09-18-2010, 07:20 PM
(I know, game is from 2007)
Found this for cheap and got around to finishing it today. I really liked Second Opinion, so I gave this a try.
The introductory cinema rips blatently from House (stangely, I don't find anything wrong with that).
It was very heavy in the Atlus "slide character art in from the right and deliver text" department. The game dosen't have any FMVs, just text and sliding. Despite that limiting of their story telling toolbox, the characters are expressive enough to seem legit. There are enough changes in scenery and "bouns" art stills that help stitch the story together.
The story manages to juggle and flesh out two protagonists. They make a grand journey from middle of nowhere Alaska to the lower 48. The voice-overs added to the overall expierence. It's one thing for the read speech text from the game's requisite asshole, but to hear his condescending tone gives the story a noticable shot in the ass. The music is unobstrusive and keeps up with the story pace. It went heavier during dramatic points, more upbeat when called for, epic when it needed to be epic. It reminded me of good elevator music at points (and for some reason, I don't find anything wrong with that... yet I think I should).
The series deals with mature themes (UTK/Second Op dealt with euthanisia and bio-terrorisim). New Blood lumps in war, organizaed crime, and for drama's sake, bio-terrorisim. It's never preachy, but there's just enough substance to make you think about the subjects.
The gameplay takes some getting used to. The Vitals system can lead to some pretty bullshit moments (I remeber failing an operation when I was rolling the gauze over the wound and the patient had 1 point left, FFFFUUUCK!). With the 50 or so misisons, the operations somehow manage to keep you tense and sweaty.Â
Two neat points that are totaly unique to this game:
- You can nerf the difficulty on the fly if you start to suck (so it's pretty hard to get stuck).Â
- There are a few instances where the game shakes it up from the familiar routines in totally unexpected ways (UTK/Second Opp did this with an Atomic Bomb diffusal). New Blood throws you a couple non-person straight-up puzzles and a suprise non-human patient. Â
I fucking love it when games shake up your routine (cf. Marble Madness level 5 "Silly"). This game does it, and its such a rare condition that I have touble coming up with games that have sillimar symptoms.
You don't hear too much praise for the Trauma Center franchise. I think that sucks. It's a very well put together game that delivers a refreshingly unique and fun expierence.
This is also a sequel that learns from the mistakes of its predecessors and delievers a more robust expierence than its predecessors. I can't wait to play Trauma Team when the price drops.
Now if only the box art didn't suck so bad...
Okay, imma stop gushing now... anybody else play this?