Doctor Who & The Vortex Of Lust

By Christopher Cole

There was a thread on the Adrift message board concerning adult IF to which Chris Cole became a very important poster. I've not really had much inclination to play adult IF (at least not in a long, long time) but given Chris' passion in his posts I visited his website. He spoke about his detail in the story of his games and how sex was not the main goal. I decided to investigate. Upon reviewing his list of games I saw "Dr. Who and the Vortex of Lust." Being a huge fan of Dr. Who this was game was downloaded immediately.

The level of writing in this game is quite high, much higher than I had expected. Chris was right in his posts he does take a lot of time and effort to create richly detailed scenes and it was greatly appreciated. In addition he didn't just throw sex in the Dr. Who world, he created a viable reason for actions within the game. The game starts out with you in the control room of the TARDIS with the Doctor who is frantically attempting to evaluate the damage of a temporal energy breach caused by a temporal storm. He lets you know that strange things may take place and visions of past and future lives of the Doctor may be seen and to remain calm. What the Doctor fails to mention is that this much temporal action running through the inferior human brain also stimulates the sexual side and well…causes you and the other human inhabitants to become quite horny.

Chris incorporates images straight out of Dr. Who screen captures for some of the characters in the game, but it's really not executed very well and doesn't add much to the game in my opinion. The actual adult portion of the game is, like everything else, very well written but truthfully didn't do anything for me. The adult aspect is certainly there and is a fundamental part of this game so removing it would hurt the game but aside from it the rest of the game is very well written and fun to play. Had I not been a Dr. Who fan I think I would not have enjoyed it nearly as much.

The bottom line here is if you have ever been slightly interested in AIF but downloaded the idiot games that the focus was sex and quit playing before you got out of the second room, Chris Cole's work might be for you. Sex is a part of his games but not central, and in this game at least not the main goal. His writing is well thought out, detailed and thankfully interesting. Dr. Who and the Vortex of Lust would be hard to improve…but I might want to start with a slightly less cheesy title.

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