Ares Games | The Thing: The Board Game | Horror Board Game | Ages 13+ | 1-8 Players | 60+ Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

The dozen playable characters include familiar faces from the film - notably Kurt Russell’s MacReady and Keith David’s Childs - with the map providing a top-down view of the entire outpost. True to the paranoia of the movie, players can equip themselves with weapons such as a flamethrower and dynamite, and even tie up suspected imitations and test their blood as they try to weed out the alien horrors among them - if even a single imitation makes it onto the helicopter, the players (and humanity) lose. At the end of each round if players have acquired the right components blood tests can be used to determine someone’s allegiance and could be used to force a player to reveal as an alien. However, the revealed alien may do more damage once they’re in the open. The humans can run out of food in the base and begin starving. When the base runs out of food, every player’s hand size is reduced by one, but players didn’t seem too hampered by this limitation. The power can fail and create darkness. In the dark, players must randomly turn in their action cards the leader rather than choosing. This also didn’t feel debilitating. Eventually in several games we ended up being both starving and in darkness, and yet the humans soldiered on without seeing too much change. I did stop making fun of Norris as his special power is to have a flashlight. I’m sorry Norris, your character power is much better than I originally thought. Thankfully, there’s a long-standing genre of board games they can pull from that’s engineered to encourage gameplay that mimics what you see in the 1982 film: the hidden traitor game. Games like Werewolf and Mafia popularized this type of game, and Infection at Outpost 31 applies The Thing’s wonderful atmosphere to the basic structure, adding in their own little twists on the genre. Thematically, I can now see what encouraged the designer of this game to choose this film and specifically this location for a game like this. The sense of isolation adds to the game. There is no help coming, and you need to get out to survive. It works perfectly with a hidden character game and helps develop the sense of uncertainty in every decision, and ultimately, the fun the game brings to the table.

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! Keeping the base operational feels true to the progression of the film. Working together to keep the heat and the lights on, while trying to figure out the motivations of any suspicious characters is one of the highlights of this game. 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. If it’s obvious when players are lying, the game becomes a bit of a process. Simply running through the motions without any real tension or drama. However, if a player can really hide their true motivations and create some chaos, then this game can become truly epic. Unlike most games, the harder this game is to win, the better it is as an experience for those round the table.

The Thing is a semi co-operative game and this means that despite working together, some of you may have alternate agendas. 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. Usually, another player has been quietly setting up arguments and accusations. If they managed to creep their way onto the Helicopter to win the game for the Imitations, when everyone was convinced of their innocence… well, this is what hidden character games are all about and what games like this are made for. Now, let me tell you why you should let me use the armory - if I find a flamethrower I promise to use it responsibly... T he Thing - The Boardgame is an intense game experience for 1-8 players based on the 1982 cult movie directed by John Carpenter. It is a game that mixes different mechanics to create an experience that is as faithful as possible to that of the original film.

I love how this encourages co-operative gameplay and brings out table talk. You will be debating and at times, arguing over what to do as the situation grows more intense and the pressure rises. In addition to these elements, players also have to manage Outpost 31. On the map are the same rooms as seen in the film, and each of these rooms allows players to perform a different action. Human players have to feed themselves and keep the boiler and the generator on to avoid being in the cold and dark. The Thing will try to sabotage these places to make life difficult for humans...or not, trying to camouflage itself among the humans and infect them when the perfect opportunity presents itself. This expansion for The Thing – The Boardgame allows you to experience the events that happened at Thule Station, the Norwegian station where it all began! As for the 1982 version, the expansion lets you relive the tensest moments from the story, transporting you into the cinematic film! As I mentioned at the start of my review this is one of best thematic horror game experiences and a well crafted emulation of the themes of the movie.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. What I love here though is that each character has an ability balanced enough and thematic to their character. Clark is the dog handler so he can ignore the dogs ability to infect him. Nauls is the cook and can use fewer food tokens when managing the kitchen area. Having these abilities gave the game a lot more replay value for me and allowed for some fun combinations of characters. The core element of the game is based on the emulation properties of the Thing, which will hide its identity under a blanket of fake humanity, but with substantial differences in the way they interact with the game and with your feelings.

First of all we roll the blue weather dice and consult our chart to see the effects. Clearer skies mean the base uses less fuel and the rescue helicopter will move faster to the base. Bad weather means more fuel is consumed and the boiler room can break, meaning the humans can freeze to death. This can also cause the generator to break resulting in the base being plunged into darkness. The Thing is played over a series of rounds each consisting of 8 phases. The game can end in a number of ways. The humans can win if they manage to identify all alien threats and escape the outpost. I love how players can be elected to be the leader of the group. It can give you a great sense of duty and control over the game,. Deciding how to distribute the action cards to various locations while keeping an eye on where players are moving to. It’s even more fun if you are secretly an alien player. Watching everyone squabble and argue over why that player moved to a location or why they did something the last turn. Board game adaptations aren’t always the easiest to pull off, as they can’t rely on the same linear storytelling as something like a video game, but Infection at Outpost 31 pulls from existing board game tropes and wraps it in the movie’s signature brand of tension and body horror. The Thing – The Boardgame is a game created and produced by Pendragon Game Studios. The English Edition is distributed by Ares Games.

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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. In the 2011 film, as soon as they found out what’s going on, people’s behavior becomes more selfish, trying by all means to save their own lives. We therefore decided to try to include the possibility of a solitary escape, an element that will bring the level of distrust to the maximum! This also brings new mechanics, such as the ability to voluntarily sabotage vehicles even if you are human. Despite a few minor issues The Thing: The Board Game is an outstanding hidden role game. Totally immersive and thematic and one of the best interpretations of a movie into a board game I have ever played. The idea of drawing tokens from a bag to see if a dog infected you is scary but exciting as your role can suddenly switch. Downplaying the result and keeping your head down while you secretly changes roles feels like your acting out a role in front of your friends.

As a fan of the original movie I can say that this is a superb hidden role game and one of the most thematic and immersive experiences I have ever played. Playing Your Roles In The Thing If you manage to defeat The Thing in battle, you will move onto the second section, which increases your chance of being infected. More Blood sample cards are dealt out to all players as you open your crew up to a wider area of the base. This gives a second or third player the chance to become an imitation, making each decision for building a crew, mission and battle even harder. In the final third section when you defeat the Thing, then will move onto the final escape attempt on the helicopter. Table Talk The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 is a hidden identity game. You will relive John Carpenter's sci-fi cult classic in a race to discover who among the team has been infected by this deadly lifeform. Play as one of twelve characters as you lead a series of investigations through the facility, using supplies and equipment to clear the building. The tension mounts and paranoia ensues as you question who you can trust. It’s the ultimate race to save humanity! The Thing - The Boardgame is a game created and produced by Pendragon Game Studios. The English Edition is published and distributed by Ares Games. It’s a shame that governmental satires remain relevant with cyclical predictability. The Crazies as a concept is as relatable today as it was in 2010 or 1973. Eisner understands that Romero’s foundation doesn’t have to be altered, only the presentation. Proper remakes reinvent; they don’t rehash. Watching Romero’s and Eisner’s versions of The Crazies paints a complete red, white, and bruised picture of how the government works for itself, not the American people. That’s because they’re two halves of a conversation about broken systems, neither movie stepping on the other’s lines when telling their stories.

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Eisner nails the ruthless aesthetic of making a socio-political survival thriller in 2000s horror terms. There’s an unctuous malaise to 2010’s The Crazies that submerges audiences in a rural American nightmare. From start to finish, a sense of hopelessness keeps us on edge as David’s group marches towards their inevitable fates. Romero does well to represent the government as manipulative, incompetent fools who poison the country they’re meant to protect, which Eisner doesn’t need to do as heavily this time. Plenty happens between 1973 and 2010 that makes Romero’s assertions less and less fantastical, which lets Eisner lean into the utter inhumanity Ogen Marsh’s population endures as tax-paying collateral damage. I have had countless games where seemingly innocent actions by players can raise eyebrows and motivations were often questioned. The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 board game is based on a film originally made in 1951. It received high praise from critics and cinema goers alike. In 1982 it was remade with somewhat less enthusiasm coming from the public but has since gained quite the cult following from fans of suspense and horror films due to its creepy thrills. Infection at Outpost 31, the board game adaptation of John Carpenter’s cult horror movie The Thing, is making a return later this year. 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.