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Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Episodes 1 & 2: City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen Review for PC

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Episodes 1 & 2: City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen Review for PC

Season 5: The Missing Episodes

If there’s one thing I love more than video games, it’s Doctor Who. I’ve literally been watching the show since I was five, and have cried over multiple regenerations of the iconic Doctor. If you’ve never watched Doctor Who, it has a simple premise. The basic plot revolves around an alien (from the “Time Lord” race) who has a space ship that can travel in time. This alien (known only as The Doctor) has taken a particular shine to planet Earth, spends his days protecting it from other nefarious alien races, and picks up human companions to impress. Though the concept is relatively simple, Doctor Who has the distinction of being the longest-running sci-fi show in history and is a cultural phenomenon both in the UK and the US.

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Episodes 1 & 2: City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen screenshot

Although the latest season of Doctor Who wrapped up in the US two weeks ago, the first two episodes of the Doctor Who Adventure Games have been released to give fans a bit of a respite from the pain of having to wait until Christmas for the next television episode. These episodes, City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cyberman, play out like two-hour long versions of episodes that could have been easily inserted into season five. Both episodes are penned by writer Phil Ford (best known for the Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars) and capture the feel of this past season.

The first episode, City of Daleks, sees the Doctor and Amy Pond visiting 1964 London. After a few quips about musical acts in London (and whether John Lennon is more exciting than Ringo Starr), the Doctor and Amy leave the TARDIS and discover that London has been completely destroyed and occupied by the nefarious Daleks. In order to find out how the Daleks could achieve this, the Doctor and Amy visit the Daleks’ home planet of Skaro to find out what power the Daleks are using to rewrite history.

The gameplay in episode one is basic and involves a lot of running and hiding from Daleks. I found the game was most enjoyable when thought of as an interactive episode instead of a pure video game. There is quite a focus on story, and you can expect to see a cutscene at least every five or six minutes. As a Doctor Who fan, I found this to be enjoyable, but I can see how this might put off some gamers. Still, there is a lot of fun to be had, and you’ll be able to solve puzzles and do a lot of snake-like sneaking around, both on Earth and on Skaro. Actually, there were quite a few empty crates you could hide behind, so I’m wondering if someone at Sumo Digital was a Metal Gear Fan.

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Episodes 1 & 2: City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen screenshot

But even though City of Daleks’ emphasis on stealth plays a lot like the Metal Gear series, Blood of the Cybermen is more action-oriented. This game takes place in the present day, and begins like Alien vs. Predator, with a bad discovery in the Arctic Circle. The TARDIS receives an SOS call, and when they go to figure out who sent it, they find a man so terrified that he won’t even tell them where he is from (or what he is so scared of). But of course, as the name indicates, the Cybermen are behind this man’s fear, and have overtaken the scientific base where he was working. By the time the Doctor and Amy get to the base, there is only one survivor left.

I found the plot of the first episode to be more compelling than the second episode, but I found the gameplay in the second episode to be more satisfying. There was more action in the second half, and while you never directly engage the Cybermen (the Doctor has a reputation for pacifism), you are able to interact with more elements and can use devices around you to damage and destroy the Cybermen (though you generally play as Amy for these parts.).

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Episodes 1 & 2: City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen screenshot

When taken as a whole, these two games provide a lot of context for the story at large and fit nicely within the overall narrative of the fifth season. The cracks in time are present in both episodes, and the writing for the eleventh Doctor is spot on. Ford nailed the eleventh’s random rantings and occasional sarcasm. I felt like these could have been standalone episodes (in fact, I would go as far as to say I prefer City of the Daleks to this year’s Dalek episode, Victory of the Daleks”).

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games: Episodes 1 & 2: City of the Daleks and Blood of the Cybermen screenshot

This game looks good. The character models for both the Doctor and Amy are very detailed, and the animations are nice and quick. However, sometimes the character movements are awkward, especially when characters are walking around in the TARDIS (it looks like there is some skating happening). The environments in the game are good, although I have to give the graphical edge to City of the Daleks. Both the ruined London cityscape as well as the planet of Skaro look great and feature plenty of detail. While the environments in Blood of the Cybermen still look good, the arctic landscapes seem basic, and even the areas inside the arctic base seem bland.

Sound in the game, however, is top-notch throughout both episodes. The game’s soundtrack borrows liberally from the score of the TV series, and is nicely varied throughout the game. The characters are also fully voiced by the actors from the series (Matt Smith and Karen Gillan), and the voiceovers sound perfectly in character. I was definitely happy with the quality of the sound in the game, and their high production values keep these games feeling like “lost” episodes.

Overall, The Doctor Who Adventures: Episodes 1 and 2 are a joy to play. Although they are not that heavy with hard-and-fast gameplay, as vehicles for additional Doctor Who episodes, they work perfectly. Both episodes are available exclusively for download, priced at only $5 for both (they cannot be purchased separately). While I would have my reservations about paying more for a game that is so light on gameplay, $5 seems just about right, especially since you can count on spending about four to six hours playing these titles. Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is slated for two more entries in 2010, so here’s hoping the next two entries are just as fun as the first two!

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.6 Graphics
The character models are great but the animations suffer from being stiff and wooden. The environments in the second episode are a little basic. 4.1 Control
The simple point and click controls are easy and intuitive to use. 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Matt Smith and Karen Gillan do a great job reprising their roles for the game, and the music from the TV show is wonderfully implemented. 3.6 Play Value
Each episode will only take you about two hours to complete (three if you are looking for the collectibles), but $5 is an appropriate price, especially if you want to watch two more “episodes” from season 5. 3.8 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Collectibles: Scattered around the game environments are cards that build into a comprehensive collection of Dr Who characters.
  • Stealth and exploration: Run, crawl, and navigate the Doctor past enemies, traps, and obstacles of various kinds.
  • Puzzles: Embedded in each game are a number of puzzles which need to be solved to move the action on.

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