Trauma Team
Score: 92% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Atlus Developer: Atlus Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Simulation/ Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: For the squeamish, Trauma Team's newly revamped graphics engine retains the series' more "iconic" look of a person's innards. Trauma Team forgoes textbook accuracy for big, squishy organs, Jell-O mold tumors and plastic bones. The trend towards non-realism doesn't hurt the game in the least, and makes it easier to focus on the task at hand. Narrative comes via animated comic book panels. The delivery is excellent. Unless you're in an Event section, panels are long enough to set up the next procedure, but still short. Compared to past games, Trauma Team weaves an interesting tale. There's the typical drama, such as a brash loner doctor or one whose home life is falling apart, but some of the better moments come from more offbeat storylines. One doctor, known only as CR-S01, is an amnesic master surgeon serving a life sentence for unleashing a bio-terrorist attack. Another moonlights as a superhero. Panels are complimented by some truly excellent voice work. Aside from one character causing select operations to sound like a mini-game in Uncharted (if it's not Nolan North, it is his vocal twin), all of the voices are spot on. Characters sound how you would expect them to sound. Music is just as good and has a great way of really setting up the operation's tempo. It really pulls you into what's going on, but at the same time manages to blend into the background.
Gameplay: Trauma Team offers a lot of gameplay for the price. Gameplay is split between six medical disciplines - Surgeon, EMT, Orthopedics, Endoscope Tech, Diagnostician, and Forensics Examiner. Though some modes, like Orthopedics and EMT are a bit on the short side, others, like Forensics (CSI without sunglasses or bad jokes) or Diagnostics (House without Vicodin or snark), offer nearly 10 - 12 hours of play in one section. Atlus could have easily spilt the game into 2 - 3 smaller games and it would have been just as compelling a buy. All six sections feature their own unique stories, though there is some overlap. Patients encountered in the EMT section will often show up in either Orthopedics or Surgery. There's no fixed structure, allowing you to jump between jobs whenever the mood strikes, but the overlapping plots still manage to tell a complete story without seeing one part or the other. Characters will also pop-up between plotlines. For instance, a drug dealer encountered during an Event in one section shows up as an Endoscopy patient where you're asked to remove bags of drugs. As with past games, Trauma Team doesn't shy away from "grown-up" issues. In addition to the drug dealer, it tackles bio-terrorism, suicide and depression. There's even some non-patient partial nudity. The visuals may suggest kid-friendly, but Trauma Team earns its "T" rating. For the most part, procedures flow nicely and follow a good pace for what you're doing. Surgeries feel pressing, but without feeling too rushed, while EMT work will likely pull you out of your seat and have you leaning forward. Even in co-op games, where players are essentially able to split duties, every operation is intense and incredibly exhilarating. In single-player, the adrenalin comes from performing everything yourself; in co-op it's a matter of trying to manage a kitchen full of cooks. Some matches force you to split the tools and work in tandem, while others split the workload but not the time limit. The only time pacing slows is when characters decide to talk, tossing up a screen-obscuring thought bubble and a mandatory "Press 'A' to continue" button prompt. It's not bad in slower procedures, but can absolutely kill faster-paced EMT actions.
Difficulty: The most enticing thing about Trauma Team is it's flexible structure. In past games, if you were stuck on a procedure, you were stuck - usually resulting in a quick return to the game shelf. Here there's so much variety in modes, if you get stuck in one area you can usually jump to another and still feel a rewarding sense of progression. Toss in some crossover in how tools are used, and there's a good chance you'll manage to learn enough to complete a troublesome task. The lone exception to the rule is, at least in my experience, Endoscopy. Some of the tools are similar to those found in other game types, but the control setup feels counter-intuitive and clumsy. Using the Nunchuk's Analog Stick to aim goes against the instinct to simply point. It's not broken, but will lead to some awkward situations. All modes offer two difficulty levels - Intern (Easy) and Resident (Normal). Intern is meant for players who just want to enjoy the story, though jumping up to Resident isn't a massive deal and it's probably best to at least try out a few procedures before dropping the difficulty. Again, there are exceptions. EMT is more a test of your ability to multitask, while Endoscopy requires some wrangling of the controls. The real challenge comes from performing tasks well enough to earn a rating and either the accolades or admonishments for your character.
Game Mechanics: Though some fields borrow ideas from others, each offers a completely different experience. For instance, Surgery and EMT use the same gameplay concept seen in past Trauma games. Surgery is based around using tools precisely and keeping the person on the table alive. EMT offers fewer tools and options (though there is a really creative segment using ballpoint pens and box cutters), but puts your skills against the clock as you juggle an ever-growing assembly line of patients. Orthopedics is slightly less stressful and ditches the timer from other surgical procedures for combo-based scoring. Here, you're charged with fixing bones, either by simply sticking them back together with screws and metal plates or full-out replacements using synthetic bone and artificial joints. Endoscopy builds on the idea of accuracy, but adds a few techniques and tools from Surgical sections. Diagnostics and Forensics ditch the OR antics completely. Rather than fixing things, you're asked to use deductive reasoning and piece together clues while trying to figure out what's causing someone's illness or why someone died. Both are slower than the other four play modes, but are also some of the game's more enjoyable. Controls are spot-on and manage to find a variety of ways to use all of the Wii's functions. In addition to point-and-use tools carried over from past games, Trauma Team introduces a few new uses. You'll need to slam the controller down in time with an on-screen prompt to perform CPR or twist and turn it to saw pieces of bone. Except for aiming the endoscope, all actions feel fluid and natural. Trauma Team suffers from a few rough patches, but still manages to come through as one of the best entries in the series and one of the year's more intriguing, and unique, Wii titles.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
Related Links: Game Vortex's Review of Trauma Center: Under the Knife on DS Game Vortex's Review of Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 on DS Game Vortex's Review of Trauma Center: Second Opinion on Wii Game Vortex's Review of Trauma Center: New Blood on Wii
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