If there was one game I wish I’d never given time to, it’s this one.

Don’t get me wrong… It’s not because the game is bad. In fact, it’s quite good… very good. That is, of course, if you don’t have a weak stomach for operating on humans who have living, poisonous, man-made parasites in them.

The Story

Derek Stiles is a new doctor in Hope Hospital. At first, he didn’t take being a doctor seriously, nearly causing the life of one of his patients. His assistant, Angela “Angie Thompson,asked him why he became a doctor in the first place when he doesn’t seem to care for his patients.

An accident that same night causes Stiles to operate on a patient once more. Severe inhuries to the heart made it seem impossible for him to survive, but Stiles miraculously saves him with an incredible power. This ability known as the “Healing Touch” is the key to defeat the terrorists’ biological warfare: and incurable disease known as GUILT (Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin).

Gameplay

Trauma Center takes advantage of NDS’ touch screen and allows the player to literallt slice open a patient, use lasers to kill off parasites, inject stabilizers, sew them up, and patch them like new. The time limit and very bossy assistants can make you panic a lot. Choosing the right tools to get the job done can also be hazardous to your patients’ health.

The solution? Keep calm, like any surgeon, and think one step ahead. Speed and technique are the keys for success, where in you must take things slow, or speed it up a bit depending on what you’re dealing with.

Replay Factor

This really depends on the player, but chances are, this game’s replay factor is medium. If puzzles and speed are what you’re after, then this game would suit you well, though there are plenty of alternatives out there. In all honesty, the game is very addicting, but if the gore and shaky pain you feel in your hands after several attempts to save a person’s life bothers you a lot, then this may not be worth a second shot.

Overall

One this is for sure, the game is worth trying at least once. It’s a hit or miss: either you like it, or you don’t. As for me, I haven’t finished the game yet, but it’s honestly very frustrating. When you think about it, real operations take hours to finish and you only have 5 minutes, even though an extra few seconds under the knife would have been all it took for you to save another life. Not only that, it tends to make you feel depressed when you’ve done all you could do to save a patient, even find a cure, and yet… you must still watch your patient die. This is a reality real doctors face in the real world and not everyone has the emotional capacity to handle it.

It gave me a much higher respect for surgeons, that much I can say.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.