One of the most grotesque films of all time has been brought back to life thanks to Black Label Games and Computer Artworks. The Thing is a gut-wrenching gore fest through an arctic research station in true horror-survival genre fashion. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story I strongly suggest renting the movie. It might be hands down the most disgusting violence I've ever seen. It is graphic and bloody and the game does its best to capture that magic.

In the movie a research station unearths an alien entity that was frozen in the ice for who knows how long. Somehow a virus is unleashed that can duplicate any living thing right down to the very clothes. The only way to kill these monstrosities is to burn them to smoldering ash. Trouble is the scientists never know who might be infected so the trust factor goes right out the window, and paranoia ensues.

The game takes place right where the movie left off. You've been sent in with a squad of no nonsense military types armed to the teeth to investigate the mayhem. You find out that someone blew the station to hell and soon after hideous piles of mutated human flesh and blood try to rip your head off your shoulders.

Sound like fun? Sure it does. Kill or be killed. It's a great concept for a game right? So its been done before, but the paranoia factor is what makes The Thing worth checking out. Since you're never quite sure of who has been infected you can't trust anyone. Your buddy might suddenly try to claw your face off.

You basically run around shooting and killing and burning everything that comes your way. Standard run and gun controls apply here. However there is no free look because the game was designed for console systems as well. This means you can not look up or down as PC gamers have grown accustomed to. The camera angle is fixed which actually lends to the claustrophobic feeling within the game. There were only a few times where I couldn't see properly because the camera was in a bad position so I can't complain.

Aiming your weapon can be a bit of a chore, but there are several choices in the main menu to tinker with that may or may not help you. You can have up to three members in your squad. There are three classes of soldiers each with a unique function you will need to progress through the game.

The engineer repairs damaged electrical equipment. The combat soldier is good to have around in a firefight, and the medic can heal the other squad members. The Thing tries to create a sense of paranoia within the squad just like the film. Each member reacts differently to everything in the environment. For instance if you pass a dead bleeding corpse one of your members might begin to crack. They might start shouting obscenities and shaking. At one point during the game one of my squad members bent over and started hurling his supper all over the place.

The control interface is overly complicated. When you look at the manual you might feel like ripping your arms off and beating yourself silly, but there is no need. After thirty minutes of running around the station you'll feel more familiar. However during an intense battle looking down to press the I button is like trying to read Latin in the dark.

Some of the killing gets pretty crazy especially when your squad is involved. You must first weaken the bloody flesh destroyers before switching to your fire stick so you can roast what's left. Jumping from weapon to weapon takes practice, but going through the inventory to get that medical kit or to find some grenades when all hell is breaking loose is a good way to get yourself dead.

The back spray from the blowtorch creates more damage than your enemies do. I think I toasted myself more times than not in the beginning. Once the shotgun became available I was ready to rock though.

Ammunition is plentiful which is a good thing because you need to give it out to your squad buddies. Giving them weapons is one way to get them to trust you and to help out. Getting the hang of all the different icons seems overwhelming at first, but quickly becomes irrelevant. I stopped paying attention to them. If it looked like a weapon I used it to kill. I also found it easier to keep tabs on my squad buddies through the inventory screen rather than deciphering the little icon bubbles. Besides there seemed to be two modes anyway, either sane or freaked out. The paranoia factor is there, but it isn't as big a factor to gameplay as I would have liked. Still, getting your squad to cooperate and trust you is an interesting feature that I've never seen before so we have to give points for that.

Now for several gripes that keep this game from being better. You must find the save points within each level. There aren't any quicksave options and there is a limited amount of save slots. Since there is plenty of firepower I never felt cornered and the fear element greatly diminished. The sound had its moments, when it worked. There is this weird heartbeat symptom that many players have experienced. Instead of hearing the cutscene dialogue there is just this loud heartbeat. This is disappointing and it disrupts the flow of the story. If you're running XP you probably won't be able to bump up the resolution higher than the standard 640.

The resolution issue bugged me because I have this smoking 3D card and a decent screen. The third bug is just kind of funny to me. Every time I exited the game my system would reboot. Okay maybe that isn't so funny, but there is a patch available to fix some of these problems. The patch wasn't easy to find on the official website. I had to drill down into the message boards to find it. Usually these things are plastered across a home page.

I'm sure all of the bugs will be ironed out shortly. Overall The Thing is a creepy horror romp with plenty of action and piles of gore. If you loved the movie than buying this game is a no brainer. I'd say it's definitely worth a look just keep in mind it is graphically violent and it may not be for the squeamish.

Gameplay: 8
The paranoia factor is cool, but doesn't impact the game as much as I would've liked. That aside there is plenty of violence and killing to keep you busy. Somehow the designers managed to keep a frozen white abyss interesting enough to play through.

Graphics: 8 
The models seemed kind of blocky and dated to me, but they weren't terrible. For those of you who are big fans of the movie, you will recognize quite a few locations and objects.

Sound: 7
Like I said before the sound kept cutting out on me. I would fire the shotgun and sometimes there was no sound. However when it did work it was well done. The freezing winds made my teeth clatter and the blood curdling screams from the creatures made me change my pants. Just kidding.

Difficulty: Medium
It isn't too hard to kill the baddies, but it is difficult to manipulate your items and manage to keep yourself and your squad mates alive all at the same time.

Concept: 7
Based on a film that was a remake of another film.

Overall: 8
The Thing has a few problems, but the good out way the bad. The violence is disturbing at times. The language may be shocking to some, but I've played through The Longest Journey. Bare in mind these soldiers enjoy cursing while they kill things.