Nightdive revives a cult 2002 survival horror with The Thing: Remastered

Retro specialist Nightdive Studios has announced that it’s working on a remaster of 2002 survival horror game The Thing.

The Thing: Remastered will feature improved character models, textures and animations, which have been hand-crafted by Nightdive.

It will also feature “advanced 3D rendering for updated lighting and atmospheric effects”, the studio says.

The remaster will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PS4, Xbox and PC (via Steam) later this year.

Originally released 22 years ago on PS2, Xbox and PC, The Thing video game is a sequel to the 1982 John Carpenter movie and takes place shortly after its events.

Players control Captain Blake, a US Army Special Forces captain who’s been sent to the Antarctic to find out what’s happened to the research team from the film.

While there, Blake finds numerous survivors, who team up with him to fight against the shape-shifting alien creature that’s infiltrated the outpost.

As in the film, however, the Thing can replicate the appearance of the humans it kills, meaning it’s up to the player to decide which of their teammates can be trusted and which are actually the Thing in disguise.

Since Blake is new to the survivors, he too is under suspicion, so the game features a fear/trust system. If Blake’s teammates lose trust in him (if he points his weapon at them for too long or takes their weapons or ammo, for example), they may believe he’s the Thing and start attacking him.

Earlier this week Nightdive also confirmed that it’s working on a remaster of horror comedy FPS Killing Time.

The game was originally released on the 3DO in 1995, before getting a PC release in 1996.

Nightdive Studios specialises in remastering retro games which are no longer easily playable on modern hardware.

Previous HD remasters released by Nightdive include the Turok trilogy, System Shock, Forsaken, Doom 64, Quake, Quake 2, Shadow Man, PowerSlave / Exhumed, Blade Runner and Rise of the Triad.