Trauma Center: New Blood

"Want a Second Opinion of this New Blood? Lets put it Under the Knife."

Trauma Center: New Blood brings back what we know and love from our beloved Trauma Center franchise. What is that which we know and love? Why, surgery of course! In this game, you will encounter what you may or may not have seen already, depending on whether or not you have played the previous Trauma Center games, along with many new types of surgeries.

New Blood takes place ten years after Second Opinion. GUILT has been all but eradicated...actually, it may well have been, as it doesn't exist in New Blood. Anyway, the story begins in Alaska's Montgomery Memorial Hospital. It generally revolves around doctors Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock, two rather highly recommended surgeons in the Alaska area who just happened to move there recently. As becomes apparent later in the game, along with a new game in the series comes a new super virus going by the name of Stigma.

All in all, the story is pretty much a carbon copy of what Under the Knife and Second Opinion, which means it is generally weak, and has quite a few plot holes...not that a vast majority of well written stories have a few of them anyway. The character diversity in New Blood makes up for the weak point of a bad story though. As usual, Atlus comes up with diverse anime like drawings of characters portraying many emotions as characters experience shock and awe over disease and just plain bad injuries. Also, diverse also terms the racial barrier, which contains many races compared to Second Opinion.

The gameplay remains mostly the same, so most Trauma Center fans will be able to just jump right into the game and enjoy themselves. All of the tools function exactly the same. Of course, there have been some slightly modified versions of some of their uses.

For example, the Ultrasound has changed slightly. It now no longer requires a button press to find hidden objects, but for the shadows to stay visible for a long period of time, you still must press the necessary buttons. Also included into New Blood are heart massages...no, not the heart massages from Under the Knife. These just require precise button timing on the Wii remote.

As usual, the franchise's Healing Touch makes a return. Of course, with there being two doctors, there are two different Healing Touches. Markus' Healing Touch is still the classic time slower that makes the operation significantly easier. Valerie's Healing Touch is new however. It has the power to completely freeze vitals for a period of time. Of course, by completely freeze, this means you cannot gain any vitals either, but such is a price to pay for a double edged sword.

The game just wouldn't be Trauma Center without the surgeries. Yes, most of the surgeries you remember are back...which includes simple tumor removal and laceration stitching. However, Atlus has listened to the public's cries for more "Normal" operations. In this game, you also get the pleasure to treat gunshot and burn patients. However, you will discover how to treat those upon getting the game.

Controls are, as said, the same as Second Opinion. However, New Blood features the ability to play without the nunchuk attachment. What it basically does is replace the Z button with the 1 and 2 buttons and the control stick with the D-pad. However, the scheme is actually much worse, because the D-pad does not have precise tool switching, so if for some reason you do not have the nunchuk that came with your Wii system, 20 dollars spent on a new one is money well spent.

If you are a music fan, this soundtrack might be what you're looking for. The background music almost always fits each section of the story perfectly and sets the mood nicely for each and every operation.

Graphics can be termed as either a weak point or blessing for the game. The graphics look rather color filled and don't resemble real organs much, even though the shape does resemble the real thing. However, this enables rather smooth gameplay, and even though the organs do not look realistic, the blood does. It can be said that the graphics look like this to appeal to the squeamish people...the ones that cringe at real organs, and the game does a nice job at keeping them comforted.

Now for a part I know you've been likely lectured on if you've so much as heard of the series, the difficulty. Yes, Trauma Center: New Blood is rather hard, assuming you are new to the series. Of course, like Second Opinion, New Blood features three difficulties. Easy, for those who have loads of problems with the game. Normal, for those who are new, but somewhat skilled. Last but not least, we have Hard, for those veterans or those who are highly skilled.

However, added to the game this time around is the Co-op feature, which means you can have two doctors operate on a patient at once. This feature is rather useful to newcomers, as it makes the game much easier if you let one person raise vitals while the other person fixes the patient. Each person gets their own set of tools, and each person can use their own Healing Touch.

Of course, adding to the difficulty of the game are the four new challenge operations. These operations test your precision more than your speed, because the scoring mechanics are different, because now even a mere Good can break your precious chain. Also, as per usual, the X-operations still haunt the post game with their ramped up difficulty of the new Stigma virus.

Replayability is still, as per usual, fairly high. You are graded on operations with the ranks C, B, A, S, and XS (Hard only). You may be tempted to play these operations over and over again to try to better yourself...but the ranks this time are not the only reason to do so. Along with ranks, Atlus has done the liberty of adding a Wi-Fi leaderboard. This leaderboard, upon uploading your score, compares your score with everyone else who uploaded their score worldwide. The leaderboards are divided into two parts, rankings within your score range, and top 10. Difficulty makes no impact, as scores among easy, normal, and hard are shared among the game leaderboard for a particular operation. However, Co-op scores have their own leaderboard.

In the end, Trauma Center: New Blood still offers a fairly enjoyable overall experience. The game is not for the casual gamer, as the length of the game storywise is actually fairly short. However, this does not mean it is a bad game, as its extraordinary gameplay and adjustable difficulty make up for it. As one of the better releases of 2007, this is a recommended purchase for your gaming collection.

Pros:

Excellent Gameplay returns
Great Background music.
Graphics are passable for this generation
One of the few remaining difficult games.
Online Leaderboards press you to improve yourself.
The game now supports 16:9 Widescreen, and is in fact, always in this mode.

Cons:

"Hard" mode difficulty is a turn off to newcomers
Short initial game length. May keep players from coming back.
Leaderboards require Wi-Fi connection. Must upload every time you want to check
the leaderboards.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/15/08

Game Release: Trauma Center: New Blood (US, 11/20/07)