I’ve had some time to spend with the latest game in the Trauma Center series which is known for its polarizing opinions from gamers. In the past I’ve been a supporter of the series’ high level of difficulty and enjoyed the last 3 games, however I will not be praising Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2.
Like real surgery, just one mistake can be disastrous for the patient and sadly TC2 has made such a mistake. It’s funny to me how just one slight difference or design philosophy change can wreck so much havoc in a game. In previous TC titles the games secret weapon “the healing touch” or otherwise known as bullet-time was set up to be a panic button. In many of the series’ hardest surgeries expert players could just rely on their own skills while novices could use the HT for when all hell breaks loose, in TC 2 however that is no longer the case, with many surgeries flat out requiring the HT just to survive. Now I consider myself an above average player at the TC games, I beat the X missions (super hard levels) of the 3 previous titles. On normal in TC2 I’m finding myself required to use the HT to get through some of the harder surgeries. There are a few that I’m convinced aren’t possible without the HT and I’ll tell you why.
In the TC series, there are two kinds of damage, instant and over time. Instant comes from attacks by the malady such as making cuts or exploding tumors and cannot be defended or avoided. Over time comes from the lasting affects of the instant type, such as the cut causing bleeding to occur. In order to heal the patient you first need to fix what ever is causing the over time damage then inject stabilizer to increase the vitals. What this means is that for the player to heal the patient they need to perform two steps to keep the vitals up, this becomes a problem when you add the disease to the equation. The disease’s in TC 2 are very cheap and will do multiple instant damages at one time forcing the player to react fast. Unfortunately the time it takes to repair the damage, the disease will attack again forcing the player into a un winnable cycle of healing and repairing. The later surgeries feature boss fights where the disease will cause huge damage all over the screen keeping the player from actually attacking while they play catch up. The problem is that it’s impossible to catch up without using the HT as you will not be able to repair and recover before it attacks again.
Most of the non disease related surgeries rely on overwhelming the player with numerous problem areas at once. Gone are the days of more puzzle-like stages unfortunately. I’m at the end of the game about to face off against the final disease and I really don’t have the care to do it with how the game has turned out. TC 2 borrows heavily from the previous 3 games and does not expand the types of surgeries compared to them. Personally Trauma Center: New Blood on the Wii is the best in the series both for controls and for variety of surgeries. Speaking of controls I hate the placement of tools on the DS and would have loved to be able to set up where each part is located on the screen.
Overall I think the Trauma Center series now belongs on the Wii, the motion controls and dual hand control system improves the game drastically. TC2 is like someone getting ridiculous plastic surgery, sure underneath all that was once your friend, but they are no longer the same person. Trauma Center 2 gets a trip to the morgue.
Josh
