TARDIS

[Note: there's also a prologue available!]

Another month, another computer game... oh wait... like we did... several months! And who knows how long until the next one comes out? But they are available internationally, for a price now, so we can all join in the fun.

Anyways, after all that time we certainly have be rewarded with an amazing game... but it's not this one. TARDIS is set, strangely enough, in the TARDIS! The TARDIS hits a space/time rip, the Doctor gets knocked out of the console room, Amy needs to rescue him and in doing so unleashes an evil from the dawn of time! (Okay, not from the dawn of time, but still a menace to be dealt with.)

So, I hear you saying (somehow... over the internet... when I'm typing this and before you've seen it...), we get to explore the TARDIS right? Indeed the console is lovingly rendered, and is more or less spot on with the console as seen on the screen (and reprinted in The TARDIS Handbook). The console room itself... less so. There are a couple of walkways, but hardly a grand open space to find yourself in.

But we're inside the TARDIS! We can go exploring! ...in the one other room... never seen before, the Doctor's study. With lots and lots of trinkets from adventures past. I was wondering if I would have the time to really look around, given I was trying to save the Doctor/Amy...

Fortunately, after dealing with the menace, you are given free reign to explore the TARDIS, at least the parts of it available in the game (ie console room and study room), so don't worry about that. You get to play with the controls of the TARDIS and go back to make sure you've seen all the facts in the study. Nice.

But what of the actual game elements? As there isn't much exploring, and no stealth elements, what we end up with is a series of mini-games to solve. Which aren't hard, but the gameplay does come across as mini-game after mini-game. We do also have a quiz that relies on user knowledge of the show (the study room helps), and here there's a big let down in that Amy could easily have been saying 'yay' rather than the text. They also could have had the actors say all the stuff while you're playing with the controls to... (perhaps they don't want the actors to know? ;) )

However, my biggest beef is with the detection system. Steering was bad enough, but it was nearly impossible to tell what objects could be picked up and what panels should be activated (a thin blue line around a largely blue panel? huh?). I had to rely on the options coming up to examine/use things! Still not sure what panel I activated at times.

This could have been a lot more fun, but ultimately ends up rather disappointing. Short game play, and not enough to explore outside of the console panels. I hope they have something big ready for the last game...

[END]