PlayStation 3
Published by Sony Computer
Entertainment Europe
Developed by Supermassive Games
The Doctor Who series hasn’t been shown much
respect over the years. There have been several actors cast in the role
who just weren’t suited to it, in my opinion of course, and it was
shelved for quite a long time before being brought back and becoming
popular once again. You could also argue that there hasn’t been a decent
video game based on the series. Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is the
latest attempt at creating a memorable game for fans of the series.
However, you’ll need to be an extremely loyal fan of the series to
appreciate what the game has to offer because if you strip away the
Doctor Who branding there’s a disappointing game here that most wouldn’t
look twice at.
Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock initially
seems as though it’s going to please fans of the series. You’ll play as
both Doctor Who (with his ever useful sonic screwdriver) and Doctor
River Song (who comes equipped with her hallucinogenic lipstick) and
hearing gamers will notice that they are voiced by the current actors
who play these roles on TV. The game even includes some of the more
popular enemies from the series such as the Daleks and the Cybermen.
Whilst the key ingredients are present and correct however, the gameplay
on offer here isn’t anything special.
The game is essentially a 2D platform game
with stealth and action elements with some puzzles thrown in for good
measure. In fact puzzles are a key element of the game and on starting a
new game you’re given the option of selecting either easy, normal or
hard puzzles to solve during your game. Regardless of the difficulty
level you’re playing on however, you’ll find a mixture of uninspiring
puzzles, poor AI, enemies that can instantly kill you and checkpoints
that at times seem to have been placed far apart to deliberately cause
maximum irritation. On top of this you have controls that don’t feel
very responsive and to top it all off it doesn’t take long for the whole
thing to feel repetitive. All of these problems do their level best to
make sure this is a game that even fervent Doctor Who fans will not want
to endure any longer than they really have to.
The game does support local co-op play but
it’s something that can only be selected when you begin the game. There
is no support for allowing a second player to drop in on a single-player
game that’s already in progress which seems really silly. It essentially
means of course that it’s only a feature you’ll want to use if you can
guarantee that your companion will want to play the whole game with you.
Graphically The Eternity Clock is rather
basic looking for a PlayStation 3 title. The quality of the visuals
isn’t so much a problem as the quality of the animations however. The
animations on display here would have been acceptable for an early
PlayStation 2 title but here they look decidedly wooden and slightly
rough for a game that’s arriving quite late on in the life span of the
PlayStation 3. The 2D view makes the stealth elements of the game
needlessly fiddly at times and it’s not always easy to discern whether
your character can be spotted or not. There’s some screen-tearing here
too and whilst it doesn’t get in the way it’s certainly a little
unsightly.
The Eternity Clock does include subtitles but
they aren’t enabled by default. With the subtitles enabled you’ll be
able to follow the game’s storyline as well as the often cringe-worthy
humour that’s present in the game. One thing I should say however is
that if you're playing the game on a TV set that isn't a high definition
display, you'll find that the subtitles are far too small and are barely
legible. On a HD display the size of the text is absolutely fine
however.
Under another name Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock would fail to attract anyone’s attention. With the Doctor Who branding however, it’s likely to sell well. However, you’d have to be an extremely patient and blinkered Doctor Who fan to forgive the game’s various problems which combine to make this a dull and sometimes testing experience. Unless you’re an extremely hardcore fan of the series, this is probably one you should leave until the sales.
