Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is the second Doctor Who
video game for consoles. The first being a Top Trumps game. This time around, it allows you to actually play as the man himself, the Doctor aswell as River Song.
Story: The basic plot of the game's story is that time corridors have been appearing over London bridging Victorian London, present day London, future London and Elizabethan London together. It's up to both the Doctor and River to close this time corridors which is made a challenge as they're encountered by the Cybermen, Silurians, Daleks and even the
Silence.
Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock gives a whole new feeling to side-scrolling gameplay as BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment have introduced a fully detailed 3D world thereby adding to the overall experience.
Both Matt Smith and Alex Kingston provide their voices for the Doctor and River which makes the game
stand out more and really does make it feel like an interactive episode.
The graphics during cutscenes can be considered poor but that is to be expected as it's the first game that BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment has developed but that doesn't apply to the actual gameplay however. The environment feels very realistic and really does look wonderful and brings the streets of London (all of them) to life. Even some of London's most famous landmarks look great considering they're based out in the distance. The fact that these are actual 3D designs is great as they don't have to be. They could have just been a texture image.
Now onto some of the bad points. When you begin playing, you will notice that a lot of the gameplay depends on timing or an actual timer at pointss. So, you're most likely to fail at some point or other either by wrong timing or taking too long all together. This is were some of the frustration comes in. The lack of checkpoints can really anger the player, especially after devoting a lot of time and patience only to fail and be sent all the way back to the very beginning of the mission.
The collectables in the game (the Doctor's hats and River's diary pages) are fun to collect but aren't always worth collecting if you're most likely to be killed and sent back to the start and normally it would often still be there since your death resulted in the page or hat respawning back. Although collecting all of the pages and hats don't really do anything for the gameplay, it would have been a nice feature if perhaps a hat could be worn by the Doctor (or even River) and/ or give you a special advantage (stronger immunity from injuries, less chance of
being noticed by patrolling enemies etc). That would of been a nice feature which could have been added. You can view each hat in the pause/ home menu and by selecting each hat, the Doctor will comment on them. Often with a quote or reference to previous episodes/ characters. You can also build read actual pages from River's diary and get an actual sneak peak into the secret life of River Song.
Overall, Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is an addictive and entertaining game but can really get on your nerves at times. But this game holds a lot of potential for a popular range of games to be released in the future if BBC Worldwide take into consideration the things that definitely work in the game and what don't.
I give this game a 7.5/10.
video game for consoles. The first being a Top Trumps game. This time around, it allows you to actually play as the man himself, the Doctor aswell as River Song.
Story: The basic plot of the game's story is that time corridors have been appearing over London bridging Victorian London, present day London, future London and Elizabethan London together. It's up to both the Doctor and River to close this time corridors which is made a challenge as they're encountered by the Cybermen, Silurians, Daleks and even the
Silence.
Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock gives a whole new feeling to side-scrolling gameplay as BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment have introduced a fully detailed 3D world thereby adding to the overall experience.
Both Matt Smith and Alex Kingston provide their voices for the Doctor and River which makes the game
stand out more and really does make it feel like an interactive episode.
The graphics during cutscenes can be considered poor but that is to be expected as it's the first game that BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment has developed but that doesn't apply to the actual gameplay however. The environment feels very realistic and really does look wonderful and brings the streets of London (all of them) to life. Even some of London's most famous landmarks look great considering they're based out in the distance. The fact that these are actual 3D designs is great as they don't have to be. They could have just been a texture image.
Now onto some of the bad points. When you begin playing, you will notice that a lot of the gameplay depends on timing or an actual timer at pointss. So, you're most likely to fail at some point or other either by wrong timing or taking too long all together. This is were some of the frustration comes in. The lack of checkpoints can really anger the player, especially after devoting a lot of time and patience only to fail and be sent all the way back to the very beginning of the mission.
The collectables in the game (the Doctor's hats and River's diary pages) are fun to collect but aren't always worth collecting if you're most likely to be killed and sent back to the start and normally it would often still be there since your death resulted in the page or hat respawning back. Although collecting all of the pages and hats don't really do anything for the gameplay, it would have been a nice feature if perhaps a hat could be worn by the Doctor (or even River) and/ or give you a special advantage (stronger immunity from injuries, less chance of
being noticed by patrolling enemies etc). That would of been a nice feature which could have been added. You can view each hat in the pause/ home menu and by selecting each hat, the Doctor will comment on them. Often with a quote or reference to previous episodes/ characters. You can also build read actual pages from River's diary and get an actual sneak peak into the secret life of River Song.
Overall, Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock is an addictive and entertaining game but can really get on your nerves at times. But this game holds a lot of potential for a popular range of games to be released in the future if BBC Worldwide take into consideration the things that definitely work in the game and what don't.
I give this game a 7.5/10.