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Mar. 16th, 2012 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedantherWorlds in Time is the new Doctor Who online multiplayer game. It begins with the Doctor showing up in the middle of the night, giving you your own sonic screwdriver, and whisking you off on an adventure that will take you to other times and other worlds. (And, with any luck, slightly more practical clothes than the PJs you start out in.)
I’m enjoying it so far.
Although I play as a human that looks like me, because I have no imagination, you’re not limited to the human race: you also have the choice of Catkind (and yes, the cat-nuns’ habits and Brannigan’s flying helmet are clothing options), Silurian, or - a nice surprise - the Forest of Cheem.
The plot: To prevent space-time smashing to pieces (Again. Honestly, Eleven, we can't leave you alone with the universe for five seconds, can we?), the Doctor is recruiting an army of assistants to complete a galaxy-spanning macguffin hunt. Various alien races, from the Autons to the Zygons, are also trying to take advantage of the situation.
Once you’ve completed the tutorial, you go on Interventions and Missions in teams of four. If you can’t find three other people to join you, or you’re not feeling sociable, the numbers are filled out from a roster of NPCs. Teamwork is important; you may start off with challenges like “Unlock the door to the next room with your gadget”, but it’s not long before you’re doing things like distracting the villain while two of your teammates rewire his doomsday device and the third barricades the door to stop the guards getting in.
Lockpicking, distraction, rewiring, and barricading, as well as others, are implemented as minigames. (Barricading is a variation on Tetris, where completed rows are used to strengthen the barricade, and double, triple, or quadruple rows provide extra strength. Fending-off-monsters, the closest this game has to combat, is pretty much the swordfight game from the developer's earlier hit Puzzle Pirates.) Doing well at a minigame charges up your gadget, allowing you to use it later in the adventure to get yourself out of trouble.
As you progress, extra components become available for your gadget (“I have an app for that!”) - some expand the kinds of trouble your gadget can get you out of, while others allow you to gain extra charge from doing various kinds of tricky thing in a minigame. For instance, there's a component that gives you a charge bonus every time you complete a quadruple row in the Barricade minigame.
(The name of your gadget, by the way, changes depending on which components you have installed. Mine is currently spending most of its time as an electron spanner.)
If you're interested in seeing a bit of what it's like, today's been Worlds In Time Screenshot Day on my Tumblr.
I’m enjoying it so far.
Although I play as a human that looks like me, because I have no imagination, you’re not limited to the human race: you also have the choice of Catkind (and yes, the cat-nuns’ habits and Brannigan’s flying helmet are clothing options), Silurian, or - a nice surprise - the Forest of Cheem.
The plot: To prevent space-time smashing to pieces (Again. Honestly, Eleven, we can't leave you alone with the universe for five seconds, can we?), the Doctor is recruiting an army of assistants to complete a galaxy-spanning macguffin hunt. Various alien races, from the Autons to the Zygons, are also trying to take advantage of the situation.
Once you’ve completed the tutorial, you go on Interventions and Missions in teams of four. If you can’t find three other people to join you, or you’re not feeling sociable, the numbers are filled out from a roster of NPCs. Teamwork is important; you may start off with challenges like “Unlock the door to the next room with your gadget”, but it’s not long before you’re doing things like distracting the villain while two of your teammates rewire his doomsday device and the third barricades the door to stop the guards getting in.
Lockpicking, distraction, rewiring, and barricading, as well as others, are implemented as minigames. (Barricading is a variation on Tetris, where completed rows are used to strengthen the barricade, and double, triple, or quadruple rows provide extra strength. Fending-off-monsters, the closest this game has to combat, is pretty much the swordfight game from the developer's earlier hit Puzzle Pirates.) Doing well at a minigame charges up your gadget, allowing you to use it later in the adventure to get yourself out of trouble.
As you progress, extra components become available for your gadget (“I have an app for that!”) - some expand the kinds of trouble your gadget can get you out of, while others allow you to gain extra charge from doing various kinds of tricky thing in a minigame. For instance, there's a component that gives you a charge bonus every time you complete a quadruple row in the Barricade minigame.
(The name of your gadget, by the way, changes depending on which components you have installed. Mine is currently spending most of its time as an electron spanner.)
If you're interested in seeing a bit of what it's like, today's been Worlds In Time Screenshot Day on my Tumblr.
