Trauma Center: a Retrospective

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Trauma Center: a Retrospective
Tweet Topic Started: Dec 1 2008, 05:10 PM (266 Views)
Squiggles	Dec 1 2008, 05:10 PM Post #1
You're a louse. Posts: 2,112 Group: Peach Member #1,802 Joined: July 2, 2006	The Trauma Center series consists of four games so far: Trama Center: Under the Knife, Trauma Center: Second Opinion,Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 and Trauma Center New Blood. The games are listed in order of Western release date and this retrospective is going to serve as a set of miniature reviews followed by an analysis of the series in general. Trauma Center: Under The Knife The first game of the series doesn't suffer from a slow start in the slightest. It was marketed as a doctor-sim but drifts away from typical doctor activities from around the 2nd Chapter, where the introduction of GUILT sees you straying from realism and facing diseases far beyond the port of call of a doctor. This is what leaves a number of people sorely disappointed, and a number of people very happy: I walked into the series expecting broken bones, tumours, and maybe the final level might involve brain surgery. What I got was tumours and broken bones for about a chapter, before the diseases became more sophisticated and not at all as patronizing as I had initially feared. Casual gamers will lose interest due to the high difficulty level, which is among the hardest in the series, the dark story and the unrealism that they walked in expecting none of. Don't see this game as a doctor sim. The role of doctor serves as a storyline and an immersion tool: characters convey passion for their work, and you are left contemplating the responsibilities and moral choices a doctor undertakes. Controls are excellent, perfectly suited to the DS with an excellent interface that makes operations challenging in the best possible way. Trauma Center: Second Opinion This game is essentially a new version of the preceeding game with several new operations, an expanded storyline, and fiddlier controls. Scenes are copied verbatim in certain cases and so if there were a game to miss in the series, it'd be this one. As the only game to not feature a new story, it has to have a lot of redeeming features to qualify as equal to its predecessor. It falls ever so short, with irritating controls down to hardware faults on the Wii, adding difficulty for all the wrong reasons. While the new controls are immersive with defibrilators etcetera, the "playing doctor" has never been the core aspect. That being said, the added storyline is terrific. Darker, grittier and ties up the loose ends left by the first game. Which is a shame, because the loose ends are tied up again in the second game in this storyline! Buy for the story, it's cheaper than the other games, although renting would be the smartest option just to get the story and the experience of playing in a different control scheme. Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 The storyline in this game is the only aspect you'll enjoy. Surgery is varied and immersive as well as featuring the best final operation in the series. I could beat it in 2 days although difficulty changes certainly kept me occupied. Features such as a sound-box is an excellent celebration of the best soundtrack in the series. Breaking The Chains of Fate ranks among my favourite video game songs. Now, the storyline falls short in its villains, featuring the grandson of the big bad from the previous game in this story, Adam. On the whole, he's simply "evil" where Adam was a complicated and haunting character with the purpose of adding the moral aspects to the role of a doctor and whether they are doing the right thing. Here, we're left with a man drenched in stereotype. That's fine! The real aspect of our story is the development between Derek and Angie, the two protagonists. A romance plot insues, along with the flaws of each becoming much more obvious, where the game was previously clinging on to the "good doctor" a little too strongly. As it stands, this is the best in the series dispite awkward voice acting, and is an emotive, challenging and worthwhile buy. Trauma Center: New Blood Aha! Finally, some new blood! Hahaha. Here you play Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock fighting against Stigma, the GUILT parallel of the game. So, operations are much more suited to the Wiis limitations while still being challenging. The storyline is weaker than the other ones, focusing far more on the overall charisma of the characters. This a game for the operations solely with storyline as a secondary telos; although you'll still be gripped. Anyone that knows me well will know I love the series for its challenge, its moral questioning, its story, its ingenuity, its adaptation to previous failings and the complete ignorance towards casual gamers. I find these games in the back alleys of game stores: casual gamers hate this game, but if you're after a new and pioneering genre of game, give this series a look.



Shieldbou	Dec 4 2008, 02:08 PM Post #2
/ Posts: 5,120 Group: Former Staff Member #1,634 Joined: April 22, 2006	Really interesting, great idea to sum up the series as a whole as opposed to one of the games. I'd like to see more



Picklegod	Dec 4 2008, 02:30 PM Post #3
Don't you agree, Zach? Posts: 5,078 Group: Former Staff Member #11,349 Joined: October 23, 2008 Coins 3	I wanted the first one when it came out, but I never got it because it doesn't look like it has a high replay value. After reading your mini-review, It might just go back on my "to buy" list.
	Foremost is the chromatic substance accomplishment to Picklegod! Pickle contributes to all parts of the forum, stays astir, and mostly is awful to everyone he meets. A wonderful, intelligent somebody, Pickle testament now better us with every day NF decisions. Approval Picklgod! -afrad15


Squiggles	Dec 4 2008, 04:21 PM Post #4
You're a louse. Posts: 2,112 Group: Peach Member #1,802 Joined: July 2, 2006	It's got replay value, just somewhat less than the others due to the lack of difficulty settings. It can't be expensive now so I'd heartily recommend you buy or at least rent it.



WillQ	Jan 5 2009, 06:23 AM Post #5
Hello little fella! Posts: 2,147 Group: Peach Member #6,793 Joined: January 1, 2008	Just gave this a read and I must say you did a great job on the review and i've played the first wii game and it was pretty good



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