To no one’s surprise, given the obvious info from Nightdive earlier this week, cult classic squad-based survival horror shooter The Thing is getting a remaster – and it’ll be launching on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC later this year.
The Thing, developed by Computer Artworks and released in 2002, is a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror movie classic. It stars players as Captain Blake, a member of the United States Army Special Forces, who travels to the Antarctic outpost featured in the movie to find out what happened to his ill-fated research team.
The ensuing action is akin to a third-person shooter, with players receiving aid from terrified survivors they meet along the way as they face all sorts of burly, alien-inhabited monsters. And the game did just fine for itself at the time, managing to shift over 1 million copies – but the collapse of Computer Artworks meant that a planned sequel never came to fruition.
But now, in 2024, retro specialist Nightdive Studios has announced it’s working its magic on The Thing, promising improvements to character models, textures and animations, as well as updated lighting and atmospheric effects. All of this will run at up to 4K 120fps on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with achievements and trophies added too.
Results according to Nightdive Studios (which is still operating) Remaster of the cult-classic 3DO haunted house shooter Killing Time), is an “enigmatic and disgustingly detailed remaster that revives the thrilling game for a modern audience.”
The Thing: Remastered, as the spruce-up is officially known, doesn’t have a release date yet, but it is launching digitally for PC (via Steam and GOG), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch will launch later this year.
