Doctor Who: City of the Daleks

In which I play the Doctor Who adventure game City of the Daleks so you don't have to.

Before I start, a quick disclaimer. I'm not really into computer games. In my life, I completed three (well, four if you include City of the Daleks): Resident Evil 2, which is the only game I have ever found to be worth playing to the end, a Playstation Spiderman game designed for kids and a version of the film Tomorrow Never Dies - and I only managed to complete the latter because I discovered a cheat that allowed Bond to become invincible (and thus making him more like the character in the film, as far as I am concerned). I also enjoyed the game version of Rocky - but that just involved pounding an opponent into a bloody mess (great to release stress after work) rather than any real skill. Generally speaking, I lose interest in computer games very soon after starting them. I'd rather read a book than spend hours trying to figure out what collection of trinkets I need to move me to the next level of a game.

However, I downloaded City of the Daleks for two reasons - firstly, it is new Doctor Who (essential as we are now in a Doctor Who free void until he returns in The Sarah Jane Adventures later this year), and secondly - and an absolute essential - it's free.

Let's look at the pluses first. It is quite a simple game - basically running around a bit, solving some puzzles, avoiding Daleks and then you can complete the adventure. This simplicity really works for me - if the game required too much thought or skill, then I wouldn't have reached the end of it. However, I can see it frustrating those who like their gaming experiences to be a little more cerebral and challenging. It is also good to have Karen Gillan and Matt Smith voicing their characters on the game - this gives it the feeling of being a bit special, and a little bit more credible than the other free Doctor Who games that you can find on the BBC website. The graphics are also quite good - all in all, it feels a bit like an interactive cartoon version of Doctor Who. Certainly, a lot of effort has gone into making this feel like a real episode of the TV programme.

Which makes it a real problem that the story for this game is so poor. From the moment the TARDIS arrives in sixties London only for the crew to discover that the Daleks have invaded the world and wiped out humanity (bar one person), it is very clear that the whole thing will be solved with a big fat reset button. The Daleks have corrupted time, the Doctor will find a way to reverse this.

What is surprising is just how bland the solution is. After a bit of running around in the city of the Daleks, we are shown a sequence (shown, mind - you don't really play it) where the Doctor defeats the Daleks and then goes back in time to stop their plan ever happening. Which he does - through Amy - by plugging one MacGuffin into another MacGuffin to reset the whole story. It comes across as a bit of an insult, particularly since this is scripted by Phil Ford, who has some real talent, and that it comes at a time when the story telling in the series is reaching an all time high.

I know, I know - it's a free computer game; what was I expecting? But given all the effort that went into making this game look good, it is a real shame that they couldn't have spent a little longer on the story to make it a bit less, well, shit.

Doctor Who - Blood of the Cybermen

"Do you even know what a plan is?"

So asks Amy at the end of Blood of the Cybermen. And it is a good question, since the adventure that precedes the comment shows that the Doctor has no plan whatsoever. And the overall feeling of the adventure is even better because of it.

Make no mistake about it, Blood of the Cybermen represents a massive step forward from the lumpen, often tedious City of the Daleks. It has a plot and everything. Sure, there are still the irritating little games (the maze format in particular becomes very boring very quickly) and the story is far more RTD than Moffat, particularly in the way in which it is resolved. But there is a certain confidence and sense of direction in Blood of the Cybermen that was missing from City of the Daleks. It even has some striking images that could rival some of the more terrifying ones from the TV series - particularly the idea of cyber-conversion as plague. In this respect, it nicely mirrors The Pandorica Opens - it does something interesting with the Cybermen.

Sure, on the TV screen, this would be a slight episode - one watched, and then promptly forgotten about. But it feels far more like the real episode that it so desperately wants to be than its predecessor, and that alone needs to be celebrated. This time, the script did some justice to the others who desperately try to create a gaming equivalent of the TV version of Doctor Who. So if you want to play the Doctor (and Amy), then skip City of the Daleks and instead go straight to Blood of the Cyberman.

The Doctor doesn't seem to have a plan, but judging by this, those making these games may yet show themselves to be capable of effectively planning a decent Doctor Who game.