Doctor Who: The Adventure Games

Well. Sigh. I'm giving this a thumbs up, but reluctantly.

As sooo many others have pointed out, if you are a Doctor Who fan, you will probably like this. But that might be because we Doctor Who fans have learned to, ahem, lower our standards. It hasn't always been an amazing adventure in time and space...

This game is OK, but has a lot of problems.

You get the content of what would be five Doctor Who mini-episodes, but they're not very good. The plots are trite and predictable, the dialog weak and clunky. You meet some interesting characters, but because it's so short, they are skin-deep and do not develop.

The game is very, very easy, to the point of being boring. Go here, get that, push that button. You are always told exactly what you're supposed to do. There are mini-game "challenges" that are trivial to solve on the first attempt. And they repeat several times. The level design is linear and unimaginative: there is almost no exploration. There are some stealth scenes, but they are repetitive and trivial. The levels are also very sparse: no objects to examine to enrich the game world, no intriguing designs to delight the eye, almost no attention to detail. Unless you try to find all the collectibles, there's nothing rewarding about looking around, even when it's possible (rare).

The controls are wonky, sluggish, and annoying. The Doctor and Amy turn around like oil tankers moored in a shallow bay, and then run in a straight line like Forrest Gump. This isn't a big problem, though, because really all you need to do is run in straight lines.

The graphics would have been mediocre even two decades ago. That said, this game works very well in NVIDIA 3D Vision. If you have that setup, everything becomes so much better! There are issues with the text converging at the wrong depth, but otherwise it's terrific. Make sure to play at minimum depth setting, though.

In terms of fun things for Doctor Who fans, even that is disappointing. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are not at their best here. The tidbits from Doctor Who's history all appear as "fun facts" that you just read as little cards, and there's nothing new to learn. You can't use them or interact with them: they are not part of the game. At one point you get to play with the TARDIS controls, but unfortunately it's been reduced to something like manipulating a tractor.

All that said, it's playable, and a casual way to spend ~3 hours if you've really exhausted everything else Doctor Who has to offer. But few of us have. :) If you're a real fan looking for more content, do yourself a favor and go back to the classic episodes. I recommend the Jon Pertwee era (early 1970s) as eminently watchable and fun, a great way to dive into the past.

So, it ends up being another flat merchandising effort from the BBC. Not awful, but very far from great. If you're not a fan of Doctor Who, steer clear.