Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins Review: A thrilling, immersive adventure fans will love

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins is a "found phone" mobile game from the same makers as the unnerving smash hit Sara is Missing set in the Doctor Who universe, and it's about the disappearance of one Larry Nightingale. He and a certain Sally Sparrow once defeated dangerous beings called the Weeping Angels. And now Larry is missing, his phone found its way into your hands, and someone named Petronella Osgood is calling...

"Found phone" games are some of the most creative things to come out of mobile gaming in the past few years, and The Lonely Assassins uses the format to great effect. It really feels like you're holding someone else's phone with your access to chats and image galleries, made creepier by the screen glitches and corrupted pictures.

If you're big Doctor Who fan like I am, you'll love Lonely Assassins. This isn't just a cash grab game with the brand name slapped on it. The game is a follow-up to the fan-favorite episode Blink, with Finlay Robertson even reprising his role as Larry Nightingale! And there are lots of name drops and locations that will be familiar to Whovians. It's like coming home.

And who better to lead you through a Doctor Who mobile game adventure than my girl, Petronella Osgood! And she's not just a game character...they actually got Ingrid Oliver to reprise her role in this game, and you can hear her sweet voice during calls or one of the many game's cut scenes. Oh how I've missed you, Osgood!

Osgood will help you through much of the game's plot remotely, but it's up to you to do the legwork (since, you know, you're the one holding the phone). You'll be scanning "clues" on the phone with Osgood's program, and you can submit the clues to her so you can piece it out together. You will investigate texts, look closely at images for clues, and even go through websites to gather intel. As a detective and mystery fan, this game makes me feel giddy.

It never feels like you're just a passenger for a ride in Lonely Assassins. At one point, you'll have a close brush with the game's titular Big Bad in frantic mini-games, and you'll have a literal hand in saving the world at one point or another through the course of the game. And if you've never heard of Doctor Who before, the game does a very good job at easing you into what the Weeping Angels are about. 

The Weeping Angels are the game's titular Big Bad and a major source of its scares. I've played Sara is Missing before, so my butthole was perpetually clenched playing The Lonely Assassins. Not a big fan of jump scares (understatement of the century), but I powered through it coz Osgood told me to! The jump scares in this game aren't as bad as some, probably to make this more accessible to everyone. But don't take my word for it!

Doctor Who: Lonely Assassins is a fun and immersive game that feels like an actual episode of Doctor Who, and for a Who-starved fan like me, this is a godsend. With lots of neat Easter eggs and jaw-dropping cameos, it's definitely worth the price of admission.

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins is now available on Apple App Store and Google Play for $2.99.