One of the most underrated game series out there, I played trauma center allll the time as a kid! I started with Under the Knife 2 but as I got deeper into the series I fell more and more in love with the characters, the plotlines, and the atmosphere. The mechanics of the game were super cool, being able to use the DS stylus and/or wiimote to operate on patients and save their lives was both parts nerve wracking and satisfying. While the gameplay was fun and engaging, they were simply a means to an end, as the story was the real attraction for many fans including myself!
Who could forget the sinister Adam and his terrible manmade disease GUILT? Or his great grandson and neo-GUILT? Stigma from New Blood was also a huge problem, but aside from the diseases, the characters were simply amazing. Most of the games follow Dr. Derek Stiles, and Nurse Angie Thompson. Two characters that go through the wringer together yet never seem to waver in their cause: saving the lives of many. Games such as New Blood introduce new characters such as Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock, but the overarching theme remains. If I were to choose a favorite game, it would easily be Trauma Team.
Trauma Team is by far the most complex of the games, both in story and gameplay. It follows 6 different characters, each experts in their fields, and offer 6 different ways to play the game. Each has their own storyline that eventually combines with other characters until they’re all working together on the same case. Gameplay ranges from standard trauma surgery, to first response work, to endoscopy, to diagnostics and forensics. There is so much packed into this game that it can entertain its player for hours and hours on end. I think this is the Trauma Series at its finest, and is a hallmark in medical related media, especially any medical games. If a game developer wants to release a game pertaining to hospital life and culture, these games are most definitely the template.
Trauma Center offers an exaggerated, sometimes mythical, medical experience to players, but there are several moments where the medical jargon, OR prep, and post operation procedures are fairly accurate. In missions where you’re not battling a mutated, sentient disease, your doing routine operations like setting a man’s leg back in place, treating a burn victim, or even restarting a heart. Underneath the many sensationalized moments and the larger than life plot threads, there lies a game that takes genuine care in the world its emulating, and takes its time to be accurate when it can be.
