Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
The Trauma Center series is a game based around surgical simulation, although nearly not as complicated as a real life operation. The 2 games on the Wii were okay, but the DS versions are far more realistic, since the stylus controls really bring out the authenticity of the game. Under the Knife is the latest game in the series. The game's main characters are Doctor Derek Stiles, along with his faithful nurse Angie Thompson, who travel to Africa to one of the refugee camps there, called Zakara. When the game begins, they have been working there for several months, both to help patients and investigate a new disease. A new doctor, Adel Tulba, arrives and is taken under Derek's wing. After the disease is eradicated, they return back to their home city, where they face an entirely new battle...
Gameplay, controls, graphics
The only real gameplay here involves the surgical procedures. You get a number of tools to use for your surgeries. The way you use the tools feels really realistic, from the slicing of the scalpel to using the sutures to sew up the wounds. You can even use a technique called the healing touch, which can help you out in a tight spot, but you don't get this until a bit later in the game. However, while you perform one of the many, many different operations available in the game, you must also monitor the vital stats of your patients to ensure they don't head into cardiac arrest. The operations themselves range from transplants to extractions to healing them of the new diesase. You may think a game based only on surgery simulation can get boring after a while, and it does if you have no interest in medicine. The amount of actual medical terms used in the game is simply outstanding, so unless you really have an interest in medicine and surgery, I'd stay away from this game. However, With procedures rarely clearly explained, frustration is quick to take over, and the time limit is just annoying. A normal operation has a time limit of 5 minutes, which doesn't seem so hard until you get stuck randomly away at the screen, trying to figure out what to do next. There are also a few instances where you must perform 3 surgeries back to back within a 10 minute window, only to fail on your last patient because you ran out of time, forcing you have to go back and restart from the very first patient. Be forewarned that it also does get bloody, naturally. The graphics themselves are okay (for the DS); the organs are fairly detailed, and the characters expressions are quite energetic sometimes. The voice acting is fairly brief and nothing special.
I'd give the game 3/5, since this is really one of the only nintendo DS games that was not made by nintendo that I truly enjoyed. The gameplay is fun and constantly changing, the difficulty is progressively difficult, and the sound and graphics are both fairly good. The story fucking sucks though and the time limit is sometimes frustrating. Still, it feels fun to play if you wish to be a surgeon one day. This is the ideal game for all you wannabe doctors out there!
The Trauma Center series is a game based around surgical simulation, although nearly not as complicated as a real life operation. The 2 games on the Wii were okay, but the DS versions are far more realistic, since the stylus controls really bring out the authenticity of the game. Under the Knife is the latest game in the series. The game's main characters are Doctor Derek Stiles, along with his faithful nurse Angie Thompson, who travel to Africa to one of the refugee camps there, called Zakara. When the game begins, they have been working there for several months, both to help patients and investigate a new disease. A new doctor, Adel Tulba, arrives and is taken under Derek's wing. After the disease is eradicated, they return back to their home city, where they face an entirely new battle...
Gameplay, controls, graphics
The only real gameplay here involves the surgical procedures. You get a number of tools to use for your surgeries. The way you use the tools feels really realistic, from the slicing of the scalpel to using the sutures to sew up the wounds. You can even use a technique called the healing touch, which can help you out in a tight spot, but you don't get this until a bit later in the game. However, while you perform one of the many, many different operations available in the game, you must also monitor the vital stats of your patients to ensure they don't head into cardiac arrest. The operations themselves range from transplants to extractions to healing them of the new diesase. You may think a game based only on surgery simulation can get boring after a while, and it does if you have no interest in medicine. The amount of actual medical terms used in the game is simply outstanding, so unless you really have an interest in medicine and surgery, I'd stay away from this game. However, With procedures rarely clearly explained, frustration is quick to take over, and the time limit is just annoying. A normal operation has a time limit of 5 minutes, which doesn't seem so hard until you get stuck randomly away at the screen, trying to figure out what to do next. There are also a few instances where you must perform 3 surgeries back to back within a 10 minute window, only to fail on your last patient because you ran out of time, forcing you have to go back and restart from the very first patient. Be forewarned that it also does get bloody, naturally. The graphics themselves are okay (for the DS); the organs are fairly detailed, and the characters expressions are quite energetic sometimes. The voice acting is fairly brief and nothing special.
I'd give the game 3/5, since this is really one of the only nintendo DS games that was not made by nintendo that I truly enjoyed. The gameplay is fun and constantly changing, the difficulty is progressively difficult, and the sound and graphics are both fairly good. The story fucking sucks though and the time limit is sometimes frustrating. Still, it feels fun to play if you wish to be a surgeon one day. This is the ideal game for all you wannabe doctors out there!
