Maze Theory, available for iOs, Android, Switch and PC now

A mysterious phone. A mysterious caller. Larry Nightingale is missing, something terrible is stirring in Wester Drumlins and the Doctor is nowhere in sight. So it’s up to Petronella Osgood and you to discover the truth and stop the Weeping Angels from rising once again.

Essentially a sequel to Blink, the first thing you notice about The Lonely Assassins is how complete it feels. From the lines of Osgood Code that ‘over-write’ the phone at the start to the closing phone call this is a Doctor Who story in voice, tone and subject matter. Anyone worrying that the assignment has not been understood need not worry at all. This isn’t just Doctor Who to its bones, it’s great Doctor Who to its bones.

The core of that is Osgood, played once again by Ingrid Oliver in live action sections. Gavin Collinson’s script picks up on everyone of Oliver’s distinctive mannerisms and, as Osgood communicates with you via text, you never get a sense of it being anyone other than Oliver’s version of the character. She’s chatty, brave, brilliant, terrified and absolutely relentless and the friendship you develop with her feels real and earned. The closing sequence, where you must rescue Osgood from Wester Drumlins so she can in turn save the world is especially great and feels like the sort of ‘graduation’ moment so many supporting Who characters get and Oliver sells the perky terror perfectly.

But Collinson’s script is arguably even better when it revisits the world of Blink. In a genuinely touching piece of plotting we discover that Sally and Larry broke up, with Sally going to America  but the pair staying close. Mapping the fate of the character onto Carey Mulligan’s own career trajectory has a surprising emotional weight to it, as does Larry (played again by Finlay Robertson) finding love with Natasha (Sabrina Arthur). The pair have a gentle, edges knocked off romance which is coloured only by the moments of alien beauty and terror we see in ‘Blink’. Again we see people touched by the Doctor’s world pay the price. Again we see the alien destroy the mundane. But this time (if you get all the extras) we also get to see a happy and definitive ending. Again, there’s elegance here in a bonus scene which explains how the game opens, what happened to Larry and the past all in one neat package. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s a lovely cameo from Rani and Clyde from The Sarah Jane Adventures too.

But even a well scripted bad game is still a bad game and this is nothing of the sort. As Osgood guides you through Larry’s phone you discover not only what the Blink characters have been up to but also get some really fun detection and surprisingly tense moments to play with. You get to impersonate Larry ‘over the phone’, you hack multiple databases, you destroy Weeping Angel data (or not in my case) and all of it from your phone. Well actually Larry’s phone and honestly that was the one problem I had. The UI was so convincing I kept accidentally closing the game and going to my own home screen for the first hour or so.

Verdict: That miniscule quibble aside this is one of the best slices of Doctor Who of any media in years. It’s clever and kind and sad, and honours one of the show’s finest hours while doing new things with its components. It also has at least two moments of real poignancy which will absolutely poleaxe you. That speaks not just to the quality of the game but the emotional investment it encourages in you and also leaves the door open for more adventures. Honestly, I’d love to pick up the phone to Osgood again. This really did feel like an adventure. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

 You can, and really should, dig into the excellent background material for the game here