Writing
Trauma Center: Under the Knife - Published by N-Philes, Oct 21, 2005
Have you ever wondered what is would be like to be a surgeon? Well, Trauma Center: Under the Knife lets those who can't tell the difference between a liver and a kidney wield a scalpel and perform surgery on those in need. The game puts gamers in the shoes of Hope Hospital's newbie doctor Derek Stiles, a man who's a little wet behind the ears, but full of potential.
Motorcycle accident and tumor patients would make for an exciting day at any O.R., but it makes for a pretty average day in the Angeles Bay area. The first few levels require players to perform simple surgeries in order to get used to the stylus gameplay and touch screen's tools layout, which proves to be well thought out in the game's later, more frantic, scenarios. Everything is accessed from the bottom touch screen, with the top screen offering the player's current score and helpful advice from Dr. Stiles' assistants via a text box. The top screen also displays the time and miss limit. If ever those two stats, or the patient's vital signs (which are displayed at the top of the touch screen) drop to zero, the operation is deemed a failure and the player must start over. After completing an operation, the player is given a letter grade based on his or her performance.
Stiles and the Hope Hospital team quickly discover that not everything is well in the medical field as patients are admitted with increasingly unusual symptoms. The quick paced action sequences of Trauma Center are complimented by a dialogue-driven story line. In fact, some of the episodes involve strictly dialogue, without any operations. As Derek's character grows, he learns the "healing touch", a vital technique that effectively slows down time so that he can perform blindingly fast miracles. Dramatic plot twists and unusual non-medical "operations" help to keep the game fresh and interesting.
The game presents itself fairly well. Trauma Center uses a mostly 2D presentation, with some 3D backgrounds when operating on the patients. Everything from the textures to the effects looks great in motion. The game features some fairly basic music, but when things get frantic, the medical drama-inspired tracks step it up to add to the gravity of the situation. Some characters have voice samples telling you when to begin, or that you did a good job.
While the voice samples fit the characters' personalities nicely, they rarely add to the gameplay. By putting all the operation hints on the top screen, it interrupts the flow of the game by having the player divert his or her attention from the task at hand to reading what the assistant has to say. Having audible hints would have made the whole experience tighter and more realistic. Another problem is that performing operations at the edges of the touch screen are really difficult to do. The vital meter and syringe vials can sometimes obstruct the play area since you can't perform actions right over those areas. This made some scenarios, like the aneurysmectomy (removal of aneurisms) in Chapter 2, unnecessarily more difficult than they needed to be.
This game gets an N-Philes score of B+.
Trauma Center may not be at the cutting edge of medical science, but it does a spectacular job at pushing both the dual screen and touch screen concepts forward, making full use of the unique DS platform. A mix of realistic and fantastical situations helps to establish Derek Stiles' world as a credible yet creative one. The game itself is a little on the short side, but the ability to go back and improve on the operations' letter grade will keep avid gamers happy. While it can get repetitive at times, Trauma Center is an incredibly fun and unique game experience that offers some of the fastest paced stylus action out there. If the more simplistic mini-game outings like Feel the Magic and Wario Ware Touched! didn't hold your attention, Trauma Center might be more up your alley. Atlus deserves a nod for bringing this game over to the US, and gamers owe it to themselves to try this one out. Operation successful!