I, like many others around the globe, can easily say that I am a fan of BBC's epic recurring series, Doctor Who. The revival of the series has resulted in a lot of new converts to the science-fiction classic and BBC aren't willing to skip out on a chance to further ensnare their legion with video games based on the franchise. Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time is the unfortunate result of this need to reach out to a broader audience and it will take a truly dedicated fan to look past the relatively bland gaming experience.

The Eleventh Doctor and his companion Amy Pond (notably lacking her fiance/husband Rory Williams) are attempting to rescue another time-traveling family that have been attacked by a technology stealing Dalek (and yes, they've stuck to the continuity of the New Paradigm Daleks, thank you very much!). An explosion soon ensues and the family is scattered through time with the Doctor and Amy off to rescue them by solving a series of room-by-room puzzles that require co-operation to succeed. Sadly the 'unique skills' on offer for each character are relatively mundane, ranging from the Doctor being able to climb to Amy being able to not break through weak floors and the earlier puzzles can border on bland as you push blocks and hit switches almost without thinking.

Thankfully the challenge ramps up later in to the game, with the puzzles getting quite devious in their designs, but the game doesn't skip a beat here and you'll need to contend with some rather poor directional controls that lack the fine-control required to survive these extended puzzles. The graphics are best described as functional and completely lacking in character, especially given the rather poorly designed 3D replicas of The Doctor and Amy that walk stiff-armed and rigidly stand bolt-upright.

While the narrative, gameplay, visuals and controls are relatively average, the game does have official licensing (obviously) which means a whole lot of amazing orchestral tracks and dialogue that feels true to the current series - just don't expect to hear the dialogue as this is oddly missing despite audio tracks for the Doctor's many enemies. Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time is a hard game to recommend to anyone not already invested in the TV series as it's hard to remain entertained between the story points; only worth picking up if you're a die-hard Who fan.