Doctor Who Legacy Review - Timey Wimey Puzzler

Let's be honest, Doctor Who fans have been wanting (and needing) a decent game to play, and unfortunately, the very broken Doctor Who: Eternity Clock just didn't cut it. Riding on the heels of the 50th Anniversary special, Doctor Who Legacy gives fans an RPG-puzzler to run them back through the many seasons of the show. With a mix of combat-Bejeweled and some RPG and collectible elements, this game is guaranteed to keep any Whovian busy for hours!

Doctor Who Legacy - Gameplay

The gameplay itself is incredibly simple, but the things between the basics are what make this game enjoyable and keep you coming back. The premise of the gameplay is simple enough, making you match various colored orbs together to create combos, which then allows companions to attack. The way it works is that each companion is assigned a color, and when that color has a match of 3 or more of similar colors, the character will do damage based on their stats. Chaining combos allow for more damage, and attacks and opens up special abilities for each character. Defeat the various waves of enemies in each "Episode" to continue on in your quest!

The parts of the game that will really draw you in aren't necessarily the "battles" but the collection and upgrading elements of the game. Each episode you play through has the opportunity to drop various items, such as time fragments, time crystals, or even more companions, to bolster your roster. Time crystals can be used to continue if you fail during an episode, and time fragments are used to upgrade your Doctor(s) and Companions, upgrading their special abilities to do more than before. There is also a "leveling" aspect to the game, in which you earn experience for characters by coming out victorious from episodes. Each time a character levels up, you are able to upgrade damage, health, or healing to bolster your team. Healing and Health upgrades affect the team as a whole, while damage only affects the damage of that particular Companion. You can level up to 10 times for every time that you upgrade a companion, allowing for up to level 50 (and 50 stat points) on each. This allows you to grow your team as you wish. It's these RPG Elements that really make the game more than just combat-Bejeweled.

Doctor Who Legacy - Story

The premise of the story is that you are leading the doctor (in many forms) through his past, repairing paradoxes as you encounter his many enemies, such as the Cybermen, Daleks, and more! At release, you will get to play through each episode (purely through battles) of Series 7 and then Series 6, with Series 5 to be released for free in early 2014. The game's developers plan to release every series to take you through 50 years of story. The story is pretty simple but does give you a pretty good adventure.

Doctor Who Legacy - Audio

Simple and to the point, the music for Doctor Who Legacy stays true to the show and accompanies the gameplay incredibly well. Mainly music to set the mood of each part of the game, it works incredibly well in every aspect. The sounds and effects are exactly that and are seamlessly integrated into the game.

Doctor Who Legacy - Graphics

This game isn't meant to be graphically intensive due to the simplicity of the gameplay. That said, the illustrations are fantastic! Each character is a spitting image of their show counterpart, including extra costumes that can be collected as you play or through promo codes (See the news below for more on that!). Each episode/mission has a backdrop that matches the environment from the series and is easy to discern where you are, and the illustrations are so good that sometimes you'll spend more time looking at them than playing the game!

Doctor Who Legacy - Free to Play, not Pay to Win

This game is free, completely if you want it to be. Yes, you can pay for characters or time crystals, but everything you want to get can also be earned. The ability to go back and play missions over and over without worrying about that pesky "energy" that most games have to make you pay more allows you to play as much as you want to without having to pay a dime. Everything, from time crystals to characters, can be earned through playing the game and its episodes. And all future content and characters is free as well, so you will never be hindered from experiencing everything that Doctor Who: Legacy has to offer.

The Verdict

It's pretty simple. If you like puzzle games or collectible games with some role-playing features added in, this is the game for you. Offering a large amount of base content, with a ton more coming for free, Doctor Who: Legacy is a must-have for any Whovian. If you're not, the game still offers a great experience and enjoyable gameplay for anyone. It's usually hard to make games based on a TV Show, but this game finds a good balance between the Doctor Who universe and an enjoyable game.

This review was originally published on 12-13-2013. While care has been taken to update the piece to reflect our modern style guidelines, some of the information may be out of date. We've left pieces like this as they were to reflect the original authors' opinions, and for historical context.