XBOX Review: The Thing (2002)

Unfortunately, The Thing is more like a subpar Freedom Fighters than a truly engaging "sequel" to the 1982 film. It has the requisite squad tactics and some neat ideas governing emotional responses from your teammates, but those ideas are poorly realized and unfulfilled, and in some cases downright misleading.

The Thing is somewhere between a sequel and a loose remake of its parent film, set sometime after those events but essentially telling a remarkably similar story, at least at first. An alien race has surfaced in an Antarctic military research base, with the alien infection often taking the form of your human allies. As you investigate what happened to your colleagues, you must maintain their trust, in addition to watching your own back for lurking thing-creatures, which emerge out of your pals in a particularly gruesome fashion.

This is a fairly standard third-person action game with the exception of a neat trust/fear mechanic for your squad. It's neat-o in theory, anyway. Your squad (of up to four) get all a-scared by the alien creatures, as well as by gore, darkness, being alone, and so on. They'll hunker down and won't be helpful to you if they get too scared, so you settle them down by forking over firearms or health. You also never know when one of them will morph into A Thing, which you can check by drawing blood from them at any time. A cool idea, for sure, except that it doesn't work at all: a guy who tests positive for Human will turn around a minute later and reveal himself to be Thing the next, seemingly only because you're moving on to the next level and your squad can't carry over across the loading screen.

The Thing has more problems, unfortunately. Not only do the squad tactics barely function, but the enemy AI is generally incompetent and behaves strangely most of the time. The terrifying threat of aliens is rendered not so terrifying when they can barely navigate most doorways. Additionally, this game has some incredibly frustrating missions later on, only because the checkpoint and save systems are so poorly implemented. There's a whole lot of backtracking, repetition, and memorization depending on when you can find a save point, and how well you were doing when you found this save point.

In general, The Thing is not a good game. It's a decent quick fix for anyone desiring of a Freedom Fighters-style squad shooter, but it gets old quickly and does follow through on many of its promises.

Thrasher Presents: Thrasher's Top Ten Video Games, Part Three

Moments ago, Chicken Man picked the Hitman series in his own ongoing video game countdown. Within that piece he astutely highlighted the excellent soundtrack for those games, composed by the great Jesper Kyd. In keeping with that theme for today, I'd like to continue the trend by inducting another game scored by Kyd into the Thrasher Canon, so to speak.

But first, a quick review of the games I've selected thus far, and then on to today's pick:

Crazy Taxi (PS2)
NHLPA '93 (SNES)

Freedom Fighters (PS2)

And if I had to, was forced to, choose just one game from my list, if I was the kind of fellow to rank 'em, this just might be number one. No wonder I gave it the coveted Thrasher's Choice Award and unapologetically gushed over it in my review. Everything about this game amazes me. From the aforementioned soundtrack, to the level design, to the controls, to the atmosphere, to the simple/complex dynamics of the squad combat, this very well might be my all-time favorite. Unsurprisingly, the people over at Io Interactive (the same people who put out those top-notch Hitman games Chicken Man so understandably loves) know what they're doing.

Xbox 360 Review: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (2008)

Boy, I sure love Freedom Fighters for PS2 (it was, after all, winner of the coveted Thrasher's Choice prize at the first Code Redd Net Awards). That game, let me tell you, has atmosphere and style for days. Problem is, it's way too short, so while I light the candles and hope for a sequel, someday, I continue to search for other alternative history action shooters to keep me entertained. It's a niche market, to be sure, and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is certainly one of its worst entries. Problems arise immediately in terms of the actual alternative history proposed. Though pointing out the logical inconsistencies of such stories is relatively pointless and sometimes quite dubious, I expect, at the very least, that some effort is put into their narrative presentation. Turning Point begins with a quote from Winston Churchill, then asks, literally, what might have happened if Churchill had died prior to the end of WWII. The answer, of course, becomes obvious when the game proper begins and we witness the Nazi invasion of NYC. So Churchill kicks and suddenly the Nazi army has the nerve, not to mention the sheer military might, to invade and occupy America? Not bloody likely. And what about the rest of the Axis? What are they up to? Even putting this ridiculous premise aside, there is little effort made, in subsequent levels, not only to show the Nazi occupation and its effects, but the movements and membership of the Resistance are also vague. And you play as a member of that Resistance! Good luck figuring out your character's name sometime in that first hour of play. Worse, you often find yourself moving through missions, completing seemingly arbitrary tasks, while remaining totally unsure of their significance in the grand scheme of things. It's just busy work, in other words, and that should never be a part of simplistic entertainment like games. Further still, movement through these random assignments is hindered by some slippery controls and guns that rarely fire the way you want them to. True, the levels look pretty nice, and they find cool ways of incorporating famous landmarks into the destruction, but when your path is so limited and your missions so mundane, who cares? I recommend you take the money that would be required to rent this and spend it on a used copy of my beloved Freedom Fighters instead.

Code Redd Net Awards: Best PS2 Game

PS2 is certainly our favorite console, so it is only fitting that our Best PS2 Game award closes out the gaming prizes for today. And the nominees are...

Rise to Honor (2004)
Freedom Fighters (2003)
TimeSplitters 2 (2002)
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (2005)
Everything or Nothing (2004)

And the winner is...

TimeSplitters 2

Code Redd Net Awards: Thrasher's Choice (Game)

As before, our final two staff picks were chosen by their respective writer without a list of nominees.

In the category of Thrasher's Choice (Game), the winner is...

Freedom Fighters

PS2 Review: Freedom Fighters (2003)

To my mind, atmosphere counts for a lot in a game. I need to feel as if the world I temporarily inhabit has a certain authenticity -- you might say verisimilitude to avoid the trap of "realism" -- that immerses and unifies gameplay with setting. Freedom Fighters has more pure atmosphere and art direction than almost any other video game to date, from beautifully detailed environments to an outstanding orchestral score. And all that atmosphere serves to enhance one of the best tactical shooters on the PS2. Similar to my comments on Rise to Honor, I find that the story of Freedom Fighters is just the right kind of kitsch, combining equal parts Escape from New York and Red Dawn for a story about an alternative history in which New York is invaded and occupied by Soviets, and the revolution of New Yorkers against their oppressors. Yet, as in Rise to Honor, the derivative narrative and cheesy voice-acting meet the generic expectations of the aforementioned films. In terms of gameplay, Freedom Fighters is very much like the Hitman series crossed with Rainbow Six. Players fill up a "charisma" meter (representing the faith of your fellow revolutionaries in your leadership abilities) by completing mission objectives; more objectives completed means you can command a larger squad, starting with two and ultimately culminating with a militia of 12. Leading these soldiers into battle is surprisingly uncomplicated, avoiding the perpetual babysitting of other squad-based shooters. Players use one of three face buttons to command troops to follow, hold, or attack; pressing the button instructs one, holding the button instructs them all. Simple though it sounds, this system is nonetheless complex and precise. Completing missions with your burgeoning squad is a blast, especially when coupled with the amazing atmosphere I mentioned previously. Of particular note is the musical score, which plays ambiently throughout your clandestine operations and highlights the mechanical nature of the Soviet machine by mixing opera with synth. This score changes dynamically when tasks are completed; one common occurrence are the angelic voices that follow the destruction of helipads or bridges or the assassination of prominent Soviet leaders. Freedom Fighters does seem somewhat too short, however. Multiplayer does alleviate this to some degree, but its deathmatches are only truly entertaining when played by four players simultaneously, and this is further limited by the paltry selection of maps and customizable options. This, though, is simply icing on a delicious cake. Freedom Fighters is one of the most complete and compelling games available for the PS2. It gets my strongest recommendation.