After spending a tedious 20 minutes downloading the new interactive game, ‘City of the Daleks’, the moment had finally arrived to take on the challenge of playing as the Doctor. But after all the hype surrounding this adventure, was it actually worth the wait? Let the games begin…
The concept of an interactive adventure is exciting, and it could really work if a good story and fun game was combined, but in this case it wasn’t to be. The execution of the game was poor, with graphics that were oUt Of SyNc with the dialogue, even on the lowest possible setting, and games that just frustrated the player instead of challenging them.
The basis of the story is very simple; a world destroyed by the Daleks, which requires a quick trip to Skaro and a bit of sonic screwing to sort it out. How original. The producers add a bit of interest to the story when they introduce the character of Sylvia, the last survivor of the human race. This is soon ruined though, as after chasing her for a whole level in the underground, she’s exterminated by a Dalek. What was the point in that?
The worst factor of the game was the Daleks, who it appears have suddenly become blind and stupid. In order for a Dalek to detect your presence, you have to walk within its narrow green eye path, which only then starts sending off alarms. This in itself meant that they were very easy to get past, but then the Daleks don’t even bother to chase after you. They just sit there, guarding something for some reason that they never cared to state.
You may think that I am being a little harsh on this game, so I will try to focus more on the positives of the adventure. The animated characters looked very realistic, especially the detailed Doctor and Amy, and the interior and exterior design for the Dalek city was very impressive and original, whilst keeping the basic structural designs from the very first Dalek story.
My favourite part of the game was when we saw the new Dalek Emperor, in all its giant blue glory. The animators had obviously taken into account the design of the Emperor from ‘The Parting of the Ways’, and added the new features of the current Daleks to make it feel consistent. I also preferred the look of the Daleks in this story rather than in ‘Victory of the Daleks’, as they were grubbier with subtler tones, and had a less plastic texture about them.
However, I still felt that the games and the story let down this creation. The most irritating game was the electric maze, which was very repetitive and required a very steady hand, which I found impossible with the out-of-sync movements of the game.
Overall, I was annoyed by the game. There were some really good intentions in it, but when it came to the story and having fun and varied activities, it didn’t live up to expectations. After that painful experience, which clogged up my computer’s memory and sent it running slowly, there’s only one more thing left to do on that game. Right-click. Delete. Done.
2/5 stars
(If you loved the game, please don’t send me hate mail)
The BBC have confirmed that a second series of ‘The Adventure Games’ has been commissioned for 2011, due to the success of the first run of stories. The first three interactive games pulled in 1.6 million downloads from the official BBC Doctor Who website.
