The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 Review – with Tom Vasel

Can’t help but feel this game could stand to borrow yet another mechanic from Dead of Winter. The fact you HAVE to start the game with an infected seems totally broken, especially with smaller groups considering some of the mission player counts. If you over draw cards like in DOW, and leave the possibility that there are no infected at the beginning, I can’t help but feel that the tension would just go up. It sounds counterintuitive but I think it would be a major improvement.

It's interesting that it's called infection and there doesn't seem to be any kind of infection mechanic. It would have probabley added a lot.

This game is not very good.

This game is garbage with 4 to 5 players. The imitations have it way too easy.

The 4 to 5 player missions require 3 to 5 players, mostly 4, and require specific classes to participate. You are almost never able to refuse to bring someone even if you know they are an imitation.

The players own the equipment they get as captain. If the imitations get the rope they can either refuse to use it or waste it. The worst is if they get the flamethrower. You might as well just end the game at this point.

This game needs a way to veto a captain without need to find rope first.

Man, I couldn't agree more with this review. Its was fun, but the time I played, I was the "Imitation" and once I had to go "bad" to try to throw the game my direction, I was not part of any game decisions for over an hour and just sat there. The one time I was the captain, they tied me up and I didn't play. Cool theme and such, but as the bad guy, super hard…

Great theme. Garbage mechanics. Missed opportunity. Certainly never play the 6 player option. Poorly playtested.

When you pick your character be sure you get MacReady or Childs! <wink>

Why is Tom wearing a Blue Jays cap?

I think the imitations have more room to play than you might think. A lot of these skills transfer over here from the Battlestar Galactica game.

If you announce that you don't have the necessary cards for a mission, even when you do, you can convince other players to play their strong cards, and deplete their resources. On the other hand, you can play strong cards that are good for the mission when you know they aren't necessary – when other players announced they can already put in a lot and beat the mission. Then you can have a weak hand and not even lie about it, so you can't help the team on missions very effectively. Don't use things like Molotovs to help and don't admit when you have flashlights or extinguishers.

As captain, argue that you need to discard one of the mission cards to improve the chances of winning even if the chance is good – sometimes you flip a sabotage and fail the mission. If a sabotage requires you to discard specific cards, just pretend you don't have them. Or pretend that you do have them to pass a low-stakes mission and convince everyone else that you're good.

Always be on the lookout for tabletalk and behavior you can point out. Who went on what mission, which missions failed, that sort of thing. You can get a lot out of chatter, much like in Avalon. Of course this does rely on having a talkative group, the game rulebook even encourages this.

I wonder how this compares to Dark Moon

Whoa, tom looks so very different, love that blue jays hat but it threw me off not seeing the more wild Willy hats he normally wears. Good review tom, I was looking forward to this one…….wanted to be Mcready. Might still give it a whirl.

Am I the only one feeling like this is an obviously inferior game to Dead of Winter? I always say that DOW is “The Thing with Zombies”

I'm pretty disappointed about this game. I love The Thing, but a lot of people on BGG were saying the exact same thing as Tom just said, that the best way to win as the thing is just play straight the whole game so they don't suspect you, but that literally takes all the fun out of the social deduction, hidden role games. Too bad, I guess I will pass on this game…

I thought cards to complete missions are played secretly. Tom mentions people saying things like "I'll throw in a flashlight or an axe" etc.
Yes/no?

I reckon 'Who Goes there?' by Certifiable Studios coming out next year will be a better version of The Thing i reckon

Feel like you’d really need to put the thing music on while playing this

Somebody in this camp ain’t what he appears to be…

How Tom describes the game gives me the feeling that this game is actually broken. How can it be good if the "bad" guy plays straight the whole game and wins because he wasn't tested? That sort of beats the whole purpose of the game seems very much broken mechanism.
Also the miniatures are really bad looking. The one guy doesn't even have a hole between his hands!
This review reminds me of the Coaster Park review…

So, as fast as you can,
think of something to do!
You will have to get rid of
Thing One and Thing Two!

Vasel, "I just wish the imitation had more THINGS to do"…. LOL

Fun game but so/so with 4

I need this. Love the movie.

Love the Toronto Blue jays hat.

@3:30ish you don’t HAVE to fill the roles, but there are benefits if you do (something about discarding and drawing more cards, I can’t quite remember) ****EDIT*** if you don’t fill the rolls I think* the capt. can’t discard a card and draw before reveling hand