Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

It's been some time since the BBC have dipped their toes into the world of Electronic Entertainment and their last title's to grace the Nintendo platforms were back in the days of the Gameboy Color and Advance. To be fair these were reasonably well received and titles like Ace Lightning and Robot Wars managed impressive review scores from the majority of the gaming press. For whatever reason, the publisher/broadcaster quickly disappeared from the scene only to resurrect itself, during last years E3 with new ideas and some incredibly lucrative properties. Doctor Who is probably the best known of these and the adventures of a Timelord, for a new generation has proven very popular across all age groups. We should mention here that the DS has already had one Doctor Who title but given that this was a feeble Top Trumps effort it seems hardly worth mentioning. Evacuation Earth is a full, original, adventure but can it possibly match the entertainment of the weekly show?

Gameplay

While we don't want to give too much away about the games plot, let's just say that the clue is in the title and with Earth's impending demise on the cards, it's up to you, and your trusty sidekick Amy, to help the humans escape the planet before being wiped out completely. Gameplay wise, Evacuation Earth closely follows the Professor Layton framework although we wouldn't go as far to say they've copied it, as there are enough differences here to separate the two adventures. In case you haven't come across this type of thing before though, you wander around a number of locations solving puzzles whilst also interacting with a variety of characters who help to drive the plot.

The story itself is very good indeed and you could easily see this making in on to TV. The puzzles are reasonably varied but while some are hugely entertaining, and offer an element of challenge, others are mindless affairs and what's worse you'll get different variations of these throughout the game. There's also the odd puzzle which seems far too difficult to be in a game of this nature and after spending only ten minutes with Evacuation Earth (encountering a handful of relatively easy puzzles) you'll suddenly be thrown into a huge slide puzzles which takes some considerable time and effort to solve. Once you think you have the correct answer it's a simple case of submitting it to the TARDIS see what it thinks of your efforts. Get it right and you'll be awarded maximum points while continued attempts will lower amount you'll receive. Normally, you'd be trying your level best to win as many points as possible but their only use here appears to be to unlock a handful of tips to the puzzles themselves. This isn't always as helpful as you'd expect and there were several occasions were we received the wrong information leading to a great deal of frustration.

Controls

All the puzzles here are touch-screen but the navigation and overall interface has been very well thought out.

Graphics

Visually the game has a wonderful hand drawn quality and even the likenesses of the Doctor and Amy has been lovingly recreated. Sadly there's little in the way of animation making many of the screens appear flat and lifeless.

Sound

Not only are you treated to the original Ron Grainer theme but there's also some expertly delivered lines from the main players. The rest of the game is padded out with some suitably spooky incidental music.

Dual screen

We've already mentioned that all the puzzles use the touch-screen and there's very good chance that you've encounted most of these before in different guises. You'll have to pick locks, complete circuits, piece together jigsaws, navigate mazes and even spot the difference. It's this final type of puzzles, which caused us the most problems with the DS being very unforgiving unless you place your circle right over the centre of the difference. Everything else works pretty will and, even if it doesn't, you can simply try again.

Final comments

While Evacuation Earth has some enjoyable elements it's definitely for the younger fan of the series and older gamers will find the design and content far too simplistic. Sadly, it's also not without it's flaws either and unhelpful hints mixed with some truly awful puzzles will likely frustrate while the lack of any real replay value is a real concern for adventures in general. It still looks and sounds great and if nothing else it has one of the best plots since the Broken Sword series.

Pro: Great Story and Nice Voice Acting
Con: Repetitive Puzzles, Not All The Hints are very helpful
Final score: 6.2

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