Thing Thing 3 - The usual "guns, blood, and more guns" rule applies here in a shooter that isn't for the faint of heart
How it Plays
How it Plays
The gameplay itself is based on the side-scrolling system that shoot-em-ups often employ, though the particular variables and features of Thing Thing 3 are somewhat above average. The double-jump, for example, is a nifty new feature that lets you somersault briskly into the air and comes in handy when enemies start to pile up. The run/dash (press Shift or Control) feature also allows you to flee rapidly instead of just sidling casually away from the barrage of bullets flying towards you when multiple enemies packing ferocious heat start to accumulate on screen (which happens extremely often). The game is based on classic WASD/movement arrow controls, with the aiming and shooting made possible with the mouse.
One delightful feature is that your enemies’ bullet-shredded corpses linger on screen, adding to the goriness of the action and pleasing every true fan of the shoot-em-up in existence. Your health and ammo quantities are displayed on screen as they would be in any shoot-em-up, and you can cycle through the zillion and one guns that heroes in shooting games are somehow able to carry. In all, the format of the gameplay is pretty standard, but its execution is smooth and effective in both a functional and visual sense.
Show me the Gunny
I’ll cut the pretence at this stage; as with all games that involve guns, all I’m really interested in is the range of firearms available to me throughout the game, and Thing Thing 3 does not disappoint in this respect. Your starting pistol pretty much has the power of an actual starting pistol used to signify the commencement of track-racing events, but you soon learn that your arsenal won’t stay limited for long. Assault rifles and shotguns are on the menu, such as the FN FAL and the Jackhammer (the latter featuring heavily in my building-assault procedure in Max Payne), and even the heavy-duty M249 SAW machine gun. The only thing more appealing than the selection of firearms is the dual-wielding function which allows you to shoot in both directions by pressing F if you have double guns.
Storyline and Design
The storyline is a classic Bourne-style offering, with you as the main character allegedly being a bio-weapon developed by a company called Systems Corp (probably a division of “Exaggeratedly-Evil Faceless Corporation Ltd) who must fight his way through thousands of stock baddies that seem to continuously regenerate just off the side of the screen (sometimes in annoying abundance) in order to get to the bottom of this whole sordid affair.
The sleek design of the main title screen and the fact that you are able to customise the appearance of character from the get-go instantly made me think that quality is this game’s middle name (though I already brought a bias to this game due to the fact that I am male and the game contains guns and shooting). Before you embark on your bullet-bathed adventure, you have a say in our protagonist’s wardrobe choices by scrolling through different outfits, hairstyles, and footwear in order to make the hero look how you want him to look throughout the adventure. The game in general possesses a pleasing visual style that doesn’t quite push the boundaries of flash animation, but is very slick nonetheless and looks a little like the gameplay of Max Payne after being dipped in a bucket of flash.
Max Pain
Thing Thing 3 is a shooting game that floats well above average in the waters of shoot-em-ups. Though the mouse-controlled aiming system can get a little fiddly when changing directions, the gameplay is solid and the storyline is silly in all the right ways. Another success from Diseased Productions