Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins Review - Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey

Nearly six decades since it first aired on British televisions, we’re still not lacking for Doctor Who recently. Though the COVID-19 pandemic delayed Season 13, next month brings us The Edge of Reality, but last week, Maze Theory surprised us with news of The Lonely Assassins’ immediate launch on consoles, following a mobile release last March. It’s a short but mostly sweet experience.

The Lonely Assassins lean heavily on the acclaimed Series 3 episode Blink, which introduced us to the Weeping Angels back in 2007. Bringing back Finlay Robertson as Larry Nightingale, the game’s premise revolves around us finding his missing phone in an abandoned London house, investigating what happened to Larry.

Joined by ex-UNIT scientist Petronella Osgood, we’re taking on a new threat from the Weeping Angels. Though we don’t see much of our familiar Time Lord - archive recordings of the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) aside - this experience takes place during the 13th Doctor’s (Jodie Whittaker) era.

Offering a found-phone mystery, The Lonely Assassins’ mobile roots are immediately clear and to adapt it for consoles, players navigate a large smartphone-styled interface from your TV. Using the joystick like a PC mouse, you’ll be searching through Larry’s messages, emails, videos, photographs and browser history, discovering the truth behind his mysterious disappearance.

Of course, it’d be too easy if Larry’s entire phone was accessible from the get-go. Instead, thanks to the Weeping Angels and a “reality virus”, most of the data isn’t immediately available. Once found, you’ll be prompted to scan the item in question and present it to Osgood afterwards, slowly retrieving more of the phone’s data. That provides multiple choice replies to Osgood, though this doesn’t have any real story impact.

Mostly, The Lonely Assassins is an enjoyable experience, one that can offer minor frights through the phone corruption and though it felt more intuitive on mobiles, developers Kaigan Games has done well porting it over. However, getting the true ending requires your most thorough investigation, finding four pictures of the Tardis across the ages.

Without spoiling anything, there’s still a satisfying conclusion here if you don’t achieve that any series fan will find much to love about this game, but presenting all four to Osgood grants closure on one particular mystery.

I enjoyed my time with The Lonely Assassins, though it loses some immersion in this console port. There’s only a short adventure within - one you can beat within 2–3 hours - but I found myself drawn in until the very end, wanting to see this mystery through. It’s not a game designed for replayability, and you could finish it in one sitting, though that’s more forgivable considering the low price point. If you’re a Doctor Who fan, this one’s worth looking into.

3.5/5

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins was reviewed on Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility with Xbox One, and a review code was provided by the publisher. It's also on PC, PS4, Switch, and iOS. An Android version was previously released, but has since been delisted.

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