After months and months of waiting for these games, I finally got the chance to play them. And they were both amazing. Granted, some of the awesomeness was the kind of awesome that results in movies so bad you can't believe it and some of the awesomeness was the kind of awesomeness that results in infiltrating a Dalek city to the sound of a great honking thunderstorm of death1, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and that’s really the only requirement I have for video games.
The only problem I had with this game is that it was as slow as molasses. Either my laptop is not equipped to play new games or there is something wonky with the game itself, but I played almost the entire game with the characters running in slow motion and speaking in half the time it took for their bodies to move. It was, of course, both hilarious and nerve wracking – and I'm not sure if it hindered the game or made it more fun some of the time – but it was incredibly frustrating when you needed the Doctor or Amy to make sharp quick movements around corners.
As for the game play itself, this game managed to take two of my favourite gaming conventions and tack it on to my least favourite thing in games ever and make some sort of unholy, but incredibly entertaining, hybrid.
I hate sneaking around to avoid detection in games. I'm so terrible at it. It's a wonder I ever finish any games. In fact, I'm currently stuck in two other games because of sneaking around problems. However, these Doctor Who games have both puzzles and poking around in the environment for stuff, so it was still really fun.
The stories for both of these are very reminiscent of Classic Who stories. City of the Daleks is a twist on The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Daleks have invaded the planet, but instead of enslaving the human race, they have destroyed them. Amy and the Doctor have to infiltrate the rebuilt city of Kaalan on Skaro in order to fix time, restore the human race, and save Amy from fading out of existence.
The Blood of the Cybermen reminded me of both The Tenth Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen. A team of archaeologists discover a Cybership in the Arctic Circle that's been buried for thousands of years and they are being converted into Cyberslaves in order to dig out the main force of Cybermen, who are determined to convert the rest of humanity. Naturally, the Doctor and Amy are equally determined to stop them.
I found them both to be really fun and I'll probably be playing them again soon in order to pick up any missed collectibles.2 I definitely recommend these for the gamer Whovians out there. I'm really looking forward to the next two.
Cowering in the dark while the power flickered on and off in my house. Of course the storm started as soon as I got into the Dalek city.
1 I started playing this game fairly late at night and a HUGE thunderstorm rolled in shortly after I played. And it was full on apocalyptic thunderstorm. Lightening was flashing, the house was shaking, and I played a decent chunk of the game on battery power only because it would have been bad news if my laptop had been plugged in. It was intense.
2 These are basically like the chocolate frog cards in the Harry Potter games. You collect Doctors, Companions, Enemies, Friends, and Jelly Baby flavours.
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