A Game Review: Trauma Team

Exclusively on Nintendo Wii(Original)

Reviewed by David Gonzalez (Gamer's perspective) and Hannah Jennings(Non-gamer's perpective)Cuban Commentator as the player and English Evaluator as the observer. The Trauma Team Series is owned by Atlus and Nintendo.

I'm bored, David do you have anything you think I'll like?

Wait! Gimme a sec

OK

There! Got that mother#?*!@$r. What do you need?

A game or something. I'm so bored

Oh! Well, you got a Wii? The original I mean.

Yeah.

Then find this game "Trauma Team". It is AWESOME!

Convince me, I saw it and the version I saw had a cheesy cover.

Cheesy?! Are you kidding me?! It's classy. And it shows all of the characters you play as!

I thought it looked cluttered, but i'm not much of a gamer anyway.

Aw man! I gotta learn you about this amazing game!

You "gotta" do you?

Oh yea! First, let me give you a brief history lesson on this game.

So this game has a backstory that is actually IMPORTANT to the game?

Oh hell yea! This game happens a few years after the GUILT Epidemic in the first game "Trauma Center: Second Opinion".

Do I need to play the first game to understand what's going on in this one?

Oh no! It helps if you want to know about one of the main characters, but I'll get back to that later.

So get on with the history lesson 'teach'.

Okay. This game follows six separate people as their stories start out separate but then all converge on the second leg of the game that is the main plot of the game.

So you play as character 'a' but then 'a' meets 'b' and then you start to play as 'a' and 'b'?

No! You have to play each character one at a time in the second part in order to continue. But in order to do that you have to complete every level for all of the other characters, which you can do out of order if you want.

Ah, I think I understand now! You're given the option who to play, but unless you've done all the options available to 'level up' it doesn't affect the main storyline?

There's no leveling up. Did I tell you what you play in this game?

I don't think so.

It's a game were you play DOCTOR!

You actually get to cut people open?!

Yep! And each character has their own style of gameplay. But you have to use the nunchuk on all of them.

What are the graphics like? I know it won't be too graphic and realistic.

Oh no! Its not graphic at all. When you play and there's hemorrhaging(bleeding) all it looks like is red jello.

Or Jelly to the non-US people.

Yea. The only thing that's graphic is when the main virus kills the person in the cutscenes. Blood come out their ears, nose, mouth, and eyes.

Lovely. *sarcasm*

But it all looks like a comic.

I do like that style of animation on games, makes it easier to follow I think.

Oh yea. And its very clean.

I think you may have sold me on the story and the animation but what I really want to know is how good the actual gameplay is.

Well, like I said, each character plays a bit differently than the other.

How much of the game is played for you? Like in the operations, how much does the Wii do for you?

Only the cutscenes and some operational events. The rest is all on you.

And how responsive is the system?

Very! It's very smooth and clean. And the game is very forgiving. If you mess up, its most likely because you're not used to the controls.

So if you slip up you get the option to redo?

No. You keep going. You see, the patient has a life bar that you have to keep relatively full. If you mess up, you hurt the patient. And if the level goes to 0... game over.

Well maybe I might pick it up soon, it sounds interesting.

Oh! And if the level gets too low, you can inject a serum to bring the patient's vitals(life bar) up!

That's good, I think I'd need something like that to help out maybe at the beginning when I'm starting and in the more difficult and complex ops.

It's there all the time... on only half of the characters.

That's a bit of a downfall.

Actually no. Remember when I said that each character plays differently?

Yeah, I take it that's what you mean?

Yea. Each mode has different parameters for each of their respective characters.

Oh, so like the more respected and more qualified the character the more you're expected to do right on the first try?

No. All of them give you a tutorial for each.

OK, go in order of gameplay. Or the way you played it.

Well, let's start with CR-S01

Sounds like a robot.

No. He's a prisoner.

A prisoner?

Yes. Not much is known about him. Apparently he was responsible for a viral attack on a collage.

So he's a smart guy?

Very.

I see and how does he play?

He plays like a standard surgical operation.

So you remove stuff?

Not just that. You treat tumors, suture, and basically do what a surgen in the OR would do.

 Sweet!

Yea! And like I've said, the controls are very smooth and fluid and the game is fairly forgiving. Plus in this game, unlike the prequels, whenever you need to suture, it shows where you should start so that if there are several lacerations in one area(which happens quite a bit) you can take care of them without having to try a hundred dozen times to do it.

So if there's multiple cuts there'll be a one or a star next to the one to start at?

No, it's a dotted line in a zig-zag pattern.

Ah, I think I've played something similar.

Yea! And his story arch is about him finding forgiveness for the viral attack mentioned earlier. The reason being is that... he has amnesia concerning the whole event.

Oh, so he's trying to make up for all the deaths by saving lives?

Right.

So who do you play as next? We already have a repenting prisoner.

That takes emo lessons from Cloud Strafe. LOL

Huh?

You know how in Anime there's this one emo(Goth) guy that is, for some reason, the  heartthrob of so many females? That's what CR-S01 is.

Oh yeah! The hot mysterious guy!

Right! But to be fair, he is a kind person and always does his best and beyond to help others.

Yeah.

Anyways, the next character you play as is Dr. Maria Torres, and trust me, she's a bada**!

There's always one.

She cocky, brash, doesn't think things through completely, and a hothead.

She's good at her job though?

Oh yea! And her game mode is called "First Response".

So she's the one that deals with paramedics?

Right. And her gameplay focuses around preforming first aid to several people at once.

So she's all over the ER.

No, she's on location. And you have to be quick too. Because since you have several patients, you have several Vital Bars. So you always have to go back and forth between patients to inject them with the syringe with the Vitality Serum.

Jeesh, she's busy!

Oh yea! And you have less tools to work with in this mode, which is helpful especially in this style of gameplay. Did I tell you that you have to use the nunchuck on the Wiimote to switch between tools?

No but I'm guessing that's how you do it.

Yea, you tilt the joystick in the direction that the tool is in. 4 of the 6 game styles use it.

Ok.

Anyways, Maria Torres' character arch revolves her wanting to be a hero and losing sight of what it means to be one.

So she's conflicted?

Yea and since she is very cocky, there is a forced loss in this game.

Oh?

Yea. and it's actually used well.

Does it bring her down to earth?

Yea.

Good.

Kinda though... She's still cocky.

Well yeah, but you get people like that.

Yea. Now we move on to Dr. Hank Freebird and his game mode, Orthopedics(Fixing bones).

So he does plaster?

No, he actually fixes the bones with pins, rods, and screws. He gameplay revolves round precision and control.

I'd be no good at that one.

It's not as bad as you think actually. Like the rest of the game, it's very forgiving and it introduces the other failure system, the "Miss Heart" system. Think the Legend of Zelda's hearts.

Ok.

His story arch revolves around him actually being a hero but facing discrimination because people just don't like it.

Meanies.

To put it bluntly. Think of Spider-Man except he was in the military in the past and lost his comradesin a battle.

Poor guy.

Yea. Now let me tell you about the next character and mode, Dr. Tamoe Tachibana and her profession, Endoscopy(Using a tube to cure patients from the inside).

Lovely, she's butt camera woman.

Actually she goes in through the mouth.

She's still camera woman.

Yea, but she's a ninja.

AWESOME!

Yea! Her story arch revolves around her trying to find the path of honor away from her home in Japan.

So she picked medicine.

Right. And her gameplay is a bit different. You "push" and "pull" the endoscope and use the nunchuck's "C" and "Z" buttons in conjunction with the joystick to select the tool and use it and you just move the joystick to look around.

Sounds a bit complicated to get the hang of.

It is at first, but think of it like an FPS(First Person Shooter).

Ah!

Yea. Now I HAVE to tell you about my absolute FAVORITE character in this game and one of my personal favorite modes, Dr. Gabriel Cunningham and his profession, Diagnosis.

So what makes him worthy of your admiration?

He's lazy, cocky, self-centered, and a complete and total jacka** to almost everyone around him!

And you like him because...?

His interactions with everyone else is funny as hell!

Okay.

And his gameplay style is logic based. And there's is an AWESOME feature in this mode too!

Oh?

Yea! You use the stethoscope by moving the joystick til the listening piece is where you want it to be. Then you press the "Z" button and hold the Wiimote to your ear. The bodily noises come out of the speaker!

Sweet!

Yea! What you do is that you ask questions, look at tests and scans and refer to RONI(A robotic diagnosis machine) to find out what is wrong with the patient.

And then the patient gets referred to one of the other docs?

No. They don't show that.

So I'm guessing you're gonna rate this game quite high?

Oh yea! But I'm not done yet! There's one last section to go over.

Ok.

Lastly we have Dr. Naomi Kimishima and her profession(And my favorite section), Forensics. Crime Scene Investigation!

SWEET! I really like watching shows like that! There's one in the UK that is AMAZING!

Yea! And it's almost exactly like it too! But instead of just going with the flow, you have to combine cards in order to create "Concrete Evidence". You even have help from a person you call "Little Guy" that analyses the evidence you have in order to help you with the case. And this section is my favorite for one solid reason.

What reason's that? I do think it's different for a "doctor" type game.

At the intro to the case, your Wiimote will buzz. You're supposed to hold it up to your ear and you can hear the victims' last words!

Oh! That's where you got that from!

Yea! (And for all of you who don't know what we're talking about, wen we RP, my character usually has "The Call of the Dead" which is what happens in the game)

Now it makes sense.

Yea! So, what do you think?

Well without actually playing it I have to say that it sounds interesting. Especially the different modes and special features.

Yea! If you don't don't like playing one of them, there's five more you could like!

Five more?

Yea. Like if you don't like Surgery, you have five other modes you can play on.

Oh?

Yep, you can play it as disjointed as you want, just when you get to the second leg of the game, you have to play all the modes if you want to continue with the story.

Yeah.

What do you think about the story?

The different character arcs are good, each one is different and even the similarities are done in a way that changes the whole thing. As for the main storyline I don't think we went over it in that much detail.

There's a reason though, I don't want to spoil it.

Ok well I think if the storylines as good as the character arcs then we have a hit on our hands. In a lot of games I think its the story that let's them down.

Yea, well, this one really knows how to keep you knowing where each character is coming from in one form or another.

Good. It sounds freaking awesome.

What about the concept?

Oh yeah its good. Similar enough to gain fans with people who like doctor/surgical games but different enough to stand out against it's competitors. Plus the general premise is good enough to get someone into that genre of gaming - gee I sound smart.

And for someone that enjoys this game, the controls are awesome! And the story as a whole is sweet!

For the story and characters and general premise I'd give this three maybe four stars - probably 3.5. The characters sound believable and their arcs and how they're going to grow are different but work with the game. The general storyline isn't predictable (since I don't know the big twist and you don't want to spoil me I can assume its good and you don't see it coming) and again is quite normal for the setting of a hospital but again its innovative as is the rest of the game. My general verdict: something I will want to play in the future.

And for someone who has played the prequels to this game and loved them all and am a HUGE fan of the series, having almost all of the games under my belt(I don't have Under the Knife 1 yet.) and a gamer in gerneral, I LOVE the controls and and the way this game plays. It's a lot of fun and I say EVERYONE should try this game at least once. I give each category a 4 out of 4.

Gameplay: 4
Controls: 4
Characters: 3.5
Story: 3.5
Engagement: 3.5
Total: 18.5

So if you get the chance give it a go.