick it up since Im a fan of the movie.

 

[Andre F]

Great movie! Hopefully the game holds up. 8.3 is not a bad score at all.

 

[JohnE]

Yeah, I"ll be picking this one up regardless of any bad reviews it gets. Fortunately it seems to be gettting some good early word of mouth. I can't wait.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Fixed the thread title.

Dan

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Thanks Dan!

 

[Eric Bass]

Picked it up and went at it for a good couple of hours last night. It was going pretty well until my injured hero ventured too far from camp and wound up freezing to death before making it back.

First Impressions:

I definately give it high marks at this point, though a lot of that could be for the subject matter. I figured the game succeeded when the first body I saw I didn't trust for a second and the first survivor I ran into I wanted to shoot in the head immediately.

Trust is a tough thing to come by these days....

Unfortunately I had to give him a gun just so he'd come with me, and since I couldn't repair things the way he could, I needed his help.

The lighting is fantastic and I found myself popping flares constantly out of paranoia. I wish they auto-aim followed more on the lines of Res Evil and GTA3 rather than R1 switching you to 1st person mode (In my opinion first person is like real time, way way overdone). But in any case, you can simply fire without going to 1st person and you will target enemies automatically. You just can't hold out your weapon aimed at someone without firing.

The environment is great, you definately get the claustophobic and helpless feel since you can't stay outside very long. So basically you know the Thing is in there waiting for you, and outside is generally safe, but you constantly are forced back indoors due to the extreme weather. And the weather is very extreme, there are chains of lights which are sometimes the only way you have the slightest idea which way you are heading.

As for the AI, the only complaint I could offer was that my guys didn't always have the sense to come inside. If you run into a room you have to move in far enough for them to follow, it seems they only recognize proximity. So they'll stand outside and freeze to death if you're not careful. On the plus side I didn't see anyone have trouble navigating the world so that's a plus. Though one of the people I hooked up with dissapeared for a few minutes at one point. Either the A.I. got confused for a bit or...well let's just say I'll be watching him pretty close from now on.

Finally, since this is getting long and I hardly consider it a good review since I did only play it for a few hours, if I have one gripe it'd have to be the plot so far. The characters are ok, but they talk rather juvenile and silly at times..not that every game doesn't have that (I'm thinking cut scenes in GTA 3). That and every now and then when a part of a mission is over and the screen cuts away, someone laughs at the camera. I'm guessing there is some evil government guy out there plotting against me as I've heard rumors of gov agents showing up later. That's fine, kind of a Aliens type of deal with the company trying to get a hold of a bio weapon, but the constant Muah ha ha into the camera gets kind of silly at detracts from the overall mood. In any case, those are minor annoyances and hardly something I'm worried about.

I'll post again after I've spent more time with the game, so far though..I have no regrets about forking over my hard earned $$ for this one.

 

[Tino]

Sounds great. Can't wait to get my hands on the inevitably better XBOX version. That's not a knock against the PS2, just my opinion since every XBOX version of a PS2 game has looked and played better on the BOX. Not to mention the DD5.1 sound.

 

[Matt Birchall]

I wouldn't be surprised if some big chain store had a deal next week, where if you buy the PS2 version of The Thing, you can buy the Thing DVD for maybe $4.99 or somethin'. . .
Probably wouldn't be a bad deal, if you were planning to get the game, but didn't yet have the DVD.

 

[Joel Mack]

I wouldn't be surprised if some big chain store had a deal next week, where if you buy the PS2 version of The Thing, you can buy the Thing DVD for maybe $4.99 or somethin'. . .

Electronics Boutique already offered such a deal. It was a "Buy the game, get the DVD, and an action figure free"... Sadly, it came to an end when the PS2 version came out.

 

[Joel Mack]

Looks like the Xbox version got bumped up a week, too. Now shipping 9/3 instead of 9/10... Nice...

 

[Seth Paxton]

I was totally clueless to this coming out, or maybe had heard but forgotten is more likely.
Anyway, saw the commercial the other day and came in here to see what people are saying. I just picked up Madden 2003 so I'm playing the hell out of that right now (enjoying the new game modes like Mini-Camp).
And classes just started too, the worst time to pick up a game like this.....but how can I not.

 

[Romier S]

I just picked this up tonight. I have some very simple things to say.

If you are a fan survival horror games. Go buy this game. It is anything but a Resident Evil clone. The play mechanics are much more interesting and it makes a name for itself rather quickly.

Secondly and this one is important. If you are even the most remote fan of John Carpenters The Thing you should, no scratch that, you must own this. It captures the spirit of the movie perfectly and manages to maintain the same intrigue and tension right from the start.

I'll probably trade the PS2 version of the game in once the Xbox version is released (480p and 5.1 sound and some minor graphics enhancements). Being such a fan of the movie I didn't want to wait for the box version though....

 

[Dan Brecher]

A good movie to game tie in? I'm speechless. Think I'll slap this on my X-Box radar screen, could make good use of 5.1 which could rate a 10 on my funk-o-meter.
Sept 20th for the UK X-box version...
Dan