Universal Red Dwarf XI : The Game (by UKTV Interactive Ltd.)

After finishing the first episode and really enjoying the story/dialogue, I have mixed feelings about the actual gameplay.

This could be considered a 6 episode collection of mini games. I really appreciate how the use of the mini games was able to tell the story of the first episode with its action and stealth and puzzles, only broken up by stills of the cast and bubbles of dialogue.

However, the gameplay within each mini game is quite varied and often plagued by difficult controls (for this seasoned mobile gamer, anyways).

-One section is an on-rails shooter where you have to tap what you're shooting, but it is often right in front of your ship, so your finger will probably block your view. You'll have to scan something while not getting hit as well.

-Another section is static flying down a tube in space. To avoid obstacles or collect energy you must rotate around this tube. Tapping left or right will cause you to rotate. But for some reason, I can't remember which is which. Every time. Seems like a much better solution would be to have a virtual joystick and the way you rotate it could be the same direction the ship rotates, making it a one-handed experience even.

-Another section is a timed Simon-Says game of pressing buttons on a console. It could be kind of fun. But I don't remember the planet in our view getting any closer. The actual finding the buttons isn't terrible, just sometime unresponsive or slow to respond. But actually pressing the buttons has no visual indication letting you know you pressed it. It doesn't depress or move or shake or light up. The game just tells you to press something else if you got it right.

-There are a couple stealth-like sections. One is on foot and took me a while to get past. All the enemies look the same and shoot with the same timing so once they see you, it's just pew, pew, pew until you get away. There isn't a walk/run option, you move at one speed. And you tap/hold to walk forward, dragging your finger left or right to veer in those directions. However, there is energy behind you at the start and places where you can get stuck, requiring you to exit the game. This section should allow for 360 degree movement at least.
The other stealth section is driving, and they fixed the collision detection and damage from each hit. You lose life when you hit barrels, buildings, and even enemies! But now it is passable at least. This has a similar control scheme, but works a little better.
However, in both of those sections, the camera follows the direction you are pointing. So if you stop facing left, the camera with get way off the path. Then you'll have to turn a little to see ahead again, but when you tap to turn... You start walking again, possibly exposing yourself to enemies!

-Another section reminds me of the board game Operation, where you fix Kryten using a few different tap, rotate, etc. touchscreen mechanics.

Once you finish the first episode, it just starts over again, though. There isn't a hub, or central game you can play. It is strictly these mini game sections. You can choose to replay whichever one you want. But I feel like there could have been a main game of endless flying, collecting energy, upgrading, and shooting stuff that would have given us something to do before and after episodes. It should probably be 3D since the rest of the game is.

The open screen is of Red Dwarf the ship, where I just want to tap and rotate around it, pinch to zoom, or select sections of the ship to visit or use. But you can only look at it. At least it does look nice though. Kryten actual speaks to you when you first start the game, but the rest of the cast does not voice each episode. I didn't expect any voice over but it was weird to start with it and then take it away. Unfortunately, the biggest omission is the lack of the famous theme song. I'm sure licensing prevented it, but it was a bummer not hearing it when I opened the app.

Man, I'm sure the team has technical and time limitations, but I wish I could help with testing further episodes. I noticed there is a Restore Purchases option. But there isn't a store where any IAP can actually be purchased. I thought each new episode would be a free update. But, because I love Red Dwarf so much, I'd buy each episode if they decide to make it unlocked by IAP.

However, I'll be interested to see if the second episode has the same mini games or if they have new episode-specific games. A more all-encompassing game style like Space Miner would have definitely made it more popular and the episodes could have been told with less mini games. But I really do appreciate what everyone has done to tell this first season XI episode through a video game. It's definitely not my favorite style of game (mini games), as I'm more of an RPG fan and always thought Red Dwarf would fit that gameplay mold perfectly. But since this is very much themed around Red Dwarf and each episode of season XI, I'll definitely play through it all.

 

Would love to hear anyone else's impressions after finishing episode one. Maybe I've been a bit harsh towards the gameplay. I guess sometimes we're harder on the things we love.

 

Well, it looks like the episodes kept airing in the UK, but we haven't received anymore episodes in the game. I wonder if it didn't do well enough to keep going or if we'll eventually see all of the episodes.