The Thing – In the Blizzard, No One Can Hear You Scream [RETRO – 2002]

Blizzard’s first PC game was scary, but it wasn’t in the way you might think: For starters, there weren’t any zombies. Instead players were stalked by a very familiar type of creature that is still around today: Slender Man.
In this early entry in Blizzard’s catalog of games, Slendy (a thinly-veiled reference to slenders) could appear as anything from an old man sitting on a park bench to something out of your deepest nightmares with only one goal in mind: getting close enough to make contact so he can pull you into his world and feast on your soul.,
Although many people have said that the story itself is confusing or even nonsensical at times compared to its sequels – which maintain canon status – I find myself drawn deeply back into “The Thing” because it uses horror tropes well and has some interesting gameplay choices for puzzle solving like lockpicking. This review will not spoil much other than explaining how things work if you want more information about what makes The Thing good along with my thoughts on why retro gaming holds up better than most modern games these days..

The “in space nobody can hear you scream” is a horror movie released on June 12, 2002. The film was directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Carpenter.

RETRO — Three months after the events of the same-named John Carpenter horror film. For those who haven’t watched the 1982 film, the ‘Thing’ stated in the prologue is basically an extraterrestrial entity that enters the human body like a virus, then entirely assimilates it by detecting its components. Our Special Forces commandos are sent to a deserted Antarctic research site where they have had no communication in a long time. Our objective is to figure out what the heck occurred here and to save any survivors.

 

 

Of course, the most pressing concern for original film viewers is who or what survived the awful events. What made the picture so strange was that there was no way of knowing who had been infected by the cadaver until it abruptly morphed into one of the researchers, slaughtering the unlucky few who were around it like a crazy, vicious beast. We soon discover that the “Thing” has somehow survived after the game’s protagonist and his small team are sent to the base, which is in total ruins (though still too intact – I’m not sure why, for example, the Blair/Thing-built “spaceship” explodes in the film in an obvious and spectacular way, but it remains intact here…?). We’ll have to wait a long time to find out how he did it…

 

 

Hiking group

 

The game seems to be a standard survival horror game at first sight. Even yet, it immediately becomes clear that it has nothing in common with the Alone in the Dark/Resident Evil games’ simplicity. Whereas in other games, you are always in control of a single character, here you are in charge of a full team – albeit one that is commanded directly by Captain Blake, with the rest of the squad receiving just guns, ammo, and instructions. So, apart from Blake, we command three other sorts of units: the engineer, who fixes the many damaged, sparking switchboards, the doctor, who cures our broken (bleeding) bodies, and the soldier, who kills enemy canines.

The engineer is the most important character in the game since you can only advance if you “master” the electrical equipment in several locations, thus you must keep a close check on him. The doctor is also very valuable because he prevents us from wasting the few first-aid supplies that we have. Strangely enough, the physicians can’t repair themselves (although we can…) – a reasonable challenge from a gaming standpoint, but far from reality…

The troops’ casting is also not well thought out, since they are no better shooters than their more experienced peers. Because I seldom see such units in the final version, the developers must have sensed this while testing. Throughout the game, the members of your squad will change as the tale progresses.

Some will be unable to bear the tension and will shoot themselves in the head, some will go insane and huddle in one spot, dying rather than moving on, others will betray us or be murdered by the betrayers, and the majority will be infected by the alien virus and experience a “full change.” Even if one of our troops dies, we’ll meet another soldier on the following track, so it’s not a big deal. This “set-up” has a distinct Half-Life vibe to it, with the exception that the scientists in Half-Life at least spouted some type of text when they met, while our potential friends largely simply stand there, looking quietly ahead of them…

 

 

Who will the next “it” be?

 

In concept, the most terrifying aspect of The Thing is that we never know when one of us may change into a “Thing,” and our peers, of course, are unaware of our existence. When the previously tranquil person next to me morphed into a tentacled creature, growling and spewing, the initial half of the game gave me the chills. The trouble is that it occurs so often that you know it’ll happen eventually, and you’re simply irritated because you’ve lost another useful buddy.

Furthermore, the creators were obligated to attach this to particular areas due to the game’s structure (? ), thus if you were backfilling a previous task, for example, you knew where Joe the engineer would be green garbage in advance. Unfortunately, the notion of a blood test, which was popularized in the 1982 film, is also illogical. We are permitted to extract blood from our fellow beings, much as McReady in the movie, which, when destroyed, generates angry responses from the shape-shifting aliens, who quickly disclose their identity and descend on us.

That’s nice, and it made sense in the movie, but it’s a totally ill-conceived design choice in terms of gameplay since it’s OK as long as my partner is fighting with me – why should I expose him early if I’m not going to gain anything out of it? I’d already lost a crucial team member! The trust factor of our peers is another over-hyped and ultimately just sort-of-working aspect. The concept is that if we behave “irrationally,” don’t shoot the aliens hard enough, or don’t take their weapons away from them, we’ll lose “credibility” in their eyes, and they’ll begin to believe we’ve transformed into a “Thing.”

They remain obstinate mules with a mild amount of skepticism, refusing to follow us or perform our bidding, but they attack us if they believe we are sick. The creators had a great concept with this trust/distrust aspect, however it was regrettably executed in a clunky manner in the game. Most of the time, simply giving your friends guns and ammunition is enough to restore trust, which I did anyhow; I believe I found enough of them; why would I shrink? (When a buddy transforms into a hostile monster, they lose their weapons and ammunition, which you may recover once they’re killed.) Similarly, the fear component was utilized half-heartedly.

According to the trailers, it will also play a big part when our people start to freak out: they get more scared, start shooting at the first sight of danger, perhaps attack us, and so on. (An adrenaline injection, which may be given with a syringe, is the sole antidote in this scenario.) Well, I didn’t see any of this; all I observed was that my buddies began to scream when they saw the disfigured gory bodies strewn in different locations (“Oh God, we’ll never get out of here!”). “Christ, what are we going to do now?”) or just puked. Even so, when we moved away, they insisted everything was OK now and that they were doing well. The park and peaceful regions were separated into zones, and entering and exiting these zones was done on a frequent basis, making the story’s overall dread aspect absurd and unpleasant after a time.

It only occurred once: one of my traveling companions became so terrified that he refused to continue: he crouched down, shivering, and remained still. I returned his stares, but he remained still until he died peacefully and graciously… (I didn’t have an adrenaline ampoule with me, unfortunately.) I’m sure the creators were hoping to achieve something unique with all of this “psychology.” Sadly, they didn’t have the time/energy/skill to create artificial intelligence that was similar to, or even near to, Black and White.

 

 

The fearful color

 

Computer Artworks is most known for its bizarre visuals of extraterrestrial monsters, although other work was published in a magazine named after the team that was accessible in the United States for a brief while in 2000. The CA lads really reached their stride when it came to rendering monsters in The Thing: the animals were so filthy and terrible that even H.R. Giger admired them. Although there are just three monster varieties that need to be dissuaded from kissing hello, a little more variation would have been wonderful.

The scuttlers are the film’s recognizable mutants, with scurrying human heads and spider legs that can move through pipes or emerge from sewers to jump in our hero’s face. Their look varies somewhat, but you won’t notice it in the heat of combat. The walkers resemble people in appearance, but when they attack, you’ll soon forget that as they spew forth different horrible pieces of their twisted bodies. They seem lethargic at first, but they strike swiftly and give a Macarenko punch, so it’s a good idea to back up immediately and flamethrower them. Finally, the ruptures have absorbed the corpses of their unlucky victims, resulting in huge, filthy, shapeless mounds of flesh.

We may see the carcasses of dogs or elderly, stranded buddies peeking out of the slimy, alien bits, just like in the movie. The makers haven’t forgotten about people, either: the prominent characters’ face characteristics are nicely portrayed, and the motion is sufficient. The only thing that irritated me was the lack of diversity in the look of the characters that could be selected… The makers were also a touch frugal with the spectacular effects, presumably because they were focusing on the Xbox version and didn’t want to overdo it.

Although it is true that developing too many variants for Antarctic research sites is difficult, the development of the places is typically good, although not very diversified. Only the realization of the snowstorm is noteworthy: the sprinkling snow swirls in the wind in a lovely and realistic manner. The Thing’s visuals are good overall, but it’s not the game that makes you smile as you recall the time you blew all those gorgeous banknotes on your graphics card…

 

 

All hell breaks loose as demon aliens combine with nefarious government experiments.

 

Of course, most of you are undoubtedly curious in the game’s atmosphere. Is it as uncanny as Resident Evil, Blair Witch Project, or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Half-Life? Well, it’s very terrifying to be fumbling about in the dark, foggy blizzard, waiting for the sudden invasion of savage animals to tear you to bits in the first half of the game, when you’re only facing a few enemies.

Later on, though, the focus switches to a little boring firefight — in certain spots, you’ll even be required to partake in Serious Sam-style UFO murdering, which, to say the least, doesn’t suit the vibe of The Thing. The tale begins decently, but shortly devolves into the classic alien/half-life plot: of course, it’s the wicked government and military experimenting with monsters in order to produce perfect and docile killing robots, but then the monsters break out and wipe everyone out, blah blah blah… Why can’t you come up with anything more innovative, developers?

I’ve been upset by clumsy controls in other similar programs before, so I was concerned that this more intricate tactical action game would be ruined by them. I also thought it was a mistake that I was being deprived of more and more of my selections, since I didn’t care about their destiny in the end: when one of them turned, I just waived him off, pulled out the flamethrower, and burnt him to a lovely crisp. Fortunately, there were no major issues in this area: the well-designed tutorial made it simple to pick up everything fast.

Only the usage of the flamethrower is a little clumsy: our hero must have worked as a cleaner in the past since he prefers to roast the ground rather than the creatures. You need an inside view to aim the flamethrower exactly at the monster, making it impossible to flee from the enraged, blazing animals swiftly. The exterior perspective has also relieved you of the responsibility of precise aiming: it’s typically enough to face the thugs and aim, making the action aspect of the game a touch too simple in parts. It’s also likely owing to the console ‘companion’ version’s inability to gaze up and down in exterior view, which is essential for exploring the area. Oh, and while we’re on the topic, the game also lacks a map, which would have been useful since it’s easy to get lost in the dark.

 

 

 

The body has no shape.

 

I’m compelled to realize towards the conclusion of this piece that I’ve crushed poor The Thing to death. I had a lot of fun with it, and the spirit from the original picture is undeniably there (which is no coincidence, as John Carpenter himself was supposedly a consultant to the CA team.) Only because they attempted to include many wonderful concepts (team management, fear/confidence factor, etc.) did I get unsatisfied. However, the implementation was lacking, and the AI was underdeveloped.

-BadSector-(2002)

Pro:

+ Excellent ambience + Outstanding monster visuals + Numerous interesting concepts

Against:

–… but just a mediocre execution – the plot isn’t really compelling – Not frightening enough

---

Black Label Games is the publisher.

Computer Artworks is the creator of this game.

TPS is a style.

The film was released in 2002.

RETRO – Three months after the events of the same-named John Carpenter horror film. For those who haven’t watched the 1982 film, the ‘Thing’ stated in the prologue is basically an extraterrestrial entity that enters the human body like a virus, then entirely assimilates it by detecting its components. Our Special Forces commandos are sent to a deserted Antarctic research site where they have had no communication in a long time. Our goal is to figure out what the heck occurred here and save any survivors….

The Thing – No One Can Hear You Scream in the Blizzard [RETRO – 2002]

The Thing – No One Can Hear You Scream in the Blizzard [RETRO – 2002]

2022-01-23

Gergely Herpai (BadSector)

I’m compelled to realize towards the conclusion of this piece that I’ve crushed poor The Thing to death. I had a lot of fun with it, and the spirit from the original picture is undeniably there (which is no coincidence, as John Carpenter himself was supposedly a consultant to the CA team.) Only because they attempted to include many wonderful concepts (team management, fear/confidence factor, etc.) did I get unsatisfied. However, the implementation was lacking, and the AI was underdeveloped.

9 years of gaming experience

8 – Graphics

Story – 8

9 – Music/Audio

8 – Ambience

8.4

EXCELLENT

I’m compelled to realize towards the conclusion of this piece that I’ve crushed poor The Thing to death. I had a lot of fun with it, and the spirit from the original picture is undeniably there (which is no coincidence, as John Carpenter himself was supposedly a consultant to the CA team.) Only because they attempted to include many wonderful concepts (team management, fear/confidence factor, etc.) did I get unsatisfied. However, the implementation was lacking, and the AI was underdeveloped.

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The “no one lives forever” is a horror film that was released in 2002. The movie is about a group of scientists who are trying to communicate with an alien life form, but the creature kills them all. The “The Thing – In the Blizzard, No One Can Hear You Scream [RETRO – 2002]” is a game that was released in 2002 as well. It has been remastered for modern gaming consoles and computers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What movie Said In space no one can hear you scream?

A: The movie Alien

Why do people say in space no one can hear you scream?

A: In space no one can hear you scream because there is nothing to keep the sound waves from leaking out. This would lead to an endless echo chamber and make it impossible for anyone on earth or within a spacecraft in orbit around earth to hear what was happening.

Is Scream based off a true story?

A: Scream is a horror film that takes place in the fictional town of Woodsboro. It does not take inspiration from any true events, but instead focuses on the idea that if there was one event to start all these stories off it would be Halloween.

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