I got Trauma Center Second Opinion the day after I got my Wii since I couldn’t find
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess so I decided to get this, despite not having played the DS version. I got frustrated and when I got Zelda I pretty much shelved this game but since I beat Zelda I decided to try and finish this game off. So how is Trauma Center Second Opinion, and is it worth getting for the Wii.
Story.
You play has Dr. Stiles a young surgeon who is just starting out and making rookie mistakes which is new assistant Angie can’t wait to point out. But when Dr. Stiles acquires something called the healing touch which lets him slow down time while operating on a patient things start to change. Things get weirder when he is asked to join Cadceus a government run team of doctors in charge of whipping out diseases before they become pandemics. Stiles is asked to wipe out a new man made virus called Guilt before it consumes the human race.
Graphics.
The graphics are ok but there not eye popping by any means, even for gamecube graphics. The game looks at human organs is adequate enough for you tell what they are without getting into any gory details that might make someone nocuous. The cut scenes that go before the surgery and tell the story are all done by cut stills of anime looking characters, and text boxes. The in game surgery may look ok but a little more work on the cut scenes wouldn’t have hurt since some of them can get pretty long.
Sound.
The music has a bit of urgent pace to it that makes you feel the pressure that comes with time limit and doing surgeries where anything can go and will go wrong, it fits well and goes well with the game but I wouldn’t buy a soundtrack of it. As for voices there just small sample clips expect to hear “I’ll save this patient” or “Chiral reaction is negative” several times through out this.
Gameplay
Ok Trauma Center is not a real life sim or anything like that it’s more of a puzzle game then anything else, so this doesn’t count as med school in less you’re the Simpsons surgeon Dr. Nick.
The idea of the game is to complete the operation and figure out which of several of your tools will work best for what situation. You have the scalpel for cutting, antibiotic gel for small wounds, the suture for big wounds, forceps for getting pesky shrapnel out, laser for burning things off, a needle for injecting, a drain for draining fluids and ultrasound to detect things you can’t see.
To switch from different items you use the nunchuck analog stick and just push the stick in one of the 8 directions to pick an item. To use the item you just point the wii mote at the screen and press A. Some items will of course require special motions like to stitch a patient up you have to use diagonal zig zags in order to complete. The controls work good and are easy to pick up.
But that dosen’t make the game easy in fact it’s one of the most frustrating games ever played and for those who throw there controllers at the TV this game may not be for you.
When you get to the guilt virus the puzzles pick up and become more complex there are several forms of guilt and they all have to be killed in there own way. Some you have to inject antibodies into the virus, others you have to cut and burn, other you have to fire a laser and but them and all the things they release before they damage the patient. Some of these surgeries can be brutally difficult to do the most annoying form is one called Trity not that it kills the patient quickly but because you often run out of time and patience before you defeat it. In triti’s example you have several triangle shaped guilt fasten on my white poles, removing all the white poles frees the triangles so you can remove it. Problem is the triangles and the white poles can regenerate at random and they can do it pretty fast, and there is also blue mist that sometimes appears in this surgery to and if you don’t stop and drain the mist it can do major damage to the patients vitals. When it comes to the missions involving this virus I have often given up after several attempts or had aching wrists from having to move so fast.
But wait there is help there is something called the healing touch which slows down time, unfortunately Atlus forgot that the Wii mote can’t emulate drawing as well has the Ds stylus so drawing the star right so you can activate it can be a bit tricky. Holding down B and Z lets you draw lines for the star but if it’s not close enough it won’t activate it. It takes several tries sometimes and in the case of triti the virus will have probably grown so large what little advantage the healing touch will give you will be gone by the time you remove the extra Triti that has appeared. By thought why can’t I just press B and Z button on both controllers and get asked to activate the healing touch, it’s not like it can be abused since you can only use it for a limit period of time once in each operation.
Another frustrating thing is the nurses and there comments sometimes when you need them to speak up because your stuck they keep there lip shut, seal this up, and your stuck wondering how. One example of this is in one operation you have to repair a broken bone by twisting the wii mote around so it will fit in the place, but they never tell you have to twist in order to fit it. Then there are times when you just want them to shut up because they come in talking when you all ready now what to do and they screw up your timing because you have to wait till there done talking before your able to continue.
Despite my complaining there are some rather fun surgery and challenges to Trauma Center Second opinion there are super hard stages after you finish the main story mode, adjustable difficulty levels, and there is a 2nd character that has a few side story missions that the DS didn’t have.
Final Recommendation.
Despite the frustration and the minor problems I had with Trauma Center I did have some fun, the only problem is there is a DS game that while the controls are different the missions for the most part are surprisingly the same and its 20 dollars less. I recommend it as a rental because right now it’s a bit to expensive for an actual purchase.
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