Based on the iconic 1980s horror movie by John Carpenter, The Thing: The Boardgame is a semi co-operative hidden role game for up to 8 players. The alien can win by either infecting everyone, or boarding the chosen escape method, they’ve managed to get out into the world and spread! You must cooperate to survive – but who is really on your side? And if you reveal The Thing – are you ready to fight it? The road to victory is truly hard, but not impossible. Be careful though!

I have had countless games where seemingly innocent actions by players can raise eyebrows and motivations were often questioned. The Thing - The Boardgame is a game created and produced by Pendragon Game Studios. The English Edition is published and distributed by Ares Games. These miniatures represent the four stages of evolution of The Thing, with some iconic shapes seen in the movie, such as the Spider-Head or the Norris-Thing. Full disclosure: The Thing (1982) is my favorite horror movie, and I realize that I get a lot more out of this theme than other people. I have always loved the way the movie spreads fear and suspicion, and this has led me down a dark path of playing a lot of social deduction games.Gamer Network Limited, Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom, registered under company number 03882481. The Thing: Human miniatures expansion contains a set of eight highly detailed character miniatures, to use in place of the Characters standees you can find into the base game box. The Thing – The Boardgame is an intense game experience for 1-8 players based on the 1982 cult movie, mixing different mechanics to create an experience faithful to the mood of the original film. It’s a “hidden roles” game, in which one player is initially the Thing and the other players are humans. The purpose of the Thing is to infect others, to prevent the survivors from escaping from the base (which can happen in three different ways), or to try to escape with them by behaving as a human. Players must cooperate to survive – but who is really on their side? And if they reveal The Thing – are they ready to fight it? The road to victory is truly hard, but not impossible. I found the game had a few issues regarding the alien player. While its great to become the alien and surprise everyone, players who join forces with them at a later time don’t really have much to do other than help decide where the aliens strength tokens will be placed. Though the leader, weapons, and the revealed alien player were the mechanics our group placed at the center of our debates, there are still a lot of other small mechanics running around the game too. At the beginning of a round the Leader will roll a weather die and this will determine how much fuel the base consumes that round. This is a small amount of randomness to how often players have to spend their actions refueling the power systems in the base. There are dogs(?) that move around the base and if you are caught alone with one you may change to the alien team. While they can be caught to remove their risk, this requires some teamwork and trust between players.

Zatu has an excellent range of games and for most of them the best prices too. Delivery is always fast and I have never received a game in bad condition. 10/10 would recommend.The first hurdle for The Thing is that the rules are a bear to learn. The rulebook is laid out fairly well and does a serviceable job of communicating the game. However there are a lot of edge cases throughout the game. The rulebook does try to cover everything, but, as always, players will have more questions than the rulebook can answer. Even after a fair amount of time reviewing the rulebook, and having crawled through BGG; I still have a few questions left unanswered. A FAQ was released by the publisher that does clarify a lot of rules, but know that your first play will have some time spent answering questions that come up during the game. Our group’s main focus Battles work by the players involved in the mission by providing another card to determine how many dice can be rolled. You will be facing The Thing at three different levels of difficulty throughout the game as you make your way through different rooms within the base. A level one Thing requires you to roll three of a kind with three rolls. The goal of the game designers was to bring the same personal emotions and paranoia that the protagonists of the film experienced to the gaming table.

The moments when one player is convinced that another person is playing as a human, and they defend them to the hilt, only to then realise they were wrong, can be hilarious, tense and highly rewarding. Some parts of the game may feel a little tedious if players are repeating actions. Gameplay does ramp up once the suspicions rise but I get the impression some may find this build up and slow tension not to their liking.Set in a South Pole research station, the story details the invasion of an alien being, that has the ability to transform its appearance and starts to take over different people within the camp. The perfect theme for a hidden character game, so perhaps it was a mechanical choice more than a thematic one? Or maybe designer Joe Van Wetering is just a fan of the movie? Are We Alone?