John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Factor ends with its few remaining characters in a determined spot. Confronted with an alien creature that may infect, assimilate, and emulate human our bodies, the survivors don’t know who amongst them may secretly be an alien, or whether or not their pyrrhic efforts have eradicated the an infection. They’re stranded within the Antarctic with their analysis base destroyed. Their sources are gone, there’s no significant shelter left, they’re freezing to demise, they usually can’t even belief one another sufficient to work collectively.
Appears like enjoyable, proper? Like one thing you possibly can’t wait to expertise for your self?
Very similar to 2022’s board recreation model of the traditional gang-war film The Warriors, Pendragon Game Studio’s board game The Thing goals to recreate a film’s plot and vibe for a set of gamers who take pleasure in a punishing problem and an oppressive state of affairs. Kickstarted in 2022 and now obtainable for retail buy for the primary time, the sport blends components from a wide range of acquainted board video games, however the pileup of components makes it surprisingly tough for characters to outlive. There are various methods to lose this recreation, and just a few pretty unlikely methods to win. Which means threading the needle and pulling off a victory feels significantly implausible — however in recreation after recreation, our playtesters failed early, died messily, and wound up deeply pissed off with The Factor.
![An early render of the base game of The Thing, which includes cardboard standees and loads of bits.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/f7eWIXIhSrKYvhyJJ-PblPNjN2A=/0x0:3000x1688/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x1688):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25381902/mockup_THING_standee_copy.jpg)
Picture: Pendragon Sport Studio
There are two main modes for the bottom recreation. Within the model for 4 to eight gamers, one participant begins as the only secret alien operating across the Antarctic analysis base, utilizing playing cards to covertly sabotage collaborative tasks (a dynamic acquainted from video games like The Resistance: Avalon and Secret Hitler) and infect the human scientists. One other model, for one to a few gamers, simplifies the motion, eliminating the traitor mechanic and changing it with a a lot less complicated cube mechanic. That makes it simpler to maneuver ahead rapidly, however this model of the sport may be even tougher to win.
First-time gamers ought to anticipate a steep studying curve. There are eight phases to every spherical of the sport, and in contrast to most equally difficult video games, The Factor doesn’t provide gamers with a card or information to assist them observe of what occurs when: The designated chief every spherical will get a section information, however that’s it. All of the motion choices — like getting ready meals within the kitchen, going to the med lab for DNA testing kits, fueling up the boiler room and {the electrical} room, and so forth — take some time to know as a result of there are such a lot of selections and completely different guidelines for every room. And as many earlier gamers famous after the Kickstarter-funded model landed, the rulebook is ambiguous and generally onerous to comply with.
As soon as gamers know the sport and have determined tips on how to deal with their guidelines questions, although, The Factor could be a brisk, tense, make-or-break expertise. Essentially the most ingenious a part of the sport is constructed round all these duties: There’s a intelligent stress between the dangers and incentives as you select whether or not to do them collectively or go it alone.
A number of gamers fixing the sabotaged radio room collectively, as an illustration, considerably quickens the method, making it extra seemingly that you simply’ll be capable of name for rescue. However each encounter with one other participant in the identical room makes it potential that you simply’ll get contaminated and assimilated by the alien. Even for those who survive a seemingly innocuous group challenge, each encounter with one other particular person strikes you up the “suspicion observe,” which makes your life extra difficult.
And it’s already loads difficult sufficient. The Factor is sort of comically stacked towards the gamers, who’ve extra essential duties every spherical than can presumably be achieved, even with eight gamers. Any duties you skip will hit you with penalties and setbacks, as the bottom breaks down and the alien an infection spreads unseen. The sport’s largest flaw, although, is the randomly decided and punishingly excessive failure charge for these duties. The sport hardly wants an infiltrating alien to lift the menace stage, since attempting to maintain the warmth and light-weight on and discover an escape route is a herculean process all by itself.
That’s the actually baffling factor about The Factor’s play design. The various survival-crucial duties that have to be accomplished recommend an extended, extra in-depth recreation wherein gamers combat a retreating battle towards the weather whereas gearing as much as combat the alien and piecing collectively details about who they’ll and may’t belief. It feels prefer it’s meant within the spirit of different long-play traitor-mechanic resource-management video games, like Battlestar Galactica or Shadows Over Camelot.
However in playtest after playtest with completely different teams of gamers attempting completely different methods and priorities, I not often noticed the survivors final lengthy sufficient to get significant details about one another’s secret identities. Just a few unhealthy card attracts or cube rolls could make the bottom collapse earlier than the alien contagion has even meaningfully unfold. The people’ one benefit is that in the event that they expose an alien, it’s not often a major menace, in comparison with the entropy taking on the bottom. Uncovered aliens are weak and have restricted choices, aside from hastening the sport’s development. Often, although, with a fortunate guess, an alien can boot one other participant from the sport totally, in a mechanic assured to anger some individuals.
The issue right here is that in secret-role video games, the stress normally comes from watching different individuals’s habits and attempting to suss out the traitor’s id. In The Factor, figuring out the contaminated is an absolute should for the endgame, the place the escaping people will immediately lose in the event that they rescue a secret alien or by chance abandon a fellow human. And but the human gamers have a ridiculously small probability of really detecting aliens as a result of there are such a lot of restrictions on their testing talents, from the excessive failure charge of exams to limits on who they’ll verify and what number of checks they’re allowed per spherical.
The punishment for getting it mistaken is draconian: You may successfully handle your sources for the entire recreation and nonetheless lose with a single mistaken guess about data the sport by no means allowed you to assemble. An growth, The Factor: Norwegian Outpost, which requires the bottom recreation to play, lets gamers equally approximate the motion of the 2011 prequel movie, unhelpfully additionally titled The Factor, and its ruleset is kinder on this one regard, a minimum of — in Norwegian Outpost, people can escape alone, with out having to avoid wasting everybody else to win.
The all-or-nothing stakes really feel applicable to the 1982 film, the place the human characters are up towards an unknown and always increasing menace in a deadly setting. Dwelling out a viciously unbalanced horror film isn’t essentially satisfying, although. The Factor feels prefer it’s designed just for individuals who need that actual expertise — the chance to check their wits towards an egregiously unbalanced state of affairs the place they’ve surprisingly little probability of profitable, and an intimidating variety of methods to die.