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Trauma Center: First Blood frustrates gamers
(by Caleb Rumley - January 23, 2008)
At the core,
Trauma
Center : First Blood is a pretty good Wii game. But there are a few things that stop it from becoming a true triple-A title. For example, the controls work well in most situations, but are just unforgiving on the more difficult missions. And when the game gets hard, it gets hard – I’ve had to drop down to ‘easy’ mode on more than one occasion. But the innovative gameplay is what keeps First Blood from flat lining, because performing surgeries is still a lot of fun.
First Blood focuses on two main doctors – Valerie Blaylock and Marcus Vaughn. These two doctors have been moved to an Alaskan hospital, away from the big cities because of their “strange” talents. Marcus and Valerie can slow down time with telekinesis, which is a great help in tough situations. This special talent moves them from hospital to hospital, helping to stop a strange and unknown virus called “Stigma.”
This storyline progresses through voice acting and still cutouts of the characters. I think Atlus could’ve done a much better job than this stoic way of telling the story – perhaps a manga style comic, or maybe 3D cut scenes. Hopefully they can make the story line a little bit more fleshed out in the next
Trauma
Center game, because in First Blood the story line wasn’t as strong as it could be.
But once you don the surgical gown to perform an actual surgery; the game’s intense and precise nature truly shines. Don’t slip up, because patients die pretty easily under the hands of Marcus and Valerie. Using the Wii Remote to remove tumors, replace pacemakers, and attack the violent “Stigma” strain is fun, but requires serious precision. Lying down on the couch is not an option, because you have to be spot on or you’ll lose the patient.
A fun way to struggle through the missions is with a friend – with another Wii Remote and nunchuk, the two of you can get angry together at
Trauma
Center ’s crazy difficulty curve. Working together is definitely more fun than playing the game alone, and the co-op gameplay is really enjoyable. Suddenly, you’re calling out specific maneuvers for your surgery partner to take out. And if one of you slip up and lose the patient, you just have to play it again to correctly perform the surgery.
The graphics in
Trauma
Center are pretty good, but they could be better. Nothing really special here, but I have to say I liked the art direction of the characters and different cities. They definitely reminded me of manga comics, with over-the-top nemesis’ and intense surgery scenes.
In conclusion,
Trauma
Center : First Blood is a pretty good Wii game that maybe could be a little bit better. The gameplay is strong and the story is interesting, but the game’s difficulty really pushed me over the edge. Playing the same mission over and over isn’t fun, and dropping down to ‘easy’ mode makes me feel like I’ve failed as a gamer.
Nevertheless, the surgery-based gameplay is fun, and First Blood for Wii gets a 7.5 out of 10.
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