gunntims0103
November 21st, 2006, 23:55
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Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii)
Developer: Atlus Co.; Publisher: Atlus USA
The characters and events depicted in this game are fictitious. Any similarities to organizations, people (living or dead), hospitals, or cutting-edge medical techniques are purely coincidental.
This is the disclaimer that prefaces Atlus' rage-inducing precision surgery sim, Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Given the increasingly bizarre medical situations that crop up throughout the game, as well as the anime-flavored hospital drama that unfolds, that warning very much goes without saying.
Second Opinion is a remake--and more--of Atlus' widely praised Trauma Center: Under the Knife, one of the games that really championed stylus control on the Nintendo DS. As in Under the Knife, Second Opinion puts you in the role of rookie doctor Derek Stiles, who must save the lives of patient after patient using an array of surgical tools. This time around, of course, you'll be operating with the Wii remote rather than the DS stylus. Like the original game, Second Opinion proves to be a worthy gameplay-centric title that exemplifies creative use of its system's controller. It also provides yet another counterpoint to skeptics' claims that Wii requires users to flail around wildly to progress in games. Quite the contrary; Second Opinion rewards--nay, requires--a steady hand to pull off its incisions, sutures, injections, and other surgical tasks. Like Under the Knife, Second Opinion is a hard game, and it becomes brutally difficult. Fortunately, Atlus has included three difficulty settings this time around, and you can switch between them before any mission.
One of the most significant additions to the game is the use of the nunchuk controller to select your implements. The eight available tools are displayed in a radial menu in the lower left corner of the screen, and you simply point the analog stick in the appropriate direction to select a tool, intead of than selecting each instrument manually with the pointer as in the DS game. This is a godsend when it comes to speed and efficiency, and as a side bonus it is a great boon to immersiveness. Using your left hand (or right hand, for the lefties) to grab your tools and the other hand to operate really brings to mind the classic O.R. scene with the doctor deadpanning the name of the tool he demands and holding out his left hand in anticipation. It's just a shame that there's no voiceover work saying "Scalpel!" when you grab the knife.
Second Opinion's presentation is very bare bones. The art design has been redone and made edgier from the DS release, but the story is still told in images and text, which some players may be inclined to simply skip. Hopefully, if Atlus continues the series on Wii, some more voice acting will be included, at least during key moments. As it is, though, it's hardly a deal-breaker; gameplay is where Trauma Center shines, and it holds up there.
Despite being a remake, there are some new elements thrown in, including a modified story and new character, and more crucially a whole new chapter and an added medical instrument. You now have access to a defibrillator during certain moments, which is perfect for a controller that consists of a separate component in each hand. As you would expect, you do indeed thrust the remote and nunchuk towards the screen to get that heart pumping. Still, gamers who have already played through the DS incarnation of the game will find that they recognize most of the missions. Much of the game, particularly early on, is taken directly from Under the Knife. Despite this, Second Opinion brings enough to the table that even fans of the first game should consider giving it a shot. To those who haven't played the original, this is an even more attractive entry in the Wii's launch lineup.
Red steel review
Red Steel (Wii)
Developer: Ubisoft Paris; Publisher: Ubisoft
Red Steel was the first full unveiled Wii game in the Western world--the second worldwide, counting Tecmo's Super Swing Golf--and it made big promises. The game plunges an American protagonist into modern day Japan, using firearms and blades as he gets further embroiled into the Yakuza underworld. A game full of gunplay and swordfighting is perfect for the Wii, as it is comprised of what are probably the two gameplay functions most likely to come to mind as appealing uses of the Wii remote. Unfortunately, Red Steel is very clearly unfinished. Whether this is the fault of the team, or a byproduct of trying to get what might have been an impressively ambitious game finished for launch, could be debated, but the game has many significant flaws.
Fundamental to the game are its control mechanisms. Aiming operates somewhere in between using a mouse and a console analog stick. The cursor, which is aimed with the remote, operates independently of the camera as it moves around the screen, but when it approaches the edge of a screen the camera turns in that direction. This seems to be the standard method of operation for Wii shooters, but unlike other genre entries such as Treyarch's Call of Duty 3 and Retro Studios' Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Red Steel's "dead zone"--the area of the screen in which moving the cursor does not cause the camera to turn--is fairly large, making turning a somewhat sluggish affair. To the game's credit, this seems to have been factored into the level design. Red Steel is not a run and gun shooter; rather, battles are a series of set pieces that play out as you come to a new room or environment. This in itself is not a drawback, it is simply how the game is structured and it works fine.
What is a huge drawback is that the game's presentation is bland, bordering on just plain poor. Flaws abound, from clipping problems, to braindead NPCs, to uninspiring visual design (though in fairness this does improve later in the game), to a bizarre pointer glitch that will occasionally cause the cursor to skip across the screen and back again in a split second. This last issue, curiously enough, does not seem to be an issue with any other launch games using the system's pointer functionality, suggesting that fault lies with Red Steel itself.
Cutscenes are done in a comic book panel format similar to those of Max Payne. The style should work well, except that they have none of the dynamism and flow of Max Payne's. The game's dialogue and voice acting is not particularly great, which would not be much of a flaw if there were not so many other disappointing aspects of the presentation that are compounded. Ubisoft Paris, the studio behind the game, also developed 2003's cel-shaded shooter XIII, which suffered from many of the same problems. Like that game, Red Steel's environments are varied but not hugely impressive, and the gameplay is pretty standard. Red Steel very much feels like it could have used a good once over and another six months to a year of development. On the other hand, as in XIII, the music is very well done and has a broad range. Similarly, the sound design is quite good. Hearing reload sounds through the remote speaker is surprisingly enjoyable.
The game is not without gameplay highlights. Once you are entrenched in a safe position, aiming around the screen and nailing enemies is pretty enjoyable; it's just that when you have to do a quick 180 turn or some similar maneuver, the designers' choice to go with a large turning bounding box makes things frustrating. Swordfighting, which has taken a lot of flak from fans for not replicating users' movements on a 1:1 basis, is actually quite fun and were some of the parts of the game I looked forward to playing. The actual context for the swordfights is ludicrous; what man with absolutely no prior experience holding a katana is going to cast aside his perfectly functional firearm to engage in close combat with somebody who is clearly a master swordsman? It makes no sense, but setting that aside, the battles themselves can be a lot of fun. Quite frankly, I think the designers made the right choice in mapping your movements to numerous directional sword slashes. When it really comes down to it, when I playing the game and swinging the remote, I didn't notice or care about that; it was simply rewarding to see the on-screen sword accurately pick up the direction of my slashes and the blocking I was doing with the short sword in my left hand. The fighting system isn't the deepest in the world, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable for what it is.
All in all, Red Steel promises a lot and simply can't deliver on most of it. Despite Ubisoft's best intentions on having serious support for Wii right out of the gate, the realities of developing a launch title clearly took a heavy toll on the game. This kind of involved single-player experience really deserves more time, particularly when dealing with an entirely new control system. Ubisoft's own Rayman Raving Rabbids, from Michel Ancel's team at Ubisoft Montpellier, delivered a more successful (and more realistic from a development perspective) picture of delivering accessible creativity while still making launch. That said, Red Steel game does have some encouraging aspects. Ubisoft has stated that it plans to create a franchise out of Red Steel, and the game is likely to be the best selling initial Wii launch title after Zelda, so it would be no surprise if a sequel surfaced. If so, let's hope it gets the time it needs.
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii)
Developer: Atlus Co.; Publisher: Atlus USA
The characters and events depicted in this game are fictitious. Any similarities to organizations, people (living or dead), hospitals, or cutting-edge medical techniques are purely coincidental.
This is the disclaimer that prefaces Atlus' rage-inducing precision surgery sim, Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Given the increasingly bizarre medical situations that crop up throughout the game, as well as the anime-flavored hospital drama that unfolds, that warning very much goes without saying.
Second Opinion is a remake--and more--of Atlus' widely praised Trauma Center: Under the Knife, one of the games that really championed stylus control on the Nintendo DS. As in Under the Knife, Second Opinion puts you in the role of rookie doctor Derek Stiles, who must save the lives of patient after patient using an array of surgical tools. This time around, of course, you'll be operating with the Wii remote rather than the DS stylus. Like the original game, Second Opinion proves to be a worthy gameplay-centric title that exemplifies creative use of its system's controller. It also provides yet another counterpoint to skeptics' claims that Wii requires users to flail around wildly to progress in games. Quite the contrary; Second Opinion rewards--nay, requires--a steady hand to pull off its incisions, sutures, injections, and other surgical tasks. Like Under the Knife, Second Opinion is a hard game, and it becomes brutally difficult. Fortunately, Atlus has included three difficulty settings this time around, and you can switch between them before any mission.
One of the most significant additions to the game is the use of the nunchuk controller to select your implements. The eight available tools are displayed in a radial menu in the lower left corner of the screen, and you simply point the analog stick in the appropriate direction to select a tool, intead of than selecting each instrument manually with the pointer as in the DS game. This is a godsend when it comes to speed and efficiency, and as a side bonus it is a great boon to immersiveness. Using your left hand (or right hand, for the lefties) to grab your tools and the other hand to operate really brings to mind the classic O.R. scene with the doctor deadpanning the name of the tool he demands and holding out his left hand in anticipation. It's just a shame that there's no voiceover work saying "Scalpel!" when you grab the knife.
Second Opinion's presentation is very bare bones. The art design has been redone and made edgier from the DS release, but the story is still told in images and text, which some players may be inclined to simply skip. Hopefully, if Atlus continues the series on Wii, some more voice acting will be included, at least during key moments. As it is, though, it's hardly a deal-breaker; gameplay is where Trauma Center shines, and it holds up there.
Despite being a remake, there are some new elements thrown in, including a modified story and new character, and more crucially a whole new chapter and an added medical instrument. You now have access to a defibrillator during certain moments, which is perfect for a controller that consists of a separate component in each hand. As you would expect, you do indeed thrust the remote and nunchuk towards the screen to get that heart pumping. Still, gamers who have already played through the DS incarnation of the game will find that they recognize most of the missions. Much of the game, particularly early on, is taken directly from Under the Knife. Despite this, Second Opinion brings enough to the table that even fans of the first game should consider giving it a shot. To those who haven't played the original, this is an even more attractive entry in the Wii's launch lineup.
Red steel review
Red Steel (Wii)
Developer: Ubisoft Paris; Publisher: Ubisoft
Red Steel was the first full unveiled Wii game in the Western world--the second worldwide, counting Tecmo's Super Swing Golf--and it made big promises. The game plunges an American protagonist into modern day Japan, using firearms and blades as he gets further embroiled into the Yakuza underworld. A game full of gunplay and swordfighting is perfect for the Wii, as it is comprised of what are probably the two gameplay functions most likely to come to mind as appealing uses of the Wii remote. Unfortunately, Red Steel is very clearly unfinished. Whether this is the fault of the team, or a byproduct of trying to get what might have been an impressively ambitious game finished for launch, could be debated, but the game has many significant flaws.
Fundamental to the game are its control mechanisms. Aiming operates somewhere in between using a mouse and a console analog stick. The cursor, which is aimed with the remote, operates independently of the camera as it moves around the screen, but when it approaches the edge of a screen the camera turns in that direction. This seems to be the standard method of operation for Wii shooters, but unlike other genre entries such as Treyarch's Call of Duty 3 and Retro Studios' Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Red Steel's "dead zone"--the area of the screen in which moving the cursor does not cause the camera to turn--is fairly large, making turning a somewhat sluggish affair. To the game's credit, this seems to have been factored into the level design. Red Steel is not a run and gun shooter; rather, battles are a series of set pieces that play out as you come to a new room or environment. This in itself is not a drawback, it is simply how the game is structured and it works fine.
What is a huge drawback is that the game's presentation is bland, bordering on just plain poor. Flaws abound, from clipping problems, to braindead NPCs, to uninspiring visual design (though in fairness this does improve later in the game), to a bizarre pointer glitch that will occasionally cause the cursor to skip across the screen and back again in a split second. This last issue, curiously enough, does not seem to be an issue with any other launch games using the system's pointer functionality, suggesting that fault lies with Red Steel itself.
Cutscenes are done in a comic book panel format similar to those of Max Payne. The style should work well, except that they have none of the dynamism and flow of Max Payne's. The game's dialogue and voice acting is not particularly great, which would not be much of a flaw if there were not so many other disappointing aspects of the presentation that are compounded. Ubisoft Paris, the studio behind the game, also developed 2003's cel-shaded shooter XIII, which suffered from many of the same problems. Like that game, Red Steel's environments are varied but not hugely impressive, and the gameplay is pretty standard. Red Steel very much feels like it could have used a good once over and another six months to a year of development. On the other hand, as in XIII, the music is very well done and has a broad range. Similarly, the sound design is quite good. Hearing reload sounds through the remote speaker is surprisingly enjoyable.
The game is not without gameplay highlights. Once you are entrenched in a safe position, aiming around the screen and nailing enemies is pretty enjoyable; it's just that when you have to do a quick 180 turn or some similar maneuver, the designers' choice to go with a large turning bounding box makes things frustrating. Swordfighting, which has taken a lot of flak from fans for not replicating users' movements on a 1:1 basis, is actually quite fun and were some of the parts of the game I looked forward to playing. The actual context for the swordfights is ludicrous; what man with absolutely no prior experience holding a katana is going to cast aside his perfectly functional firearm to engage in close combat with somebody who is clearly a master swordsman? It makes no sense, but setting that aside, the battles themselves can be a lot of fun. Quite frankly, I think the designers made the right choice in mapping your movements to numerous directional sword slashes. When it really comes down to it, when I playing the game and swinging the remote, I didn't notice or care about that; it was simply rewarding to see the on-screen sword accurately pick up the direction of my slashes and the blocking I was doing with the short sword in my left hand. The fighting system isn't the deepest in the world, but I found it surprisingly enjoyable for what it is.
All in all, Red Steel promises a lot and simply can't deliver on most of it. Despite Ubisoft's best intentions on having serious support for Wii right out of the gate, the realities of developing a launch title clearly took a heavy toll on the game. This kind of involved single-player experience really deserves more time, particularly when dealing with an entirely new control system. Ubisoft's own Rayman Raving Rabbids, from Michel Ancel's team at Ubisoft Montpellier, delivered a more successful (and more realistic from a development perspective) picture of delivering accessible creativity while still making launch. That said, Red Steel game does have some encouraging aspects. Ubisoft has stated that it plans to create a franchise out of Red Steel, and the game is likely to be the best selling initial Wii launch title after Zelda, so it would be no surprise if a sequel surfaced. If so, let's hope it gets the time it needs.