Video Game Review: Doctor Who The Adventure Games – City of the Daleks
Touted as the missing episodes from “Season Five”, the BBC has commissioned four interactive episodes of the legendary cult series, Doctor Who, to be released over the course of the year.
It’s a series that has made various video game appearances over the years, but has never seen a truly realized title release. Until now that is, and oddly, yet wonderfully, that title is free.
Partnering with Charles Cecil, the creator of the point-and-click classic, “Broken Sword”, and Sheffield based independent games development studio, Sumo, the first episode, “City of the Daleks”, was released last Saturday, with a Mac version coming on the 15th June.
Scripted and overseen by the writers and the producers of the current series; including the main man himself, Steven Moffat – not to mention with the likeness, painstakingly rotoscoped, of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan – it already sounds like a winner.
But how does the magic of the small screen translate to the even smaller computer screen?
Opening the “episode”, we see the Doctor talking about how 1963 is the year for music, and London at the time is the most happening place in the universe; but it’s not until they step out of the TARDIS in Trafalgar Square, that they find that in fact there’s nothing much happening in London at all as the city lies in ruins. They spot a woman – Sylvia – running, making her escape from a red, drone Dalek who proclaims that they will exterminate the last Human survivor of Earth.
Cue opening credits.
No, seriously, the game even has the opening credits. Though accurately rendered in the in-game engine, one can’t help but feel that it may have been more appropriate, cost and time efficient to use the televised one as an FMV.
The action resumes and it’s now that you take your first steps as the Time Lord. Controls are clunky, if straight forward, with movement heavily dependant on changing the camera to the direction you want to go, along with the standard keyboard “WASD” fair. Almost automatically your thumb hits the spacebar, thinking that it would produce a jump, but rather it brings up you four-slot inventory. While generally off putting at first, given about ten minutes and a few goes at evading Daleks, you soon fall into a rhythm and it becomes second nature.
With Amy in tow providing hints if you’re stuck as to how to progress, you try to make for Sylvia who’s hid in the Underground. This of course means navigating the rubble laden Square and staying away from the Daleks.
Stealth is an intrinsic element of Who, being the space-faring pacifist that he is, and the game quickly descends into a diluted “Metal Gear Solid” or “Splinter Cell”, but surprisingly doesn’t feel contrived.
When nearing a Dalek, the Doctor and Amy automatically crouch and it’s up to the player to keep them out of the Dalek’s line-of-sight; clearly displayed by a green cone before them. The other on-screen real estate during these sneaky moments is a triangle that displays your level of anonymity, in traffic-light fashion, which changes along with the Dalek’s coloured line-of-sight depending on whether you’ve been spotted or are about to be exterminated. This mechanic stays throughout the course of the game and is very much at its core, so you’ll be spending a fair amount of time crouched behind rocks and consoles waiting to make your move. Bear in mind that with Amy behind you, she mustn’t be caught either, so give yourself some breathing room, though this is rarely a problem.
Some of the LoS moments are laughable, as you’ll literally be running up alongside a Dalek to get past and they won’t see you. Granted they don’t have panoramic vision, and hey, maybe they can’t see crouched people for their new bulky exterior, but it does detract some from the level of fear that they should instill.
The set-pieces and gameplay are very reminiscent of the “Broken Sword” series, especially the third, 3D installment – with clickable prompts to enable actions or to inspect the environment; such as pushing crates, or sending a cab into the barricaded entrance to the Underground. Meeting up with Sylvia, you’re given an opportunity to direct the narrative by selecting choice dialogue a la the aforementioned title, though without the sway of altering the outcome.
It’s not long after that you’re introduced to another mechanic, which sees you completing a mini-game in similar vain to those from “Bioshock”, where you have to rewire a circuit board in order to turn the electricity off, allowing you safe passage to an exit. Simple enough, yet also requiring some thought, you have to drag and connect coloured wires to their matching sockets and plot their path as no two wires can touch. Later, two other mini-games are implemented – one where you have to move a component through an electrical maze, avoiding surges; and another where you have to match the correct Dalek cuneiform to the one on screen by selecting and rotating the right one before the next one appears.
They certainly help to break up the pace, and thankfully don’t take long as to completely remove you from the game-world as some in other titles have been known to do. At any rate, they’re a nice addition which help to reaffirm that you are the Doctor.
After escaping the Underground, it’s back to the TARDIS and off to Skaro – the home planet of the Daleks – where the next two Acts of the “episode” take place. The change of locales is night and day, and the Dalek city of Kaalann proving a much more visually appealing setting than the ruins of London.
With the changed timeline, Amy beings to fade away as the TARDIS’ once protection beings to wear thin. This sees the Doctor go it alone for a portion in search of materials for a bracelet-like device called a “Chronon Blocker” which stabilizes Amy’s existence for the time being. Amy soon returns the favor as you take control of her in the latter half, and scout for other Dalek tech while the Doctor attempts to reengineer a piece of kit to use against the pepper-pot-esque foes. Both sections play exactly the same, but cleverly thanks to the “Blocker” conveniently beginning to fail, Amy’s able to evade detection by timing her movements in conjunction with her fading in and out.
Between solo moments, the Doctor and Amy learn that the Daleks were able to rewrite time by utilizing the “Eye of Time” – a natural phenomena once housed on Gallifrey but since lost after the planets’ destruction. Through this, the Daleks plan to become the new masters of time, as you do. About to be offed, the Doctor and Amy jump through it and are returned to a time before the Daleks rebuilt their city on Skaro and brought the Eye back.
Towards the end, the Doctor and Amy split once again – Amy using her intermittency to put in place the constructed weapon that would blind the Daleks, setting it up for that much loved phrase, “MY VIS-ION IS IM-PAIRRRRRED” – while the Doctor gets ready to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge (just run) between Dalek fire, to get to the main console and use his Sonic Screwdriver to put a royal cog in their plans; and reverting the timeline back to what it was in the process.
With time restored, the Doctor and Amy watch from the TARDIS’ scanner as Sylvia stands in a red telephone box, going about her daily life; and roll end credits. Yes, there’s even end credits, too.
Production values are surprisingly quite high considering that the game’s being offer for free. Graphics wise, they’re on par with the late titles from the last generation of console gaming. At their highest setting, visuals are incredibly impressive, all things considered. Models are glossy and of similar quality to those of the Sims, though notably more realistic. Animation of the actors is spot on, once again thanks to the tirelessly rotoscoped captures.
Music is lifted from the series proper, with some sounds and scores copied from various episodes; but the sweet spot is the dialogue. It’s exactly what you’d expect to hear on TV, and is delivered with more of less the same conviction, though at times you can tell that perhaps this was a new experience for the lead actors. Despite that, the banter between them, which was recorded with both present in the studio, face-to-face, is flawless. Before venturing down into the Underground, Amy quips “When I said I wanted to meet The Beatles, I meant the band, not the bugs”, to which the Doctor replies “Well, you could stay up here and meet the Daleks, but they’re more heavy metal”.
The game also offers a whole host of collectibles which does go some way to offering some replay, though most of these pick-ups aren’t that hard to miss or come across in the first run-through. Among the finds are cards, broken down into five categories – Doctors, Companions, Enemies, Friends and Jelly Babies. Each one found, providing a brief fact on the subjects, which helps to fill in the shows’ extensive history for those not necessarily in the know, or act as a refresher or just a neat discovery. Add to that some historical information scattered around the London environments, such as some notes on Nelson’s Column, and the iconic Hackney Carriages to which are the model of the famous London Black Cabs; and you’ve got a partial history lesson – which in doubt plays to the younger audience, proving that gaming can be educational.
Offering all-in-all about an hours worth of gameplay; coupled with the episode format; and it’s very consistent and faithful virtual outing for the Doctor and Amy. It’s clear that this model is going to be by and large repeated for the next installments, but here’s to hoping that these other “episodes” aren’t just re-skinned, rehashes of this fine first adventure.
Extensive IP checks prevent the games from being played outside of the UK, so sadly, the wondrous voodoo that proxy servers so oft provide just won’t shine here. Though, rest assured, they are working at arranging for “other sites to offer them”, most probably the BBC America site and such network sites in other countries.
“City of the Daleks” is free and, along with the future releases, can be downloaded from the official Doctor Who: The Adventure Games page for those so inclined Brits.
Affiliates
Pingback: Geek News: Who Adventure Games for US
Pingback: Geek Life » Blog Archive » Video Game Review: Doctor Who The Adventure Games – Blood of the Cybermen
Pingback: Geek Life » Blog Archive » Video Game Review: Doctor Who The Adventure Game – TARDIS