That a game was going to be based off this classic of a film had been kept pretty quiet until last years E3, where the wraps finally came off and an early alpha build of the game was demoed. Even after hearing about the demo at E3 we here at Gameplanet remained somewhat sceptical. The idea of having a squad that could have members that were Things simply biding their time was very attractive but the question was could the AI be pulled off convincingly enough to make it work? The answer is a resounding yes! This has to be some of the most impressive AI seen in recent computer gaming history.

The game is played from a third person perspective, similar to venerable adventure games like the original Tomb Raider. Movement is by a mix of mouse and keyboard with the mouse limited purely to left and right motion when not in first person mode. You can flip to the aforementioned mode and then can freely look about in a fashion similar to any first person shooter with one exception - your feet are firmly locked on the ground in one position. This limits the usefulness of first person mode in combat severely, making it more a liability than anything else. Fortunately auto-aiming makes the combat easily manageable in third person mode - anyone who has played Grand Theft Auto 3 or Mafia should be at home with the control scheme, although they will miss the jump command...

A scuttling head is coming!

Simply shooting till they drop works nicely for the easier enemies but in a fashion consistent with the movie, the larger enemies require burning to kill fully. While this is a nice touch it does make combat a bit frantic if you are the only team-member with a flame thrower. You can change the weapons a squad member uses but only while they trust you. Unsurprisingly, stealing all the big guns from them and giving them peashooters is a good recipe for people losing trust in you. Fail to give them a weapon at all and people get very fearful.

My aren't you a big one.

Besides being weapon carriers, your squad mates have dedicated roles of Engineer, Soldier and Medic. Each does fairly obvious things with the Medic being a prized member - if you can keep him alive. The Medic can heal everyone but himself so care must be taken to keep him going. Engineers are equally vital as they fix various junction boxes around the game which are required to either progress forward or gain access to more off beat areas where extra goodies can be found. Soldiers are much less vital and it isn't critical to keep them alive but they are the most effective with weapons - giving them the heavy artillery can be a very good idea.

Cameras feature heavily to help you solve puzzles.

Play consists of working your way through increasingly creepy locales and usually getting yourself in to various locations to find a missing piece of information, a keycard or person. Along the way you have to have the right people to repair machinery or find the right access code to let you progress. Cameras can be used that allow you to scout out regions before you visit them and occasionally glean a vital clue as to how to proceed. What separates it from other similar games in this genre is the trust/fear mechanism. Your squadmates aren't just blindly obeying you and they won't sacrifice themselves for you just because you order it.

The whole dynamic of the game shifts from just surviving to making sure your squad hangs together to let you all complete the mission. This means that if you want members to follow you then sharing the weaponry, medical supplies and participating in combat is important. Fail to do so and the party members might decide you are the problem as well and deal to you. Even better is that you can coerce a person to do something they don't want to by literally putting a gun to their head but the trust factor unsurprisingly drops dramatically if you have to do that. Complicating matters is the small problem that any one of them might be a Thing - just waiting until you are alone with them to then have a go at you. Even better the infection rate is dynamic with any member who has suffered damage in combat from a Thing standing a chance of becoming one. So knowing exactly who to trust with the heavier weaponry is a difficult and careful choice.