The Thing: Remastered Fixes Major Issue from Original Game, Developer Confirms (EXCLUSIVE)

When players step back into the shoes of Captain J.F. Blake for Nightdive Studios' forthcoming remaster of The Thing video game from 2002, they can rest assured that one of the most glaring issues from the original PlayStation 2 title will not be present.

SYFY WIRE can exclusively confirm that The Thing: Remastered (an official release date is still unknown) features a welcome patch of the once-finicky infection system, wherein NPCs would be revealed as alien monstrosities, even if they successfully passed a blood test.

Remaster of The Thing video game (2002) fixes major issue from original title

The Thing: Remastered Photo: Nightdive Studios

"Scripted burst-outs of previously uninfected NPCs were one of the biggest complaints in the original games," says Mark Atkinson, director and programmer on the original game, who advised on the Nightdive overhaul. "In The Thing: Remastered, we removed them entirely and instead make some NPCs more prone to infection, and if they still survive, they are so traumatized they cower down and ‘crack up’."

"The infection system was implemented and available in the original game, but there were a few places where squadmates would become infected and burst-out for no reason, which players really disliked," adds Nightdive software engineer Josh Dowell. "We removed those, so now squad mates may only become infected by direct contact with a Thing beast."

Chatting with us over the summer, Cumron "Ron" Ashtiani (one of the lead artists on the 2002 game, who also advised on the remaster) plainly stated that Nightdive hoped to solve the much-maligned infection system. At the time of our conversation, however, the developer had yet to figure out a concrete solution. "At the minute, we don't know how far we're gonna go with it, because there's, I don't know, four or five different solutions to it — ranging from quite simple to quite involved," Ashtiani teased. "This morning, on our Discord channel, the guys were [going] back and forth about the various solutions for that."

With over 1,500 code changes and 2,000 art and level improvements, The Thing: Remastered could almost be considered a brand-new game. In addition to the removal of scripted infection, this version also lowers the insanely high difficultly level of its 2002 predecessor by adding more health and ammo packs — as well as manual save points, autosaves, skill-based boss fights, and a more forgiving hit points system — along the way.

Moreover, it features previously unseen content, including creature assets designed by Siggy Galaen, revised or recreated cut scenes, and a number of environmental reference points that better align the game with the beloved Carpenter film (now available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment ). As fans know, Carpenter's approved likeness (not his voice) appears in the adventure, which serves as a direct sequel to the 1982 cult classic. "It's a lot of fun and I'm happy to have my visage in it," the director told SYFY WIRE when we spoke to him over the phone back in 2022.

Check out some gameplay footage from The Thing video game remaster

Craving some extra Antarctic paranoia? John Carpenter's The Thing is now available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment alongside the 2011 prequel and 1951's The Thing from Another World.