I mean, to truly capture the experience of what it would be like if any of us stepped into the dimensionally transcendental innards of the TARDIS, things would have to go pretty horribly wrong, real fast, right?
The BBC just dropped a new gameplay trailer for Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, an upcoming VR game where fans become a new companion to the Thirteenth Doctor. With Jodie Whittaker reprising her role, Edge of Time sees players travel across time and space as the Doctor guides them and her wayward TARDIS through alien peril and historical horrors, in an attempt to reunite the Time Lord with her beloved Ghost Monument.
Doctor Who, especially in its modern incarnation, has had a spotty history with video games. A series where the main way to stop bad guys is to talk them into peace, run away, or wave a screwdriver in their general direction doesn’t really match up with contemporary gaming.
Few attempts have been made, from dodgy mobile games to the kinda-sorta-ok adventure games with the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond, but it says a lot that maybe the best Doctor Who gaming experience around is actually the one that’s just a level in a Lego game.
But Edge of Time actually looks like a genuine surprise, in how much it delivers on evocative Doctor Who concepts that are made that much more exciting by VR as a medium. Actually getting to pilot the TARDIS with your hands! Battling Weeping Angels (can a headset tell if you cheat and blink?) and Daleks! Solving environmental puzzles, across time and space! Instead of trying to square the circle on making Doctor Who fit to video games, it’s shaping up to be a proper Doctor Who adventure that you just so happen to star and interact in. Which is what, really, all Who fans want in the end!
Doctor Who: The Edge of Time is set to hit Playstation, Steam, HTC and Oculus VR headsets next month.
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