Trauma Center: Second Opinion Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 14th January 2008

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I need a Wii remote stat!

Trauma Centre: Second Opinion Details:

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	Simulation
	Nintendo Wii
	Atlus
	Nintendo

12+

Out Now

N/A

Trauma Centre first appeared on the Nintendo DS and was the first game that allowed you to play the classic board game Operation on a computer console. In essence, you take on the role of a surgeon in a hospital, having to perform operations to save peoples lives. On the DS you used the stylus to play but it was obvious this sort of game would benefit from the unique Wii control system.

In this game there are two characters that you play as, Dr Derek Stiles, who starred in the previous game on the DS, and a new surgeon named Dr Naomi Weaver. The game centres on these two main characters and their respective stories, with Dr Stiles working as a surgeon at Hope Hospital, whereas Dr Weaver’s storyline is shrouded in much more mystery, as she appears to be merely a skilled surgeon willing to work for the highest bidder. The story is told by stills of the characters on screen and text below stating what they are saying or thinking, and follows on from the visual style of its DS predecessor.

The game is divided into chapters, in each chapter you must complete episodes, and each episode contains a continuation of the story, which resembles a script spliced together from the X-files and Holby City! The story does however add something to the game and gives what you’re doing in the game some context. After the soap opera section you are given an operation that must be performed on a patient where you must complete a procedure in a certain amount of time (usually about 5 minutes) and without letting the patient’s vitals drop to zero.

To complete the operation successfully you must use the correct tools for the job, for example using the forceps to remove glass from a wound, then clearing the excess blood using a draining apparatus and then suturing the wound together and finally applying antibacterial gel to aid the healing process. Every one of these actions is scored “Cool”, “OK” or “Bad” depending on how well you’ve performed it, so if you’re suturing is messy, then your score will suffer and so will the patient.

Each of the tools you need is mapped to a different direction on the nunchuck, so for example you push left on the analogue stick to switch to your scalpel, or down for the laser and then push right for your suture. It’s a good system and works well, making it easy to switch between the stuff in your inventory without wasting a lot of time, which is always of the essence.

So you have your scalpel at the ready as the first episode begins (with the ominous message of “The patient’s life is in your hands”!) and you are presented with a human body ready to be sliced open. But exactly how do you do this? The first few episodes introduce the tools and how to use them to perform simple procedures. The remote acts as a pointer on the screen, and it’s a simple case of making sure you’ve got the right tool in your hand and you’re pointing the remote in the correct place before pressing the trigger to start cutting, lazering, suturing or draining or whatever you’re doing at that moment. Forceps require both A and B to be pressed and held simultaneously and then the remote is moved upwards to remove foreign bodies form the patient, suturing wounds means pressing down on the trigger and guiding the remote across the wound to stitch it up. The remote works very well and before you know it you’ll have mastered all the bits of kit in your toolbox! Occasionally, the remote can be a little on the sensitive side and if you’ve got naturally shaky hands it could prove to be a problem, but the majority of the time it works perfectly.

This is good because the procedures get tougher as the game goes on, and you have to use more tools more often and perform the operation better and quicker. You are ranked at the end of every chapter on several factors, including how many “Cool”s or “OK”s you got in a row, how well you kept the patient’s vitals and how quickly you performed the procedure. This is where you have to make a choice. Do you risk going faster for a higher score and hence a higher rank or do you take your time and go for the maximum combo? Getting that coveted S grade in all the chapters is tricky, especially as the game goes on!

Early on in the game, you discover that both Dr Stiles and Dr Weaver have an ace up their sleeve to help them out in their times of need. They have the Healing Touch, this is activated by drawing a star using the remote and holding down Z and B, which slows time down for a while and this allows them to tackle the more difficult procedures and is definitely a godsend! This is the first niggle I found with the game, drawing the star can sometimes prove difficult, especially when you first learn about it, and in the middle of an operation with a patient dying, and you’re trying to draw a stupid star for the third time can be a little frustrating, but this is the only major negative with the game.

As the game progresses, your true calling is made apparent, a new man-made virus known as GUILT is causing a threat to the entire world. GUILT has many different strands, but each type moves about inside the patient causing lacerations and blood loss and ultimately leading to death, it basically turns the victims body against itself! It is feared that the people who developed it are terrorists and are trying to cause a global epidemic! Only highly skilled surgeons with the Healing Touch are fast enough to eliminate GUILT. Step forward, Dr Stiles and Dr Weaver, they join forces with Caduceus, a global medical corparation who specialise in curing diseases, to tackle the GUILT problem. You are then introduced to the various different variants of GUILT, each one requiring a different approach to defeat them. There are a few levels that break up the usual routine of operations and GUILT infestations, but most of these are pretty simplistic and dull (except one which I won’t spoil!).

On easy mode, it’s not too challenging, but push the difficulty up to normal or hard and you’ll find that you really are no match for it without plenty of practise, (I gave up after halfway through Normal mode) but there’s nothing new to the harder levels you’ll just discover that the patients vitals drop quicker and the GUILT is faster, there’s more of them or there more robust than before. Also, once you complete the game you unlock the impossibly difficult “Extreme” levels, that require super-human powers to get half-way through, let alone complete!

The graphics are functional but could be much better, obviously its not supposed to be realistic otherwise it would be too gross and no fun at all. The fact that the game reuses the stills and text approach form the DS version, just shows that the developers didn’t utilise the full graphical power of the Wii. On the other hand, fans of the DS version will probably be glad to see that the graphical style has been kept.

The audio is disappointing. I found the music annoying most of the time, but the sound effects are fine. The biggest let down is the lack of speech in the game. The story is supposed to be intregral to the game because we want to connect with them as we progress through their life. I always find that good voice acting helps to develop a character much better and helps you to get to know them.

So what’s the diagnosis? The best thing I can say about this is that its unique and some people will love it. There is nothing else like it on any console, it’s a completely different kind of game, and it is made brilliantly. The story is interesting, even if it’s a little weird, and keeps the game going. Also you will find that you will be addicted…for a while. This is mainly due to the episodes being so short (especially once you’ve completed the game and you can skip the talking bits before the operation itself) and its very tempting just to think “One more…” before relising what the time is! If you’re somebody who likes to try and constantly beat their high scores or time trials on video games then this could keep you entertained for ages, or if you’re bored by the standard genres of games, the shoot-em-up’s, beat-em-up’s and jump-em-up’s and the tired cliche of collecting 100 whatevers, and you want to try something a bit weird but wonderful then get some gloves “stat”, and get some hands on experience with this fresh and unique game.