LP Beach

What is this?

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games is a series of episodic third-person adventure games and were based on a TV series called, surprisingly enough, Doctor Who. They were initially released for free (to UK residents) through the BBC's official Doctor Who website but were later compiled and released for international sale. The first season is composed of four episodes and they were so popular the BBC commissioned a second series. Unfortunately, the second series was cancelled after the release of one episode as the BBC wanted to focus the Doctor Who brand onto bigger markets. The Adventure Games were available to buy on Steam until 2017, the developer's license with the BBC expired and it's doubtful whether it will ever be renewed.

I believe that the events in the games coincide with the fifth season of the revived TV series. The games in the first series centre around the adventures of the eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companion, Amy Pond. The second series introduced a second companion from the TV show, Rory Williams.

Do I need in-depth knowledge before entering into this LP?

Even though this is an established brand with a long history, the short answer is no. You can get through this series without needing to have any knowledge of Doctor Who beforehand. My own knowledge of Doctor Who is very limited. I grew up with Sylvestor McCoy and watched some of the older episodes when I was growing up but never really got into it. I watched two or three seasons of the newer Doctor Who series and haven't really seen anything since. I'm doing this LP purely as an adventure game fan.

The mechanics of this game are pretty simple and can be explained easily through a few short tutorial pop-ups. The mechanics are pretty simple, there aren't a lot of hotspots to uncover and the inventory system is very basic. The puzzles can be divided into three sections: Stealth, inventory and mini-games. We will be seeing a lot of stealth puzzles and a lot of mini-games. And I when I say a lot, I mean a lot! I will point out now that I'm not very good at stealth and I'm also not a fan of mini-games.

Let's Play details

This will be a video Let's Play and I will be doing commentary as I record. I will post one video every Sunday but if I have more time available I may post a video mid-week.

There are collectables to find throughout each episode and I will be collecting them all in this playthrough. I will make a separate post below this one to include them all.

Let's Play: Doctor Who: The Adventure Games

Collectables & Facts (Thumbnailed because there will be a lot of these.)

Doctors



Companions



Friends



Enemies



Jelly Babies



Facts



Jacobean Life

Interesting. It does feel like some 'proper Dr Who' shenanigans, and the Beeb seems to have hired some of the original actors. (AND THEN THEY ALL TALK DIRECTLY INTO THE MIC UNEDITED) Looking forward to this.

Oggy wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 06, 2020 8:16 pm

Interesting. It does feel like some 'proper Dr Who' shenanigans, and the Beeb seems to have hired some of the original actors. (AND THEN THEY ALL TALK DIRECTLY INTO THE MIC UNEDITED) Looking forward to this.

I doubt that this game would have gotten half of the attention that it got if it wasn't for the involvement of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. The brand name alone definitely generated interest but it would have been a fairly generic Doctor Who game without them. It's the voice acting and storylines that bring each episode to life and make them interesting to play through. There's still some bugs, glitches and issues with pathfinding at times but they can be forgiven. I've only ever encountered one game-breaking bug which didn't happen after restarting the act. I don't want to be too harsh on this series, it is what it is.

I think that I may have sourced a copy of Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. The game that came after the cancellation of this series, only to be cancelled itself despite sequels being planned.

Are you quite sure that Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is *not* involved in this? I'm getting a bit of an odd Hitchhiker's Guide crossover vibe.

Voice direction clearly didn't fit into the budget.

I could've also sworn this is literally the plot of one of the nuDoctor Who episodes but the Dalek stuff gets really samey really quickly.

This is the second and final video of "City Of The Daleks." The Doctor and Amy infiltrate Kaalan even further and meet the mastermind behind the invasion of Earth.

I've taken some time off from work so I have a little extra to spare, ao these videos may appear a little faster than usual. I've already recorded the next episode and it's definitely an overall improvement over this one.

New Collectables!

Doctors



Companions



Friends



Jelly Babies



Facts

Mopey Dick wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 07, 2020 7:10 am

I could've also sworn this is literally the plot of one of the nuDoctor Who episodes but the Dalek stuff gets really samey really quickly.

It does ring a bell, doesn't it? Perhaps somewhere towards the end of the River Song storyline?

Oggy wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:47 pm

Are you quite sure that Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is *not* involved in this? I'm getting a bit of an odd Hitchhiker's Guide crossover vibe.

I recently bought Starship Titanic on Steam. My memory of playing it is non-existent but It's potentially going to be on the LP list in the future.

^ Sounds like a plan!


_{Also Hi, Murray!}

Are chocolate-flavoured jelly babies an actual thing? Because that doesn't sound very appetizing.

This is the first of two episodes of "Blood Of The Cybermen". It's a marked improvement over the first episode, it's probably the best of the first run of episodes, to be honest. Is having both the Daleks and the Cybermen in the first two episodes pandering to the fan base? This episode was actually quite fun to play, the mini-games, on the other hand, weren't.

Doctors



Companions



Enemies



Jelly Babies



Facts

Nemryn wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:48 pm

Are chocolate-flavoured jelly babies an actual thing? Because that doesn't sound very appetizing.

Chocolate-flavoured jelly babies are actually a thing, there are companies who manufacture them. I'm not sure if they're a thing within the TV series though as traditionally, Jelly Babies are strawberry, lemon, raspberry, lime, blackcurrant and orange flavoured. Vanilla-flavoured jelly babies popped up in this video and I can't seem to find them online after a quick search. There are a total of four flavours in this game which aren't traditional flavours, I'll have a quick search for them when the other two pop up.

I was making preparations for recording the fifth episode and I stumbled upon another bug: https://youtu.be/PR0q4sJ3dtQ

This is the second and final video of this episode. More stealth, more mini-games, more collectables, a pathfinding problem and, surprisingly, some Cybermen.

Doctors



Companions



Friends



Jelly Babies (Blueberry Jelly Babies are not a thing)



Facts

Rocket Baby Dolls wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 11, 2020 6:32 pm

I was making preparations for recording the fifth episode and I stumbled upon another bug: https://youtu.be/PR0q4sJ3dtQ

That link's going to the third episode. Is that the bug you encountered, Rockets?

I pressed submit too early. This video is the episode "TARDIS" in its entirety. It's a very short episode as it's only set in two rooms and there isn't a whole lot to interact with. Well, apart from the many facts strewn around the second room. I believe that this episode features an opposition that is unique to this game series. This is an okay episode, it tries to differ from the pace of the first two episodes but it's still chock full of mini-games. One of these mini-games is totally reliant on you knowing some Doctor Who trivia, thankfully the answers can be found throughout the episode.

Doctors



Companions



Friends



Enemies



Jelly Babies (Not a thing)



Facts

Oggy wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 5:19 pm

Rocket Baby Dolls wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 11, 2020 6:32 pm

I was making preparations for recording the fifth episode and I stumbled upon another bug: https://youtu.be/PR0q4sJ3dtQ

That link's going to the third episode. Is that the bug you encountered, Rockets?

Whoops, I meant to reply to this sooner. This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeVSQnHaz88

Ah, right, nothing like the good old fall-through-the-geometry-for-a-Bethesda-flashback bug. MEMORIES!

That said, I'm really enjoying how the Beeb managed to give this little stint a proper Dr Who vibe, thanks to the Gillan/Smith banter.

Oggy wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 6:02 pm

Ah, right, nothing like the good old fall-through-the-geometry-for-a-Bethesda-flashback bug. MEMORIES!

That said, I'm really enjoying how the Beeb managed to give this little stint a proper Dr Who vibe, thanks to the Gillan/Smith banter.

There's another spot later on where it happens too, it'll be in the main playthrough which I've just finished editing into four parts. There are six videos left in this LP, I'm aiming to have them all up by next weekend.

So far, it's been Smith and Gillan's voice acting that have kept these episodes from being just another mediocre adventure series.

This is the first of two parts. I think at this point they've hit a stride and made another fairly solid episode. There's a fair amount of variety but it does suffer from a lot of running around empty corridors, they do try to "liven" things up while you do it but you're still spending time running around empty corridors. This video has an ending with a difference!

Doctors



Companions



Enemies



Jelly Babies



Facts

The second part of this episode and the final video of the first series.

Doctors



Companions



Friends



Enemies



Jelly Babies



Facts

This is the first of four videos of the second and final season. This is the only episode of the second season as they cancelled it shortly after this was released. It's a shame really as this is a solid episode, even though it's the same engine and still relies on stealth segments and mini-games, this episode is a lot bigger in scope and they made some positive changes. It feels more like a proper adventure game as the game world is bigger, there's a lot more to do and more people to speak too.

There aren't any collectables in this episode, but there are a lot of facts to collect. There are only four new "Who Facts" to collect and they appear shortly after the start of the episode. This episode has forty-one facts about the Jacobean era to collect throughout the game.

Who Facts



Jacobean Life

In this video, Amy finds out more about Charlie, the Doctor closes the last of the lesions and Rory bumps into some old friends of the Doctor's. A new area has also opened up to us in this video and we get to speak to some fairly explosive personalities.

Jacobean Life

I think this last episode must be placed somewhere in the early part of the sixth series, before a whole lot of things happen specifically to Amy and Rory.

Rocket Baby Dolls wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 21, 2020 9:48 pm

Potatoes are in fact a member of the nightshade family of plants, ta v/m, Beeb!

In this episode, the Doctor completes his tasks and manages to examine a priest's hole, Rory and Amy explore the sewers and find the Rutan ship while evading the Sontarans and the plot thickens even further at the end. The final video will be crammed full of drama!

Oggy wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:11 pm

I think this last episode must be placed somewhere in the early part of the sixth series, before a whole lot of things happen specifically to Amy and Rory.

Apparently this game was meant to fit in and around the fifth series and there's continuation within both series. I'm not sure whether this is true or not but some people seem to think so. I found a "guide" on Steam while I was using a proper one for the collectables: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =239559977

Jacobean Life

This is the final video of this episode and of this LP. I really had no intentions of doing an LP of this any time soon as I already have quite a lengthy list of games that I want to do. I was originally intending to just complete where I had left off five years ago. I've already started my next LP, Beyond A Steel Sky, which was another spur of the moment decision.

Jacobean Life

Rocket Baby Dolls wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:34 pm

Oggy wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:11 pm

I think this last episode must be placed somewhere in the early part of the sixth series, before a whole lot of things happen specifically to Amy and Rory.

Apparently this game was meant to fit in and around the fifth series and there's continuation within both series. I'm not sure whether this is true or not but some people seem to think so. I found a "guide" on Steam while I was using a proper one for the collectables: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =239559977

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm none too firm on what happened when exactly, just a general outline of what I can remember off-hand, thanks for the link, and thanks for showing this off!