Doctor Who: The
Eternity Clock is an
Action/Adventure game based on the hit BBC television series of the
same name developed by Supermassive Games and
published by BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment for the PlayStation
3, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft PC. Supermassive Games are an
independent studio working from Guildford in the south east of
England on a variety of games since 2008.
For
those who don't know, Doctor Who is about an age old Time Lord who
travels through time and space in a time machine/spaceship called
the TARDIS, normally with a traveling companion of some kind, and
first debut in 1963 making it the longest running Sci-Fi show in
history. The reason it survived for as long as it did is through an
act called “regeneration” which allows the Doctor to change his
face, and therefore his actor, while still being the same character.
This brings us to the star of our game, Matt Smith, who is famous for
playing the Eleventh Doctor. So, to quote the good Doctor himself,
GERONIMO!
Oh,
I remember this console with all its funny little buttons and
switches and typewriter. I don't like it.
We
start off with the Doctor in the TARDIS, where else? First thing
you're likely to squeal over if you're a Doctor Who fan is the fact
that really is Matt Smith's voice. And that really is Alex Kingston
voicing River. I was afraid that we'd end up with an impersonator or
something since TV and movie actors rarely lend their voices for
games, but no. That's really them and the game is twenty percent
cooler for having them.
The
Doctor is traversing a time storm and finds himself in the Bank of
London where we get our first taste of gameplay. The game plays like
a classic old school 2D side scroller only rendered in 3D. You go
left, you go right, push boxes, climb ledges, ladders, pipes, and
open doors. This is where the Sonic Screwdriver comes in. In order
to use it you have to match the green line with what's being shown
with the red and then the door will open. Sound easy enough, right?
Well, not when you're in a hurry.
There are a lot of
puzzles in Doctor Who. Puzzles you're either going to love or utterly
despise like the one above. Puzzles usually come about when you need
to bypass a perception filter, hack into security, overload a
console, and so on and so forth. Some of them are fun, but most of
the time they're just tedious and slow the game down more than
anything else.
The worst of them is the
Time Corridor. Every time you find a piece of the Eternity Clock you
have to go through the Time Corridor to make it back to the TARDIS.
You're standing on a platform and you have find the next platform it
can connect with before the platform you're standing on disappears
and you fall to your death. Think of it like a game of Tetris,
basically. Only you have no idea which block fit where and it's less
time consuming to just try them all until you find one that fits.
Hello,
Sweetie.
Through
the course of the game you get to play as both the Doctor and River
Song. River first appears in prison and you have to sneak out to
make it to the Doctor in order to assist him. Since this is a Doctor
Who game you'll be doing far less actual fighting, and a lot more
sneaking and outwitting your opponent, and because of that it really
does feel like Doctor Who. Don't worry, though, just as the Doctor
is always armed with his Sonic, River still has her gun and you'll
be able to blast some poor soul who thought it was a good idea to
mess with you.
In single
player you'll mostly play as the Doctor with River being controlled
by the A.I., but there will be moments where the two have to split
up and you'll control each individually. There is a multiplayer
mode where you play co-op, so if you want to grab your friend and go
on a whacky wild adventure, knock yourself out. Trust me when I say
you'll be better off with a Player Two. The A.I. companion is so
glitchy I had to reset the game several times just to advance. One
time when I was on my way to a lift I found River was still back
behind the crate jumping up and down repeatedly. Another time she
kept running to a ladder and climbing up and down it instead of
moving the platform I needed to get across. I'm glad enemies in this
game are stupid because when I was trying to sneak River will just
be standing right out in the open while a Dalek is closing in. Get
down! Speaking of Daleks:
EXTERMINATE!
The
game feature the Cybermen, the Solarian, the Silence, and the Daleks
as enemies. I did thought I saw a Weeping Angel in one level, but it
turned out just to be a statue. Never can be too careful. All of the
enemies are implemented well and feel the same as they do on the
show. With the Cybermen and Daleks you're better off just avoiding
them altogether, the Solarian you can fight to an extent since you
can disable their weapons, and the Silence has a stage where y ou
need to keep them in your sights or you're get an instant game over.
They're
also just as infuriating as I imagine they are for the Doctor. I love
the Cybermen, but by the time I was done with them I hated them,
same goes for the Silence and the Daleks, not as much as the
Cybermice, though. Yes, there are mice in the Cybermen ship. The most
you can do is stun them and they are fast. They killed me more than
any other enemy in the game. The enemy A.I isn't any better than the
companion's. When a Dalek caught me while I was trying to sneak past
it, it stayed in the same spot long after it lost sight of us and I
had to jump over it and make a run for the TARDIS.
Bow
ties are cool.
The
story is exactly what you'd expect from a Steven Moffet's production,
so take that as you will. The banter between the Doctor and River is
top notch and you really do feel like you've stepped inside the
television show if you can look pass the 2D side scroller aspect of
the game. What really bums me out is that the game ends on a
cliffhanger because it was supposed to be the first in a series, but
the future installments were postponed and now there's no telling if
they're canceled or not.
Conclusion:
If you're a Doctor Who fan, or
more specifically an Eleventh Doctor fan, and don't mind the style
of play, this game is at least worth checking out. If you're not a
fan then it's going to come down to whether or not you enjoy the
gameplay, but I'm not going to lie, it's mainly intended for Doctor
Who fans. If you can't get behind the style and all the puzzles,
you're probably not going to enjoy it.
Try
it.
No comments:
Post a Comment