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I’m going to be honest with you: I don’t think Trauma Center: New Blood is as good as the original. After playing the game through, start to finish, I just can’t seem to like it as much as Trauma Center: Second Opinion. This game brings back what was enjoyable about the first game, but doesn’t really bring anything new or interesting to the table. Still, it’s a perfectly good game in its own right, and definitely worth playing.
Plot Overview
Trauma Center: New Blood takes place 10 years after the first game. It begins somewhere in a remote corner of Alaska, and the player is promptly introduced to the game’s two protagonists: Markus Vaughn (a dark, brooding man with an intentionally mysterious past) and Valerie Blaylock (see, women can be doctors too). It doesn’t take long to figure out that Markus already has the Healing Touch, and Valerie figures it out on her own a few episodes later. The two putter around Alaska for awhile before being sent to California and other locales. I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot for you, but another virus very similar to GUILT makes an appearance, complete with religious references and overly-dramatic music. Lives are saved, Dr. Stiles makes a brief cameo, new game mechanics are brought into play, and you get another 18 year-old nurse companion. Happy days.
What I didn’t like
Remember the bone-setting operation from the first game? You have to do that again, except more. Nothing like playing connect-the-shattered-ribs. They could have done without this particular operation type, as I’ve always thought it was hard to tell where the bones are supposed to fit. It’s particularly annoying when you have to do the obligatory “save 5 patients in 10 minutes” operation. Another mechanic they could have done without was the scroll/zoom function. It seemed like half of the operations had the worst problems just off screen, which was particularly irritating (especially when you have to keep switching back and forth).
Another thing I found disappointing was the fact that the Healing Touch seemed almost optional in this game. While the first game relies on it heavily, I hardly used it in this game. Of course, it’s required on the final operation, but that’s beside the point. I really liked the magical bullet-time powers, and you just don’t really need them in New Blood.
Oh yeah, can we please get rid of the puzzle games in future installations? The first game’s puzzle was easy enough, but New Blood’s puzzle is just plain hard. Figure this one out in two minutes:
Aside from these few annoyances (and reusing some of the GUILT mechanics), the game is fine. The two Trauma Center games remain at the top of the few games that actually put the Wii’s unique controls to good use. You hear that game devs? Stop making gimmicky ’shake-the-wiimote’ games and actually put some thought into your control scheme.
8/10 (Worth buying, or at least renting for awhile)
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