Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is the latest videogame to be based upon the BBC television series, Doctor Who. The game has been developed exclusively for the PlayStation brand with its release on PSN and its release on the PS Vita imminent. With voice acting from Matt Smith (the eleventh Doctor) and Alex Kingston as River Song, the game plot follows the two characters in search for the Clock in an attempt to save the Earth. Will we want to help them save Earth or is the game a lost cause? Let’s find out as we find out what’s HOT and NOT in our review of Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock.
HOT
Graphics
Like with many games based upon a film or a series, it is important that the main characters look like their real-life counterparts and fortunately this is nailed in Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. The Doctor and River look just they should and this close resemblance to the series is also true of the Doctor’s enemies which include the rather colourful Daleks; despite my personal view on the colourful Daleks they do look impressive in-game.
The environments don’t have quite as much attention shown to them as the characters themselves; however they are still well designed, with perfectly acceptable levels of detail. When the time period changes, the environments also change. The distinctive time changes come with distinguishing visual alterations, which stop the game feeling somewhat repetitive: at least from the graphical and setting side.
Co-op
The game does have a few large bugs which will be talked about later, although through co-op play at least some of these are solved. Not only does the game has less game breaking issues when played as a cooperative adventure, but it is also a lot more enjoyable. Players pick between the Doctor and River Song and will generally have more fun with another person there; to laugh at the dialogue with or to help out on the puzzles when on the hardest difficulty.
Story and Script
The story surprisingly enough has the TARDIS spinning out of control towards the Earth and Daleks in it, but it wouldn’t be Doctor Who without them. Saving the Universe is of course the overall mission but working out what exactly is going on is also the priority. The script is just like what we have come to enjoy from the series, well presented and full of the witty lines. The voice acting is also one major plus point of the game as it is done incredibly well by the entire cast.
NOT
Length
Many titles these days seem to offer a relatively short story length and not much else on the side; unfortunately Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock does seem to be another one of those titles. The story offers around 6 hours of gameplay and while I would recommend a second play through (one single player one cooperatively) I can see that some players wouldn’t be too eager to jump straight back in and play it again. There are collectables to obtain along the way but these are often along the typical path you must take, in order to complete the level so add little overall – other than a small laugh at the Doctor’s hats and some back-story or ‘spoilers’ from Rivers diary.
Gameplay
The gameplay revolves around controlling either Doctor Who or River Song. While it is initially fun to be running round as the Doctor with his sonic screwdriver, the gameplay is often slanted towards puzzle solving. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if they weren’t either incredibly easy or just recycled versions of the same puzzle. The controls for the Doctor do make it somewhat enjoyable with one analogue stick controlling movement while the other directs the sonic screwdriver, but this isn’t anywhere near enough to save the experience. River’s gameplay is most focused on taking down enemies that get in the way but as the game is best described as a 2D platformer this task is inevitably easy; if it isn’t easy it feels like it should be and leads to frustration.
Bugs
It doesn’t surprise me that the PS Vita version has been delayed with the rather annoying bugs seen in Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. Characters occasionally get stuck in animation loops and at times, the AI completely fails to properly react to the environment resulting in the being stuck in the middle of a doorway. Often the only way to remedy the bug is to restart the level. Although if playing cooperatively, this bug is fixed as there is no AI to worry about.
Difficulty
Making a game harder is by no means a bad thing but the way that Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is made harder is simply by reducing the time available to finish the mini-games and puzzles. This doesn’t add to the experience only the frustration of the player. One way to have increased the difficulty could have been, for example with the ball mini game, making the orbs that the player have to dodge faster or have the player dodge them for longer; rather than cutting the time available to complete the task.
Verdict
I must admit I was hoping for good things from Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock especially with the long wait until the next series starts again in the autumn, however the feeling of disappointment is apparent. The game looks reasonably nice and has a great script: unfortunately even that can’t make up for the game-breaking bugs and the unforgettably bad gameplay. If you are a fan then it is playable, but those who aren’t fans of the Doctor should stay away.
[Editor’s Note: Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
