Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2

July 7,2008 - If there’s any game that is the prime example of what the DS was made for, it’s Trauma Center: Under the Knife. The North American market didn’t particularly inquire for the series to come stateside; it was actually just released for the heck of it, and now it’s become a gem not only because of its rarity, but because of its extremely addicting and challenging fast-paced gameplay. The game saw two follow-ups on the Wii that had generally favorable reviews, but now Trauma Center is back on the DS where it’s supposed to be with Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2.

Once again, the game puts you in the shoes of Dr. Derek Stiles, except now he’s a world-renowned surgeon because of his work done with the GUILT disease in previous titles. Upon doing some work and research on certain diseases in Africa where medicine is nowhere near as advanced as in the United States, Dr. Stiles finds himself back in America where he’s treating patients that have gone through multiple after-symptoms of the GUILT disease. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, but most of the story revolves around Dr. Stiles and his staff working their way through another threat to human health because of terrorists.

The story is outrageous at times, but don’t let that fool you; Under the Knife 2 is all business. While none of us obviously have experience in surgical medicine, the game does a job well done when it comes to making you feel like a surgeon. Because of the constant and rather enthusiastic yells by your nurse and the great use of sound, you’ll know when you’re making a mistake, and you’ll know when you’re doing things right. You have a nice repertoire of surgical tools at your disposal including but not limited to a scalpel, antibiotic gel, forceps, a laser gun for zapping smaller tumors, a drain, and plenty of other familiar items. The more complicated cases force you to think of which tools to use on the fly, but the game does a good job at telling you what each tool does, and the first few cases work as a really helpful tutorial to further give you the experience that you’re progressively getting better with what you’re doing.

The first game turned off many because it continued to get progressively more difficult after each surgery, but luckily for those people, there’s more variety with the difficulty this time around, and it makes the feel of being a doctor much more realistic. You’ll start off with a few easy sessions first, and then they get more difficult but eventually get easy again—which will give players more of a reason to keep playing until it’s all over. In addition to this, players also have the option of switching between Easy, Normal, and Hard mode even after they’ve begun playing the game, making it a little less punishing if a certain case becomes too intimidating.

While almost everything about the game is great, with the couple releases on the Wii the passed couple years, a lot more could’ve been done to make this game an even greater experience. Oftentimes throughout the game, you’ll be receiving assistance from other doctors. Having cooperative play with a friend really could’ve made this a more realistic experience. Since Under the Knife 2 is a newer game than the ones on the Wii, it really would have added to the game’s value if almost every feature on the Wii made its way to the game because the DS controls allow it to have superior playability than the Wii entries to the series.

The game’s visual presentation takes a few pages out of the Second Opinion's book by using the same artwork for the game’s cast. The original Under the Knife game had each character more animated. Now the characters have a much calmer demeanor, and at the same time, everything looks cleaner. The pallet of colors used in the game properly fit each setting, so with that, you can’t possibly expect too much more with the game’s visuals.

Under the Knife already had great sound, but this sequel makes the sound in the previous game forgettable. The jazz music in the soundtrack is both uplifting and at times depressing, further enhancing the game’s presentation. On top of that, the sound effects are reminiscent of the piercing of thoughts that occur in the Ace Attorney series, and for some reason or another—it remains extremely effective at showing the player that Dr. Stiles made a mistake.

If you’re an avid follower of the Trauma Center series, it’s no secret that Under the Knife 2 really could’ve been better if it added a bit more from its Wii entries. While there hasn’t been a lot of evolution, the game boasts a nearly perfect presentation with the same challenging and addictive gameplay that made the original so great. It also is a lot more approachable to newcomers because of its greater variety in difficulty. However way you look at it, Under the Knife 2 is simply another great game that would be an asset to any DS owner with its 12-20 hours of piercing gameplay—depending upon how long you can really handle being under the knife.

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