Concept Art From Sequel to 2002’s ‘The Thing’ Video Game Appears Online

2002’s The Thing was the glorious video game sequel to John Carpenter’s even-more-glorious film. Innovative for its time with the AI squad mechanics, we were going to be getting a sequel for the game from developer Computer Artworks before they sadly closed up shop. Concept artist Ron Ashtiani recently dropped a few sheets from the team’s art guide for the canned sequel on his ArtStation, which are as delightfully horrific as they are unfortunate.

The concept art doesn’t just consist of more alien designs. Ashtiani also describes a new mechanic involving the “Burstouts”, where the imitation would erupt from human foes very similar to what we saw in the 2011 prequel. The concept art also describes how the imitations would mimic members of your squad in operating machinery and using weapons. Only once you looked close enough would the jig be up.

It’s an outright shame that we never got to see this game come to fruition, as the admittedly janky aspects of the original game (those scripted transformations were a pain after you wasted a blood sample on your squad members) could have been ironed out. Hopefully Carpenter will approach another studio one day before it’s all said and done with another chance to give fans a proper send-off.

Credit: Ron Ashtiani