Trauma Centre: Second Opinion Review

It tackles terrorism, euthanasia, betrayal and biological warfare, all with typical Japanese-sci-fi drama and flamboyance. Although the basic storyline of the game remains the same, the operations have all been changed significantly to take full advantage of the new method of control. It might as well be an original title. It's difficult to talk about improvements because the entire experience is completely different - having played Under the Knife to death is no excuse for passing this by. Indeed, if you loved Under the Knife as much as I did, then the greater flexibility, different selection of operations and increased longevity should make this an even more attractive prospect than it would be to a curious newcomer.

Unfortunately you don't get to 'step on it' literally. Maybe in the sequel.

Second Opinion's multi-levelled, wonderfully histrionic story is told through a sequence of nicely drawn if rather basic still images and text, but that doesn't detract from the drama. Trauma Centre's greatest talent is putting you in the moment, crafting situations that make you really care about the patients at stake, compelling you to save their virtual lives with your own hands. The operations themselves are full of unexpected surprises, consistently requiring you to think on your feet and adapt to the situation. Ordinary biopsies turn into fevered battles against fiercely adaptive viruses, operating on someone's throat reveals a widespread infection that needs urgent attention. You'll be operating on patients on the brink of death, flat-lining car-crash victims, terminally ill children - even a bomb (still one of the game's highlights) - everywhere from hospital beds to planes to African deserts. The variety is enormous, the tension unrelenting.

The best thing about it is the fact that everything, from excisions to defibrillation to draining and twisting and grabbing and stitching and lasering, is done with your hands. This is a level of immediacy that even Under the Knife cannot come close to equalling. You grab hold of things between finger and thumb, physically twist shards of bone around and fit them back into place with your right hand, pull things out of patients by moving your hand away from the screen and actually place defibrillator pads onto patients chests, squeezing both triggers to release the charge. This is as close to actual surgery as any game would ever want to be, and it is a completely unique experience. If you fail an operation, it's your fault. You weren't fast or accurate or clever enough to outwit the virus.

If you're queasy, you might want to look away. If you're not, let's twist some bone!

As a result of all of this, Second Opinion is extremely demanding. It demands your undivided attention, precise movements and very skilled manoeuvres. Like Under the Knife, it's extremely challenging, often to the point of immense frustration, but unlike Under the Knife, it does relent occasionally - it will let you switch the difficulty from Easy to Normal to Hard on any given operation, so that if you really are stuck on something you can still progress to the next task. People without the lightning-fast reflexes that Trauma Centre expects will not hit the brick wall of difficulty that they faced on the DS. Second Opinion is more considerate of the player, but no less difficult on the higher settings, meaning that established players will find much here to keep them entertained.