Trauma Team
- February 04, 2010 16:37 PM PST
Continuing Atlus' medical pseudo-simulation series, Trauma Team allows players to engage in six different medical fields, opening up the gameplay past the previous games' surgery-sim focus.
Not to tout my non-existent medical knowledge, but in the past I've felt that some of the whiny characters in the Trauma Center games would be ill-qualified to perform life-or-death surgical operations, and the addition of certain characters' "Healing Touch" (the mechanic by which the surgeons can perform movements outrageously fast) worked to take the realism out of the simulation experience. With Trauma Team, Atlus is aiming to bring the realism back, provide new gameplay modes, and yes, they've taken out the Healing Touch ability. In the past the Trauma Center series focused mostly on characters performing complex surgical procedures, but the developers are taking the series in a new direction with Trauma Team. Putting players in control of six different characters who all specialize in one medical field, the developers have provided players with a wealth of new modes which add a nice breath of fresh air to the series' surgery-focused gameplay. Additionally the developers promise that they've taken into account players' feelings toward the series' sometimes mind-numbing difficulty, promising that Trauma Team will be more well-rounded when it comes to putting players to the test.
On a recent visit, an Atlus rep led me through some of the game's new modes. We started off controlling the only playable character returning from past games in the series, Naomi Weaver. Forensics is Weaver's specialty, so naturally we began the mission examining the mutilated remains of a corpse. Examination is the first stage of the game's forensics field, so we started by piecing together the victim's skull, which was akin to figuring out a jigsaw puzzle on the Wii. Next we examined the rest of the victim's skeleton and their clothes, gathering evidence as we went. The next stage of forensics involves piecing evidence together. Why was the victim's skull and left knee broken? Why did the clothes have blood on them that didn't match the victim's? The evidence examination stage involves players matching evidence with clues to ultimately find information as to how the victim expired. We then went to the crime scene to scour for more clues. Players who've watched an episode or two of CSI will see similarities in Trauma Team's forensics mode.
Back at the hospital, we took control of the game's endoscopist Tomoe Tachibana. A drug dealer had just been brought in due to a drug overdose... yeah, ironic. Endoscopy in the game consists of guiding a multi-use tube (known as an endoscope) through hard to reach areas of the body, and in this patient's case, through his stomach and down into his intestines. We were tasked with retrieving small bags of drugs from the dealer's stomach, as well as patching up areas that had been damaged by the swallowing of so many drugs. Guiding the tube down into the patient's insides is actually handled really well, forcing the player to literally thrust the Wii remote forward to advance the tube.
Check out this video to see how endoscopy works in Trauma Team.
By the far the most gag-inducing moment of my demo occurred in the endoscopy mode, when I had to drain a sickening polyp from the patient's body, snip it off, and grab it with the forceps. I have no idea what endoscopy is like in real life, but if it's even close to Trauma Team's portrayal of it I now feel relieved that I never went into the medical field.
The third new mode I was shown put me in control of an orthopedic surgeon who was faced with reassembling a completely shattered leg. Using the Wii remote to pull bones back into their normal configuration was fairly straightforward at first, but then upon finding out that one of the bone fragments had been lost (how exactly does that happen in a hospital?) we had to use a laser to cut some artificial bone to place in the leg. Following the thin line that formed the shape of the artificial bone proved to be quite difficult, as it was similar to keeping a car on a constantly zigzagging racetrack. Once the artificial bone was cut we had to drill it into the real bone, while not allowing the screw to go too far in.
Judging by the game's wealth of new modes and varied gameplay, there should be a lot for fans of the series to look forward to. I may be a bit squeamish when it comes to any and all things involving hospitals, but at least with Trauma Team I can look forward to testing my medical dexterity without any of the actual dirty work.
