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| Your first sight of the TARDIS. |
THE PLOT:
A trip to the laundromat takes a decidedly weird turn when the phone on the wall rings and you, for whatever reason, decide to answer the call. A woman's voice informs you that she's been kidnapped and thrown to the edge of time and space. At that moment, a wave of distortion settles over everything. The laundromat is changed into a dark, nightmare version of itself, with deadly creatures inside the washing machines. The woman informs you that this is a "reality virus," and that the entire universe will end up being engulfed.
The mysterious but bizarrely chirpy voice guides you out of the laundromat and into a back alley, where you gain a sonic screwdriver that you use to summon a time and space machine that's in the form of a blue police box. You're informed that this is the TARDIS, that the woman is the Doctor, and that she's trusting you to gather three "time crystals" to help her fight the reality virus.
Recovering the crystals won't be easy (well, actually it kind of will be, but we'll pretend otherwise). You will have to travel to three different parts of time and space, facing mysterious creatures in the night of a deserted alien planet, Weeping Angels in the cellars of something very like a haunted house, and finally the Doctor's greatest enemy - the Daleks. And if you succeed, you'll still have to face The First, the force behind the reality virus, who is determined to wipe out all life in order to start anew!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker lends her voice to this game, and to her credit she gives a committed performance. Unfortunately, much like most of the Eleventh Doctor games from several years ago, the script flattens her character out. She mostly is in "chirpy, bubbly" mode throughout - Which readers of my television reviews will know is my least favorite side of the Thirteenth Doctor. Whittaker's also not in very much of it. She guides the player through the prologue, then comes back between missions to deliver exposition. The impression is very much that game developer Maze Theory had very limited time with Whittaker, and likely recorded all of her material in 1 - 2 sessions.
Emma: For the bulk of the game, you are accompanied by Emma (Jennifer Saayeng). She basically fulfills the same role in the main missions that the Doctor does in the prologue - a voice in your head that guides you to the next checkpoint, dropping increasingly clearer hints every time it becomes obvious that you're stuck. Saayeng does a good job with the material, and infuses Emma with a reasonable amount of personality. While the Doctor is constantly enthusiastic, Emma is more circumspect, amusingly admitting at one point that she would prefer staying in the TARDIS to actually going on adventures.
THOUGHTS:
The first big console game for Doctor Who since the ill-fated The Eternity Clock in 2012, The Edge of Time offers the selling point of truly putting you in the Doctor Who universe via the magic of virtual reality. The title is currently VR-only, available on Playstation VR, Oculus, and Steam. This review was completed using the PSVR version; some mechanics may differ from the PC versions, though I believe there are no content differences.
The game is short. I played it a chapter at a time over a few weekends, but I would guess a full playthrough would run a little over 3 hours; on replay, when you know how to solve the various puzzles, it would probably take about 2 1/2 hours to complete. On the plus side, it's not expensive: I paid a little over $20 on the Playstation Store for my copy, and I do feel that I got my money's worth.
Even at a reasonable price, however, there is definitely a sense that some parts are a bit underwritten. It's very linear, offering few opportunities for exploration. The Weeping Angel and Dalek levels are quite brief, with few complications. In the (admittedly creepy) Angel level, you just have to keep the Angels in sight while you crank up a generator to power a lift. Imagine if we actually had to walk down one of the dark corridors, keeping an eye out for angels with only a flickering torch between us and doom.
The game's biggest plus is also its selling point: The VR. Though the Thirteenth Doctor's TARDIS is one of my least favorites, I still took great pleasure in walking around the console room, looking up at the pillars, studying the roundels, etc. And there's something just a little bit mind-blowing about standing outside the TARDIS on an alien world, looking into the tiny box and seeing a vast world beyond that's entirely different than the world around you. It's a real showcase for VR, which can convey the sense of wonder and impossibility in a way that a 2D television image just can't.
And yes, the Weeping Angels are very creepy in VR. One of the game's better puzzles has you freeing an angel from a painting. Every time you turn your head, the image of the angel moves - Until finally, it's halfway out of the painting, hand outstretched, inches from your face. The single most effective jumpscare in the game.
There's also a genuinely fun shooting level near the end, when you are inside a Dalek casing, blasting away at Daleks and Dalek drones. It's daft - You're all but invincible, while the enemy Daleks might as well be made out of paper - But it is great fun, if over a bit too quickly.
"Over a bit too quickly" is the major criticism here. The first mission, on the planet Lucia Minor, feels very well fleshed-out, with its own complete story and even an effective ending to that story. I would have liked the same for the other two missions, which instead come across as just set pieces. The three missions don't feel particularly unified, with no connection between them and The First's plot. The endgame is also far too simple - Destroying a Dalek pillar ends up feeling more like a "boss fight" than the confrontation with the actual villain of the piece!
In the brief time since release, the controls improved noticeably with the addition of two patches. On release, I fumbled around with the Move controllers like a drunkard, finding it a challenge to successfully grab hold of any object. By the time I finished the game, updates had made the controls much smoother - Though I still wish there was an effective Dualshock option, as I generally dislike using Move controllers.
I will add that you can use the Dualshock - But it basically just acts as a Move controller. A single Move controller - Dualshock players get to simulate playing as an amputee, allowed the use of only one hand.
Still, the visible improvements to the game's performance across a mere three weekends indicates a dedication to identifying and implementing improvements, which is very much to Maze Theory's credit.
SUMMING UP:
Ultimately, the value of The Edge of Time depends on how much you want to experience Doctor Who in virtual reality. The story isn't terrible by video game standards, but it's clearly just there as a clothesline for the various puzzles and set pieces, and I woudl personally have preferred it to be about twice as long as it actually is. Voice acting is good across the board, from Whittaker to Jennifer Saayeng to Adjoah Andoh, and there is a lot of fun to be had - But it would be stretching a point to say that this fully lives up to my pre-release hopes for it.
It is a lot better than The Eternity Clock, though.
Rating: 6/10.
Preceded by: Resolution
Followed by: Spyfall
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