This free-to-play game launched back in late 2013. I stumbled across it by chance less than a week after launch and gave it a try and nearly two years later I’m still playing it. The game was great when it was released and has continued to evolve. The most recent addition is Season 9, a new episode of which is being added after each episode of the new Doctor Who series airs, each week.
The magic of this game for me is that Doctor Who Legacy is one of those games which is easy to pick up and play but tricky to truly master. The basics of the game are simple. You have a team of one doctor and five companions which you can hand pick from those you have unlocked. In each turn you can click and drag a gem for a couple of seconds. The idea is to line up as many rows of gems as you can. Each doctor and companion have different colour associations, when gems of the same colour are lined up they are converted into attack power. The more gems the stronger the attack. Simple right?
That basic tactic and knowledge are plenty to get you through the early levels of the game, but it does get more complicated. The enemies also have colour associations and certain colours are dominant or weak against other colours, for example red is weak against blue and green against red, so companions who attack using the opposing colour get an attack bonus. Each companion also levels up as you use them and gains experience points which you can attribute, raising either their health points, which adds to your teams total HP, attack or heal.
There’s currently 174 collectable companions in the game and new ones are still being added with the new levels. So now you not only have to manage your colour associations but also your team attack, HP and heal attributes, but this isn’t really an issue in the early levels.
As the levels progress and the enemies get stronger, then more advanced tactics can come into play. One of those is to exploit the colour association and create parties designed specifically to take down certain coloured opponents. This takes you into the realm of two colour or even single colour teams. This will give you more dps in a certain colour to the detriment of the other colours. So gems of a colour which you don’t have a character to associate with, will no longer deal damage but more damage will be dealt by the colours you do have.
This also brings you into matching the character abilities. Each character, doctors and companions have special abilities that will charge up over a number of turns and then be available to use. Some attack, some heal, some cause status effects and some can be used to change the colour of gems, which is prefect for two colour teams. This will allow you to build up a truly devastating attack by converting the colours you don’t need into those you do.
Then at level 40 the characters gain a second colour association which, while weaker than the first, will still generate attack when gems in that second colour are matched. This is particularly useful in single and dual colour teams as it can to some degree fill in the colours gap.
This game is enormous and really is free to play. There are no pay walls. You can unlock companions by playing the levels. Some are rare drops and take patience or you can purchase them in the shop for money or time crystals. This is the only free to play game where I paid real money even though I didn’t really need too. I unlocked all the characters in the levels and outfits and it was only after many, many hours of gameplay that I decided to buy some time crystals, purely as a sign of my appreciation and support. Of course, there are perks to supporting the game, as it unlocks the fan area but it isn’t game critical and just offers a few extra companions and costumes of which there are non-fan versions available.
All in all, this game is a must play for anyone who loves Doctor Who, as you get to pick and choose a team from 174 and soon to be more, I’m sure, characters from the game, as well as being able to pick your favourite doctor to lead them. The gameplay has real depth and advances as the game progresses, keeping the game interesting and preventing it from stagnating. In my opinion, this is a great free to play game which is really worthy of support.
Katie lives in London; she loves playing games, is a published author, a digital artist and an astronaut. Okay, so one of those is a lie. Her blog can be found at http://kmalford.blogspot.co.uk/ and her twitch channel at http://www.twitch.tv/tailyna . You can also find her on steam as Tailyna.
