Immensely popular franchises and IPs hold their longevity in a number of different ways depending on the genre and generation wherein they are released. Some may have garnered instantaneous success and went on to release many more sequels, while some may have released to a poor critical reception and only years later found a cult following to reinvigorate it with new audiences. In terms of how this success translates to games, let alone spinoffs or sequels in other media, it is usually through the persistence of an IP as a reliable brand.
In some cases, games have a greater opportunity to excel if they have the name of an existing IP, simply due to the fact that more gamers may know the franchise already. Movie adaptations of games are not the most hotly anticipated titles in modern gaming, but there has been a recent renaissance of 80s classics having new IP entries. Some have been liked more than others, but they may still have a following due to the dedication fans have to their original franchises. However, the one franchise that would arguably deserve a modern gaming revival the most is John Carpenter’s The Thing.
70s and 80s IPs Continue Gestating in 2022 and Beyond
Aliens, Evil Dead, RoboCop, and Terminator are all 80s franchises that went on to either have sequels, remakes, or games that adapt the movie directly or employ its iconography with the license. For example, the Aliens franchise has been prolific in games since its inception, but most recently its iconography has been wielded in Alien: Isolation, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Aliens: Dark Descent, and another newly announced and presently untitled Aliens game from 20th Century Games.
Evil Dead: The Game has renewed interest in the Bruce Campbell-led property as another addition to the asymmetrical horror genre. Evil Dead: The Game is dedicated to accurate iconography in its characters and atmosphere, which is as bizarrely comical and tense as the films and series that the game is explicitly tied to. Fans are also now able to explore Castle Kandar in Evil Dead: The Game’s latest DLC update.
Of course, Evil Dead: The Game follows other classic movie IPs in the asymmetrical horror genre, such as the now sunsetted Friday the 13th: The Game. Dead by Daylight revels in the licensing it is able to procure that allows it to feature crossover characters from other beloved franchises, some of them being from 70s and 80s classics as well.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s franchise started in the 70s, for instance. But Leatherface’s addition as a killer character in Dead by Daylight precedes the cannibal’s upcoming appearance in the asymmetrical horror The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, slated to release sometime next year with its own IP renewal.
RoboCop and Terminator are also receiving new IP installments in the future as well, but The Thing’s IP has seemingly been abandoned since Computer Artworks’ third-person shooter. Computer Artworks’ The Thing, which served as a spiritual sequel to the 1982 film, featured close collaboration with Carpenter, who even lent his voice and likeness to character Dr. Shaun Faraday.
The Thing Deserves to Dethrone Among Us as the Original Social Deduction Horror
The Thing has since gone on to inspire other games, the most notable of which being Innersloth’s Among Us. Interestingly, Among Us had late success in what would otherwise seem like an overnight fluke. It was not until around two years after its release that Among Us received the popularity and fan base through Twitch that it did. In its present state, the gameplay enacted by all players in Among Us’ social deduction echoes The Thing’s principle premise, where characters surviving in a remote and secluded environment must work together to find an impostor among them that assumes an unsuspecting guise while intending to kill them.
Among Us clearly takes a much more humorous and lighthearted approach to The Things’ premise, and how players interact with one another to deduce who the imposter is throughout each game is where Among Us hits its stride. But while Among Us’ simple crewmate design and emphasis on player interaction has yielded a gigantic fan base, it would be incredible to see The Thing have a gaming revival similar to other classic 80s IPs with its own multiplayer social deduction game.
The Thing Would Fit in Well with Modern Gaming’s Resurgence in Sci-fi Body Horror
Body horror has always been a popular subgenre, and while it has certainly been used in games before, it is seeing another renewed trend in modern gaming - particularly through remakes or new IPs in science-fiction. For instance, Dead Space is perhaps the most beloved and nostalgic science-fiction body horror game, and it is receiving a completely overhauled remake that launches this January.
Dead Space’s grisly dismemberment and horrific necromorphs viscerally emanate body horror, which will surely be echoed in The Callisto Protocol, a new science-fiction survival-horror IP from Glen Schofield. Further, Resident Evil 4 is receiving its own remake a month after Dead Space’s remake, and if it intends to retain Ganados sprouting Plagas after decapitation and Father Bitores Mendez, then body horror will surely be emphasized in the remake as well.
Indeed, The Thing would be able to take advantage of current-gen capabilities for graphical fidelity in a restricted environment in Antarctica, with flickering lights poorly illuminating narrow corridors and the like. Gameplay could be as simple as Among Us’ social deduction, where players accomplish tasks while the imposter player attempts to sneakily dispatch them one-by-one. Otherwise, dedicated combat could be implemented, with players able to attack the parasitic alien between its host assimilation. Fidelity in a third-person multiplayer game could make encounters with other players alarmingly tense, as it would be unknown whether the person they are talking to has secretly become the newest host.
Perhaps a feature could be added where the player’s avatar could surrender blood to a Petri dish of uncontaminated blood in order to assuage other players with evidence of their ephemeral innocence. No matter how its gameplay is designed, there are infinite possibilities for how gameplay could look, and The Thing more than deserves to have its own place among other 70s and 80s classics that have been constantly reinvigorated through games.