Trauma Team: Detective!
Company: Atlus
In my mind, Valve's The Orange Box still stands out as one of the greatest gamer values ever. Though the price has since dropped, The Orange Box gave players access to five games (including Half-Life 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2) that could have easily sold as stand-alone games and raked in the cash. Though it is still really early to tell, it looks like Atlus's upcoming Trauma Team may be on its way to being 2010's answer to Valve's offering. Last month, Atlus gave members of the press a look at one of Trauma Team's six modes, the more traditional surgeon pathway. Last week, Atlus gave us a look at another of the game's modes, the not-so-traditional Forensics mode. Rather than trying to save a life, Forensics finds you attempting to piece together how a patient died. The setup is similar to crime-solving games like Phoenix Wright, a comparison Atlus was quick to play up during our hour-long mystery tour. In fact, the Forensics mode will offer nearly six episodic cases, each clocking in at an hour or more. For those keeping track, that's at least six hours (though likely many more) of gameplay. Not bad when you consider some games struggle to squeeze out ten hours.
Forensics Mode plays out like a traditional point-and-click adventure game and focuses on Dr. Naomi Kimishima, whom fans may remember from Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Though a brilliant surgeon, the recent onset of a disease has prevented her from staying in the OR. Down, but not out, Naomi sets her mind towards solving crimes. Atlus's preview scenario focused on what, at first glance, looked like a simple suicide. Of course, things are never as they seem. Most of the mode involves Evidence Cards, graphical reference points used to keep track of all known evidence. The idea is to collect evidence, filling the cards with data. Eventually, you can combine the filled cards, creating solid leads allowing you to solve the case.
Data is gathered by poking around the crime scene for clues as well as collecting interviews from witnesses and examining the body in the morgue. Without giving too much of the mystery (or its solution) away, our apparent suicide turned out to be more than that after examining the body and discovering red-tinted eyes and a mystery bruise near the rib cage - two things you wouldn't expect from someone who slashed their wrists. Eventually our investigation led to an even deeper case involving drugs, a fan and one... well, that's for you to discover.
Similar to Phoenix Wright, much of the gameplay revolves around not only collecting evidence but also using deductive reasoning to piece together how everything fits together. Much of your reasoning through cases takes place via multiple choice tests tied to a meter. Each time you make a wrong guess, the meter depletes until you're forced to restart the case. Although we've only seen two of the game's six modes, Trauma Team is an exciting prospect for 2010. Look for Trauma Team this April.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
Related Links: Game Vortex's Preview of Trauma Team Game Vortex's Review of Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Trauma Team Metro 2033