First announced in 2018, The Thing: The Board Game is an upcoming game that sees four to eight players attempting to survive on a desolate outpost in the middle of a frozen tundra. However, the harsh weather conditions and freezing cold are not the only things to be worried about. 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 game starts with each player being given a Blood Sample card. This will reveal their role in the game, to them alone, either that of a human or an imitation. There will be one imitation dealt at the start of the game to one of the players.

The Thing is a semi co-operative game and this means that despite working together, some of you may have alternate agendas. 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.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 - The Boardgame is a "hidden role" 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. The cards played by each chosen crew members will determine the number of dice that can be rolled per mission, to a maximum of six. If the result of the dice roll meets the requirement for the mission card, then the humans pass the mission and can reveal the chip that was in this room. Their search was successful. 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. The Thing: Alien miniatures expansion contains a set of four highly detailed character miniatures, to use in place of the Alien standees you can find into the base game box.

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: 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. 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 entire game is built on two T’s. Table talk and tension. With the right group, this game can be amazing. The accusations, counter accusations, and general arguing are hilarious. 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? 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. The tension as you all decide who to perform a blood test on and then waiting for them to reveal their role card is unmatched in any game I have played.

It's always an excellent service with brilliant products at a very competitive price - will use again!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. 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 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. The Thing – The Boardgame is a game created and produced by Pendragon Game Studios. The English Edition is distributed by Ares Games.