It's been almost three years since we saw the first Trauma Center game get a release on the Nintendo DS, and it was the first in it's genre. It's also been a whole three years since the original game, Under The Knife, received a proper, direct sequ...
It’s been almost three years since we saw the first Trauma Center game get a release on the Nintendo DS, and it was the first in it’s genre. It’s also been a whole three years since the original game, Under The Knife, received a proper, direct sequel on the system it originated on. When Trauma Center first launched, it provided players with a somewhat enjoyable experience that turned a player’s lounge room into an operating room. Fortunately, Trauma Center to this day is still one of the only series to do so, and with the release of Trauma Center: Under The Knife 2, Atlus futher builds on their succesful audience while alienating other fans too. More details can be found later on.
The Trauma Center series has always been very dramatic in the delivery of an intriguing and compelling narrative. Under The Knife 2 is no exception in this regard. Taking place three years after the events of the original game, Under The Knife 2 sees a now mature Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson leaving America and working in a fictional African country, the Republic of Cotigar. Although this country used to be at war and is at peace, it’s residents are always seeking medical help through surprise attacks from remaining guerilla forces and still activated landmines. Naturally, the duo responsible for eradicating the GUILT epidemic encountered in the first game have been sent by Caduceus, a fictional branch of the World Health Organisation, to ensure the residents of Cotigar get the health care they deserve. Naturally, however, something does go wrong eventually and Derek and Angie are called back to Caduceus to resolve the problem. We won’t go into detail here without spoiling, so we’ll leave players to find out the rest for themselves.
Within Under The Knife 2’s narrative are several prominent underlying themes of racism as well as pride and self worth. The narrative deals with the consequences of ambition and the disparity between pride and the inability to help others. The story is definitely filled with several nuances which really make the player question what is going on and compells them to play further. Under The Knife 2 further builds the personality of several returning characters as well as interesting, likeable new ones by implementing voice work into the dialogue, albeit only during certain and specific moments.
Since it’s last appearance on the DS, Trauma Center has undergone a notable make over in terms of visuals. The game is now sharper, the colours are more vibrant and there is a general higher quality feel to the graphics themselves and the animations seen in both the operation sequences and the dialogue. That being said, they are a notable downgrade from the Nintendo Wii’s Trauma Center: New Blood, but it’s not entirely fair to compare the two. The game doesn’t run in a smooth and fluid 60 frames per second, but still manages to output a decent amount of visual acuity and quality almost at all times. The character portraits that appead during dialogue are nice to look at, although the visual style means that almost all the characters have exactly the same facial expressions, leading to an incredibly lack of variety.
Gameplay in Trauma Center: Under The Knife 2, just like it’s predecessors, takes placed in two distinct phases. The first phase is comprised entirely of dialogue, and usually occurs both before and after an operation, or to specifically fill in gaps between episodes. During these sequences, the portraits of the many characters appear on the top screen of the DS, along with their dialogue, while the bottom screen displays a map locating where the event is taking place. During specific occasions, both screens will be utilised to introduce a new character, and it’s a nice touch which adds a dramatic feel to the game. The second phase is the bulk of the Trauma Center series, and those are the medical procedures. During these procedures, the top screen of the DS is utilised to receive instructions from an accompanying nurse, show time remaining and the score of the current operation. Scoring is done by chaining together succesful actions – suturing an open wound accurately will yield more points than doing it in a half assed manner.
During the operation sequences, there hasn’t been a whole lot of new features that have been implemented. The first is the defibrilator, a tool used to jumpstart the patient’s heartbeat. Although users may recognise this tool from the Wii game, it is the first time the tool has appeared on the DS. Herein lies the biggest problem with Under The Knife 2 – almost all of the procedures that are different to the previous game on the DS have been simply transposed to the DS from the Wii. It’s as if the developers wanted to include the features that non Wii owners have been missing out on, but also lends itself to making the whole game feel too similar to New Blood or Second Opinion on the Wii. None the less, the three dimensional visuals during the operation procedures have been cleaned up and look notably smoother compared to previous additions to the series.
But enough about what’s wrong with this title, it’s still very enjoyable and seemingly addictive in nature. During the medical procedures players can wield sutures, syringes, forceps, drains, scalpels, antibiotic gel, bandages, ultrasound radars, surgical lasers and the healing touch. The healing touch is the special ability that only Derek, the game’s protagonist, and several other doctors can wield. The power of the healing touch essentially slows down time, so that Derek (or the player) can perform an operation in a quicker manner. The healing touch is activated by drawing a star on the touch screen of the Nintendo DS, and it works much better than previously, allowing for a lower degree of accuracy that would otherwise hinder proper activation in the heat of an operation.
The original Trauma Center never faltered with providing an appropriately scored soundtrack. There are several pieces of music in Under The Knife 2, of which are mainly used to heighten stress during tense operations, as well as to add to the drama as it unfolds during the dialogue scenes. Needless to say, the soundtrack in Under The Knife 2 eclipses it’s previous iterations’ soundtracks.
As previously mentioned, the major problem with Under The Knife 2 is that gamers approaching the title with hopes of experiencing something new probably won’t be satisfied. The main design of Under The Knife 2 is basically as if to assume that the player has not previously completed New Blood, and as such the features and new equipment being presented are new instead of just being lifted from previous games. This both works and doesn’t work. It works because it will appeals to those who only played the series on the Nintendo DS, and with the delays of the Wii editions in Australia, it’s safe to assume that’s a lot of people. On the other hand, those who have completed the Wii titles will be disappointed to find nothing new outside of a continuation of Derek and Angie’s story from the first game.
That being said, Trauma Center: Under The Knife 2 does not provide a mediocre experience, it maintains the strong quality that previous games in the series have presented, albeit in a manner similar to the previous games. The story is involving, the characters are diverse, the new enemy viruses are both disturbing and fun to battle, and the game itself is just plain addictive.
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