Being given the opportunity to step inside the Tardis, help the doctor, and visit various sci-fi styled locations isn’t something that should be passed up. Maze Theory brings this opportunity to all Virtual Reality users through their latest title launch Doctor Who: The Edge of Time. Said to feature an all-new creature to be added to the canon lore and the two most iconic enemies of the series, Dalek’s and Weeping Angels, there is plenty of excitement. But one big question remains after looking past the hype: is the game experience worth getting? I fear the answer isn’t a plain yes or no. Let’s begin.

Story

The doctor has reached out to you and asked you to help with an important mission. After taking the call and making your way to the Tardis for the first time, the details of your mission become clear as the doctor explains that she is trapped where she is and needs you to bring the Tardis to her. To do this, you will have to collect three time crystals by facing multiple dangers and solving various puzzles. Are you ready to step up and help the doctor?

Gameplay

Each level brings about its own style and challenges. It starts it off with a semi-intense atmosphere as you need to find a code to unlock a safe. This will give you the tool that you need for your journey: the sonic screwdriver. This tool will help you by accessing locked doors and interacting with strange mechanics that hinder your journey.

This first level is a good example of how some of the puzzles work as you have to look around the environment in order to find what you need to continue. Most of the puzzles, if not all of them, will require you to look around the current level you are in to find what you need to do next or how to open the next pathway. It isn’t always straight forward, so be sure to listen to your helpful assistant Emma when she talks as she isn’t one to repeat herself. She doesn’t tell you that, but once she says a hint, she often doesn’t repeat herself unless it is apparent you’re stuck.

After the first chapter, you will find that each chapter will be located in a completely different location, which isn’t always Earth nor the era you started off in. They do a great job of making each one gradually harder and giving the suspense of having the different enemies around in each level. My favorite level was easily the Weeping Angels one as it shows just how scary those things are! It fell into the horror category real quick when I was working through that level.

Movement can be done by either walking, using the left move stick, or by the teleportation method, using the right move stick. I found myself doing a mixture of these two as the walking feels more natural, but it is incredibly slow. I even was able to move my body around a bit without much error issues, which is something most VR games have some trouble with. They do give the default quarter-turn option by pressing a button though.

SPOILER WARNING FOR FINAL PARAGRAPH - SKIP TO “VISUALS” TO AVOID!

The final chapter was interestingly different from the other ones in a couple ways. I liked how there was a sense of stealth added as you had to sneak through the areas that the Dalek’s were patrolling. Then there is a special mechanic brought out at the end of the game when you take over one of the unoccupied Dalek machines. Here they introduce an arcade-style shooter mechanic, but since you are in a Dalek the gun turns a bit slower than where you look. The aim aspect is done by where you are looking, so it is pretty handy when fighting through the final zone. There are even the occasional power-up options where if you shoot a specific object that appears in every other section then your gun will be temporarily ultra powerful!

Visuals

Even though they decided to go with a visual design that is far from realistic, everything still held up to the expected design. From the holograph of Jodie Whittaker to the close-up encounters with the Weeping Angels, everything was aesthetically pleasing for the most part. There were a few moments where the camera was clipping through items, walls, and such due to improper placement, but they were never game-breaking or interruptive.

Sounds

Without providing a lot of music to the game made it so that we had to listen to our surroundings. Sometimes this is a bad thing but in the case of Doctor Who it just made it feel more like we were actually in the various environments. It also provided the chance to hear all the minor sound effects that go into pulling off an atmosphere, sharp noises to signify when there was a startling change, or pretty much anything else they wanted to have the player focus on.

Replayability

I have to admit that they did a good job tying the idea of replaying the game over and over into the lore itself with an interesting line at the end of the game. Other than going with the lore, there isn’t much reason to go through it again as the experiences have been had and the puzzles are all the same.

What Could Be Better

Why isn’t there any way to check on what your current objective is? VR games based off of something people enjoy are going to entice them to wander around and explore their surroundings. When doing this it is easy to forget what you were supposed to be doing and there is no way to check this. You can wait for Emma to say something, but that doesn’t happen often and there is a chance she won’t say something coherent enough to bring you back to your current task at hand.

SPOILER WARNING ON LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS - SKIP TO “CONCLUSION” TO AVOID!

From the moment you enter the Depths of the Weeping Angel chapter, you can expect glitches in one way or another. I, unfortunately, had to restart that chapter because the elevator doors refused to open back up after I grabbed the time crystal. Once I went through it again, turns out one of the angels is supposed to disappear from the bottom room before it continues. Then after I left that room, the doors wouldn’t close which ultimately made the second half of the Depth section easier.

As for the brand new enemy creature added to the game, talk about a wasted opportunity. While I was going through that chapter I was waiting for my actual encounter with one of those creatures and wondering what I will have to do to avoid it killing me. Turns out that they are just a visual aspect and were mainly just in the background to make noises and give a more tense feeling to the atmosphere. It just seemed like it wasn’t worth creating a whole new creature if you aren’t even going to have them directly interact with the player.

Conclusion

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time is a good game for players, regardless if you are a fan of the series! It brings a little bit of everything you could want in a game together and presents them differently in each chapter. The story isn’t bad and I liked how things clicked at the end. Sure, it has some flaws and missed opportunities in the development, but I wouldn’t mind jumping into a second Doctor Who game if they decide to make a series out of it.