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Vet Emergency

Score: 20%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: Legacy Interactive
Developer: EA Games
Media: CD/1
Players: 1
Genre: Simulation

Graphics & Sound:

You may be familiar with other Real Life games such as Emergency Room: Code Red. For those of you who aren't, there are striking similarities between Vet Emergency and ER: CR. Being made by the same company, you would expect some resemblance between the two, but not of this magnitude. The graphics, done in Macromedia Flash, are ill prepared to take on what the gaming industry has to offer. The FMV that they threw in is by no means a help to the game's already poor graphic quality.

Simply put, the music and sound could have been a lot better. At times you'll feel that you could have made better music in your garage. It just doesn't get you in the mood to operate on dying animals. As for the sound effects, they could use a complete makeover. The quality rivals that of the noises I make in my sleep, but not much else.


Gameplay:

Vet Emergency could fill volumes with what it lacks in gameplay. It has hardly any variety, is extremely boring, and worst of all, there's really no point to the game, at least not one that will make you want to play it. Basically, you're a vet, and you treat sick animals. Some of the greatest games are based on the simplest of premises, but this game is far from great. If games were food, this one would be a fat free potato chip. It's just not worth it.

Starting off the game will be a guided tour of the hospital. Once you've become acquainted with everything, or once the tour is over, whichever comes first, you get to work on some patients. These animals are ripe with injuries, and it's your job to help them. Not only do you physically care for them, but you must also diagnose them and prescribe the right treatments that are necessary for their survival. Electrifying gameplay, I must say. That was a joke. A real pitfall to this game is that there aren't that many patients to choose from. Each animal is quite unique, but operating on the same bruised lizard or lame dog over and over again is enough to turn off even the most hardcore of vets.

The actual process of treating your patients is not all that complicated. You have a variety of tools to choose from, and it's up to you to use them accordingly. Your choice will vary depending on the history of the patient. The real trick to winning, though, is doing everything in the right order from start to finish. This will yield the maximum amount of points in the end. It's not much of a trophy, but an actual number is better than just a 'Good Job'.

If this is all too much for you to handle, you can cool off in the game's virtual doctor's lounge, which is decorated with various posters and plants. Best of all, though, is the trivia game inside the doctor's lounge. If you really, really, really like animals and medical questions about animals, this is the right part of the game for you. The game is rife with questions you won't ever want to hear again in your life.

For a last resort, you can go look at the list of all things medical on the hospital's computer. It is basically a glossary of medical terminology and key words. It's kind of like reading the dictionary, but a lot more tiresome. I doubt anyone will ever read this, and if bytes were tangible, this chunk would be a huge paperweight.


Difficulty:

There are difficulty settings in Vet Emergency, but they don't exactly affect the overall difficulty of the game. Instead, they determine how all that confusing hospital jargon is presented to you. The easier the difficulty, the more understandable the info. The real difficulty comes from figuring out in what order to do things to get the best score. Guess and check is about the best way to approach this.

Game Mechanics:

You work out of your PDA, or personal data assistant. Here is where you move around, pick tools and diagnose your patients. Besides choosing different tools to use on the poor critters, the control isn't all that complicated. Navigating around the animal's body is simply a point and click procedure, and the hardest part of all is trying to find exact locations of some parts, for they won't show up if you're a few pixels off.

Nobody has actually simulated real life in a game before. No matter how close we come, it's just not the real thing. So don't let the term 'Real Life Games' fool you, as this is about as far from real life (and any entertainment) as they come.


-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications
AKA Andrew Horwitz

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows 95/98/2k, 266 MHz processor, 32 MB RAM, 2 MB video card, 16X CD-ROM, sound card
 

Test System:



Windows 98, 1.4GHz AMD Athlon, GeForce 2 mx 32MB video card, 40 gig hard drive, 56x CD-ROM, 256MB DDR Ram, Sound Blaster Live!

Windows US Open 2002 Windows Vietcong

 
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