Trauma Center: Under The Knife

I've recently received Trauma Center: Under The Knife for the Nintendo DS. Great game. Truely magnificant in the sense that it does a pretty accurate replication of real surgery.

This game, like all others, has it's ups and downs. One of the good points this game has is that it puts you in a surgeon's shoes. You have to carefully and accurately perform operations on your patient, going through all the steps requried. While the first few missions seem kinda boring and redundant (you're basically doing the same operation, just with some slight alterations), the game will suddenly pick up real quick.

You will need to act fast in order to take care of multiple problems arising in certain situations. Where I'm currently at in the game, you've got to take care of multiple aneurisms in a patient. It seems like a simple job at first, after you quickly take care of the first aneurism. Then another one pops up. Then a few more. And more. I don't have the reflexes to take care of them all fast enough (I've played my DS so much that I've worn my touchscreen down to the point where it's not as accurate as it used to be, which makes gameplay harder). I tell you, it certainly gets crazy.

My only gripe with this game is the storyline. So far, nothing's really happening that seems to have any significance. To be perfectly honest, I'd, personally, prefer that the story be removed from the game, and it was more of an "everyday life" (in a surgeon' shoes, of course) sort of thing. But that's just me. I'm sure that there are some people that love the story. Then again, I've no clue how far into the game I really am, so maybe the story hasn't had time to progress yet.

The graphics in this game are pretty much up to par with what I'd expect on the DS. Since the DS is about as powerful as a Nintendo 64, the graphics seem to be as good as you can get. Looks like they didn't leave anything behind. Though, while the game might not seem 3D at all, it is, slightly. It's hard to tell, unless you're zooming in on an area to operate on, you can see organs fly past you with depth perception. But when you're not zooming in, and you're slicing away at a tumor, it seems rather 2D. But, it works out just fine. I'd rather not be seeing distracting 3D stuff flying around while I'm working on a dying patient.

The sound department, however, is rather lacking, in my opinion. Nothing really stands out. There's not much music in the background or anything (which may be a good thing. Wouldn't want to be headbanging with a scalpel two centimeters from the heart or anything like that). It seems rather dull while you're operating. With a game like this, though, there's really not a lot of room for oustanding music. Though something a little ambiant would've been nice, if you ask me.

One more thing I'd like to mention. This is one of the few games that relies entirely on the touchscreen and stylus. There are other games which use only the buttons, or the buttons in tandem with the touchscreen, but this game is entirely stylus. This is very nice, to me, because there's no need to switch around in options and fumble around while you've got a limited amount of time to save a patient.



All in all, I'd give this game an 7/10. It's a great game, but it could be better.


-D14BL0