The new series of Doctor Who, the fifth of the rebooted franchise, is arguably the best yet aired. Despite having a less handsome lead (Matt Smith following the delicious and charismatic David Tennant) the show has been vastly improved with a subtle change in direction instigated by new helmsman, Stephen Moffat. According to the official PR, this collection of episodic point and click adventures is to be considered as 'extra episodes', as much canon as the adventures screened each Saturday. This doesn't really hold up in practice however, with the stories' chronology dubious when juxtaposed with the television plot, and the two main actors phoning in strangely dessicated and bland performances.
The game is played in a 3rd person 3d perspective (perhaps a more elegant and 'kind to the average family computer' 2D style would have been advisable), and this is awkward for adventure gaming a la Monkey Island or Broken Sword, but is necessary for the badly implemented stealth scenarios which accompany every goddamn map traversal section. The game would be much better off were these sections played out entirely as cut scenes, it has nothing to gain through maintaining interaction here. The stealth gameplay is fiddly and frustrating, and there is no enjoyment to be gleaned from it. Filling time would have been much more successful from a fixed perspective, solving point and click puzzles in the classic manner, and leaving the action to the cut scenes. While the majority of the game has been tuned for children to play easily, the stealth sequences are anything but.
As awkward as the cursor controls are, it's thoughtful of Sumo Digital to include other control options, even going as far as to include WASD movement for seasoned PC gamers. The context sensitive clicking is smart too, making it easier for children to play. The intention is honourable, even if the execution is a little lacking.
The puzzles themselves are smart, short and fun, like sci-fi Professor Layton, and should feature more strongly. This kind of thing is what Doctor Who is about, and more so are the 'combine item a with item b' puzzles, which should form the spine of the experience by rights.
In the end, this is a free game, the first of several, and it is fairly decent if you're a Doctor Who fan. I had fun with it despite occasionally shouting at it for stuttering on my steam-powered macbook and for one particularly bloody minded stealth scene. Anyway, the next one has Cybermen, so it is going to be awesome no matter how like a potato Matt Smith's face looks in 3D.
Gameplay: 3/10
Wibbly Wobbly
Art and Narrative: 6/10
Timey Wimey
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