With so many games out there that focus on finding out new ways to kill people, it's very odd to see a game that focuses on saving lives. This is exactly what Trauma Center: Second Opinion is all about. This is a direct port of the DS game, and it might be better than the original. You play as Dr. Styles, a naive surgeon who doesn't take his career seriously. When he's seen as not qualified for a doctor, he vows to shape himself up. Fortunately, he possesses a power called Healing Touch, which allows him to slow down time in order to save a patient from death and find a way to save it on time. You activate it by drawing a pentagram in the air. Anyway, the control scheme is perfect for a game like Trauma Center. You point the remote at the screen as use it as your various tools, such as a scalpel, a syringe and a laser. You can quickly select your tools using the nunchuck control stick. You'll be doing just about anything as a surgeon, from removing tumors, to reconstruct bones, to battling dangerous viruses, and even deactivating a bomb. The main story is really soap-operaish. It's very overly framatic at times and the dialogue fits, but I found no big problem with that. the main story also features a brand new side story featuring a new surgeon named Dr. Weaver, whose path will inevitably cross with Dr. Styles'. If there was only one complaint, a major one by the way, is the game's brutal learning curve and inforgivingness. The first couple hours are simple, but the defficulty can sky-rocket really abruptly. You'll find yousrelf wondering why the previous mission was a cakewalk while your current mission has faile multiple times already. Fortunately, before you choose a mission, you can select the difficulty. Also, the gaming's punctuation can punish you too hard for not doing everything right on the first try. Just a small nitpick would be that there's barely any voice acting in the game, which makes me wonder why couldn't the developers settle for complete voice acting or not at all. But overall, this games is lots of fun. I felt surprisingly satisfied saving people rather than going Jack the Ripper on their asses. It's a new type of game that I hope I will see more of in the future.
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