Trauma Center: New Blood Review
By Leslie Kivett
Game: Trauma Center: New Blood.
System: Wii
Developer: Atlus games.
ESRB: T for Teen
Nintendo Wifi Connection: Yes.
Trauma Center: New Blood is about 2 top notch doctors named Markus Vaughn (Yes Markus is the correct spelling of his name) and Valerie Blaylock working in a hospital in Alaska. However, when the hospitals owner/operator decides to close the hospital due to a new one opening up down the street. Both Dr. Vaughn and Dr. Blaylock are relocated to the Hospital in Los Angeles where they learn that they have been selected to operate on a patient with an abnormal disease called Stigma. A disease that was thought to be eliminated years ago.
Gameplay is fast paced and pretty straight forward. Most of the operations you will be performing require lighting speed and accuracy. You will be using tools like the Scalpel to cut open patients and cut out tumors, the scanner mainly to reveal tumors, Antibiotic Gel to sterilize an area on the patients body, Drain, to drain out unnecessary fluids like pus and cytoplasm, and various other items that help you in many different ways. The gameplay is solid, and actually quite entertaining, if you can stand the blood and guts, however, it gets extremely repetitive, extremely fast. From the 3rd level on, all the operations are basically the same only on different people. Also, the controls are very shaky. You literally have to hold the Wiimote with 2 hands in order to use the scalpel correctly and selecting a tool is more difficult than you would think. To select a tool, simply move the control stick in the direction the tools little picture is in. The only problem with this system, and the reason I do not appreciate it, is the fact that it will randomly switch devices on you. This is not a good thing for later levels that require you to be playing at your max capability. You might be sucking out a persons excess blood in order to prevents a flow problem with the drain, and it will randomly switch to the laser tool, which is used to remove early level tumors, and you will end up burning your patient reducing it's vitals and killing it off. There's another problem with the gameplay, the syringe. You are constantly forced to inject the patient with vital juices to prevent its heart beat from stopping. There is a bar at the top of the screen showing the remaining vitals in the patient, when the bar reaches about 20 vitals remaining, it lets you know that you better do something about it. The max number of vitals you can inject is 99 in a normal patient, the bad part here is that sometimes the game likes to mess with you and have the max amount be 10, so every 2 seconds you are injecting more into the patient. Then, the syringe breaks if you use it to much, so your screwed! Clearly something that should not have been featured in the game. Other than that, the gameplay is good, however it gets boring fast. Especially since you only get a glimpse of the main story about every 3 or 4 operations. So your stuck doing superfluous operations until the one that gives you some clue to the main story.
Its parts of the game like this that are the problem. It has you doing 3 things at once. Sterilizing the wounds, sewing them up and injecting vitals, good luck with that.
(Sigh) Bad. The graphics in Trauma Center are just not up to par with any other games on Wii. The cutscenes are all comic book style, the characters having only 3 expressions on their faces that randomly change and sometimes don't even match the emotion in their voices. However, the graphics shown when operations are being performed, are O.K. It is 3-D, so thats good, except when/if you enter the patients body, then everything reverts to 2-D and looks like your playing the operation table game. Bones look like paper and blood looks as though it was drawn by a 3 year old.
The typical cutscene, the terrible unskipable cutscene.
This game is pretty spot on with the treatments used in Trauma Center and what sicknesses they are used to treat. I mean, if your into the medical field and are looking to become a Doctor or Nurse, then this is the game for you! However otherwise, you will end up getting confused by the terms used by the characters and probably grossed out by what they show you. But hey, if your into that stuff, then go ahead. I have to give some props to whoever wrote the dialogue, that guy did his homework.
This game is not for the squeamish.
Ultimately, Trauma Center: New Blood is entertaining and fun, for a while. Wifi play is basically the same exact thing as single player, only with a partner, witch makes the game much easier. It is good for someone who is looking for a game to play for a weekend or something. I advise that if you are interested, rent if first and if you like it so much that you have to keep it, then buy it, but please try it before doing so. I give Trauma Center: New Blood a 7.5 out of 10. Here's why.
Decent gameplay
Good story
Nice voice emotions displayed by characters
Medically accurate.
Short.
Gets boring quickly.
Graphics are not up to par with other Wii titles.
Repetitive.
Game: Trauma Center: New Blood.
System: Wii
Developer: Atlus games.
ESRB: T for Teen
Nintendo Wifi Connection: Yes.
Trauma Center: New Blood is about 2 top notch doctors named Markus Vaughn (Yes Markus is the correct spelling of his name) and Valerie Blaylock working in a hospital in Alaska. However, when the hospitals owner/operator decides to close the hospital due to a new one opening up down the street. Both Dr. Vaughn and Dr. Blaylock are relocated to the Hospital in Los Angeles where they learn that they have been selected to operate on a patient with an abnormal disease called Stigma. A disease that was thought to be eliminated years ago.
Gameplay is fast paced and pretty straight forward. Most of the operations you will be performing require lighting speed and accuracy. You will be using tools like the Scalpel to cut open patients and cut out tumors, the scanner mainly to reveal tumors, Antibiotic Gel to sterilize an area on the patients body, Drain, to drain out unnecessary fluids like pus and cytoplasm, and various other items that help you in many different ways. The gameplay is solid, and actually quite entertaining, if you can stand the blood and guts, however, it gets extremely repetitive, extremely fast. From the 3rd level on, all the operations are basically the same only on different people. Also, the controls are very shaky. You literally have to hold the Wiimote with 2 hands in order to use the scalpel correctly and selecting a tool is more difficult than you would think. To select a tool, simply move the control stick in the direction the tools little picture is in. The only problem with this system, and the reason I do not appreciate it, is the fact that it will randomly switch devices on you. This is not a good thing for later levels that require you to be playing at your max capability. You might be sucking out a persons excess blood in order to prevents a flow problem with the drain, and it will randomly switch to the laser tool, which is used to remove early level tumors, and you will end up burning your patient reducing it's vitals and killing it off. There's another problem with the gameplay, the syringe. You are constantly forced to inject the patient with vital juices to prevent its heart beat from stopping. There is a bar at the top of the screen showing the remaining vitals in the patient, when the bar reaches about 20 vitals remaining, it lets you know that you better do something about it. The max number of vitals you can inject is 99 in a normal patient, the bad part here is that sometimes the game likes to mess with you and have the max amount be 10, so every 2 seconds you are injecting more into the patient. Then, the syringe breaks if you use it to much, so your screwed! Clearly something that should not have been featured in the game. Other than that, the gameplay is good, however it gets boring fast. Especially since you only get a glimpse of the main story about every 3 or 4 operations. So your stuck doing superfluous operations until the one that gives you some clue to the main story.
Its parts of the game like this that are the problem. It has you doing 3 things at once. Sterilizing the wounds, sewing them up and injecting vitals, good luck with that.
(Sigh) Bad. The graphics in Trauma Center are just not up to par with any other games on Wii. The cutscenes are all comic book style, the characters having only 3 expressions on their faces that randomly change and sometimes don't even match the emotion in their voices. However, the graphics shown when operations are being performed, are O.K. It is 3-D, so thats good, except when/if you enter the patients body, then everything reverts to 2-D and looks like your playing the operation table game. Bones look like paper and blood looks as though it was drawn by a 3 year old.
The typical cutscene, the terrible unskipable cutscene.
This game is pretty spot on with the treatments used in Trauma Center and what sicknesses they are used to treat. I mean, if your into the medical field and are looking to become a Doctor or Nurse, then this is the game for you! However otherwise, you will end up getting confused by the terms used by the characters and probably grossed out by what they show you. But hey, if your into that stuff, then go ahead. I have to give some props to whoever wrote the dialogue, that guy did his homework.
This game is not for the squeamish.
Ultimately, Trauma Center: New Blood is entertaining and fun, for a while. Wifi play is basically the same exact thing as single player, only with a partner, witch makes the game much easier. It is good for someone who is looking for a game to play for a weekend or something. I advise that if you are interested, rent if first and if you like it so much that you have to keep it, then buy it, but please try it before doing so. I give Trauma Center: New Blood a 7.5 out of 10. Here's why.
Decent gameplay
Good story
Nice voice emotions displayed by characters
Medically accurate.
Short.
Gets boring quickly.
Graphics are not up to par with other Wii titles.
Repetitive.
