10 Video Game Features Devs Deleted Because Of YOU
9. Burst-Outs (The Thing: Remastered)
Capturing the anxiety and claustrophobic terror of John Carpenter's The Thing in video game form can't have been easy, but the 2002 game adaptation did a decent job of it. There was even enough love for the game to warrant a remaster in 2024. However, when it came to recapturing this cult classic, the devs, Nightdive Studios, chose to delete one of the original's most detested features.
The Thing video game was a squad-based survival horror that attempted to capture the film's sense of paranoia by having members of your squad "burst out," turning into monsters after becoming infected by the titular creature. However, while the idea was solid, it was poor in practice, as these burst-outs were entirely randomised and would even occur among squad mates with negative blood tests. Rather than creating fear, it just led to frustration.
Fans of the game loudly lamented this faulty infection system, as revealed by the original game's co-director, Mark Atkinson, who called it "one of the biggest complaints" (via SyFy). Thus, Nightdive decided to eliminate the randomised burst-outs. Instead, they introduced a system that made NPCs more susceptible to infection. Is the remaster good overall? Well, not really, but it's nice to see the devs listening to fans.