Blood of the Cybermen is the second of four episode length games available for free from the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/theadventuregames) if you live in the U.K. that is.
For those of you who live across the pond, you’ll need to use a proxy website to download the game, see my guide to the first game: Doctor Who: The Adventure Games – City of the Daleks
Blood of the Cybermen is a reference to a nano-virus carried by robotic rodents, known as Cybermats. The virus infects humans and converts them into Cyberslaves, which are much less sturdy than their cybernetic-masters and lurch forward with a great gaping gait.
When the TARDIS receives a distress call from an Arctic expedition exposed to the virus, Amy asks who would send the TARDIS a distress call to which the Doctor points out, people in distress aren’t generally particular about who rescues them.
The game is full of catty comebacks like this between the Doctor and Amy. The levity is perhaps a result of this game taking place pre-invasion as opposed the dire end of the world scenario seen in City of the Daleks.
Like the Daleks, the Cybermen, Cyberslaves, and Cybermats use sensor sweeps, which you’ll need to avoid by hiding and waiting for them to pass. Hopefully BBC won’t be cheap and continue to use this same robotic AI in all the episodes, even those without robots.
In addition to the complete the circuit puzzles from the previous game there are several new puzzles including re-programing nanobots (picture right). It’s less intimidating than it looks or sounds.
You must meet the conditions in the left corner by rotating the spheres in the the right corner into the path of the the ones below to change their color, while being careful not to touch the red ball.
The trick is to look the the language of the conditions very carefully. It says as many purple as blue, but zero purple is equal to zero blue so just turn all the purple and blue to yellow spheres, which will also fulfill the requirement that you have more yellow than green.
Anomalies
Amy is downright clumsy in this game, often getting stuck in doorways but not to worry when you get too far away from her she magically reappears at your side. While this isn’t a problem while exploring, it makes avoiding patrols troublesome. When you’re hiding in an alcove she’s uncomfortably close and you have to shove her out of the way but when you’re running for your life she takes her sweet time and gets herself killed, and you along with her.
Another glaring problem is the laser alignment puzzle. The control buttons literally don’t work! You have to position your mouse well to the left of the buttons to push them.
Scattered throughout the game are not-so-hidden collectables cards for past & present Doctor Who characters, but bizarrely you can only view them during a game and not from the main menu like you can usually do with extras.
