The Thing

To make it short, yes. I picked up The Thing for the Xbox at my local Gamestop for only $4. A steal on any grounds. I first played the PS2 version a few years back and the atmosphere of a chilling station overrun with mutant beings brought me back to this version.

You are Blake, the leader of a squad sent in to investigate mysterious events at a desolate and snowy military base. As the leader of a squad you can well lead your followers. In a Sims-ish way your team members are very smart. If you need health, the medic will know to heal you without you telling him to. In the same way the engineer will also do his job, usually repairing a blown out fuse box, when you order him to. Your squad members can be either medics, soldiers, or engineers, each with their own respective job. While the friendly and enemy A.I. is usually smart they can tend to get stuck on the environment or just stand while bullets hit them.

Since there are alien mutant enemies everywhere you need some serious firepower. Don't expect to find it here. The Thing features average weapons like the shotgun, submachine gun, and a flame thrower. Speaking of flammable things, the only way to kill bigger mutants is to shoot them until their health is so low that you can whip out your flame thrower and roast them.

The game mainly compiles of you moving toward the next area, surviving, finding your lost squad members, and escaping from the corrupt government soldiers. At many times I got frustrated because of difficulty or having no ammo to shoot some stupid, annoying headcrap-esque aliens. The atmosphere of The Thing is very intense but the gameplay experience is bogged down by frustrating areas and sometimes bad camera angles. If you are looking for a cheap and worthwhile niche shooter, The Thing is for you.