Boardgame: Joe Van Wetering: The Thing – Infection at Outpost 31 (Mondo Games, 2017)
The Thing is the topic of three separate boardgames, this one, Who Goes There? and The Thing: the Boardgame. If Infection at Outpost 31 is any indication, its a fruitful source of inspiration because it recreates the experience of John Carpenter’s film in a suitably entertaining fashion.
The players each control a member of a team sent from McMurdo to a Norwegian Antarctic base to figure out what happened. They have to explore the base in stages to find what they need, combat the alien infestation and eventually escape in a helicopter. The game is co-operative but with the twist that one or more of the characters may actually be aliens pretending to be human.
The Thing – Infection at Outpost 31 executes the concept cleanly and efficiently. There’s enough narrative framework to give it atmosphere but it still runs quite quickly, with a playthrough taking around an hour and a half.