Gamertell Preview: Trauma Team for Wii

Atlus once again held another game demo presentation, this time for the forthcoming Wii game Trauma Team, and Gamertell once again was lucky to attend and get a look at the latest entry in the Trauma Center series. Atlus’ Aram Jabbari was once again leading us through the game, just like he was yesterday with 3D Dot Game Heroes, and decided to take us through a diagnostics case with Spike Spiegal look-a-like Dr. Gabriel Cunningham and his computer assistant RONI.

Dr. Cunningham and RONI are playing Dr. Cunningham’s office playing cards, and RONI’s just won again, when sounds from a beligerent older man start eminating from the exam room next door. As he goes next door to tell them to shut the man up, he learns the man is Assistant Secretary Jacob Hillman, who was found passed out in his home. At first Dr. Cunningham is going to dismiss him and allow him to be released, because he looks so spry, but when he sees Jacob’s leg shaking he says to admit him and begins examining him.

The diagnosis part of the game is primarily a point and click adventure with lots of reading and examining. It’s one of two modes in Trauma Team that doesn’t have a difficulty level, co-operative multiplayer or any kind of time limits. (Forensics is the other.) Also, cases in the diagnosis and forensics modes can easily take an hour to complete. The case Aram guided us through took just about one hour to complete, and probably even went quicker than normal since for part of it Aram knew what he should be doing to succeed. Patients also have no health bar, so you don’t have to worry about losing them while you work.

It started with a brief story scene, introducing the new patient, which was described above. Then, Dr. Cunningham had to actually examine the 55 year old Jacob and search for abnormalities. The first part of the exam had three parts, question, stethoscope and diagnostic. Jacob is a very beligerant man who doesn’t believe he needs to be there, so its quite difficult. He won’t allow Dr. Cunningham to use his stethoscope, and won’t agree to a CT scan. So first all that can be done is question him, and examine his appearance.

When you question a patient, dialogue balloons pop up. You then have to listen to what he’s saying (the game features full voice acting) and click on a balloon if there’s something abnormal about what he’s saying. For example, if Jacob says he’s lost his appetite, or feels bloated, you’d click those and say they’re abnormalities. They would then become symptoms that you can use to determine what’s really wrong. RONI automatically registers them for you. You have to pay close attention though – Dr. Cunningham has five hearts, and can only make five mistakes. If he messes up his diagnosis, you lose.

Since the stethoscope can’t be used just yet, the only other option is to check out Jacob’s diagnostics. A chart will then appear on the screen. There are three columns of information presented. On the left is a medical term and stat (ESR, blood pressure, white blood count) that can be clicked to provide a definition. In the middle is a number showing what a normal patient’s count or statistic should be. On the right is your patient’s, in this case Jacob’s, results. You then have to go through and report any abnormalities. For example, if the red blood count was low, you’d click it to report it as a symptom.

One of the features was that the game would tell you if you’d found all the symptoms available so far. So by now there’s nothing more to see. A CT scan is needed to complete the diagnosis, but Jacob won’t allow one yet. So Dr. Cunningham has to head to his exam room, where the player can save progress at any time by the way, to start a preliminary diagnosis so he can convince Jacob to permit a CT scan. You’ll access a sort of computer, and on the left side of the screen will be all of the symptoms you’ve found so far, and on the right a list of possible ailments. You have to read through each ailment, looking to see if it mentions any of the symptoms you’ve found during the examination. If you see a match, you click and drag the symptom on the left over to the ailment on the right. The symptom will then be highlighted in the ailment’s text description and a meter on the top of the screen will show the odds of the patient is suffering from that problem. Fortunately, Dr. Cunningham has found enough evidence to press Jacob for a CT scan.

The game then goes to the Image Analysis Lab, where CT scans, X-rays, MRIs and other imaging tests are performed. In Jacob’s case, three CT scans are done. You then look at an example of a normal CT scan and compare them to the patient’s scans. Once again, you’ll need to click on abnormal areas to register them as symptoms. For example, you could be looking for inflamation. These final scans provide the evidence needed to make an early diagnosis. You then can head back to the office and complete the diagnosis part to see if everything matches up. At this point it does and an initial ailment is discovered. But, there could be other diseases or afflictions causing it.

That brings us to diagnosis phase two. At this point Jacob is slightly more accomodating. He’s still surly, but a little more willing to listen to Dr. Cunningham. Time to look for more symptoms again. This time the question, stethoscope and diagnostic options return, and you can also check out EKG results. Since the questioning and diagnostic are the same this time around, let’s focus on what using the stethoscope and reading the EKG is like.

Once you use the stethoscope, Jacob lifts up his shirt. In the bottom right corner of the screen there’s a map showing four locations that can be inspected. So players can check his breathing, his heart and his stomach to see if everything sounds right. Once again, you’ll hear and see his heartbeat, breathing and stomach sounds, and also the same results from a healthy person. If you see abnormalities, you click and record them as symptoms.

The EKG lets you look at Jacob’s and a normal patients’ waves. You can switch back and forth between them to check for spike differences. In this case, you can’t just click anywhere on a line if something’s off. You have to click exactly where the abnormality is to report it as a symptom.

Once you’ve gotten all the symptoms you can from examining Jacob, you head back to the office to start diagnosising and comparing symptoms to possible conditions or ailments. After doing some initial research, Dr. Cunningham discovers that Jacob needs to have an echocardiogram done to get a better look at his heart. You then head over to the Image Analysis Lab again, this time to look at three ultrasounds of Jacob’s heart to see if anything’s wrong. Another symptom is picked up, and a final diagnosis can be made. This case ends with a final story scene where Dr. Cunningham tells Jacob what’s wrong with him, then briefly talks with Dr. Tomoe Tachibana about another case.

After getting to see the whole presentation and diagnosis demo, I’m now really excited to play through the finished product. The inclusion of new specialties, specifically diagnostics and forensics, that play like adventure games somehow makes the series seem more approachable. Plus it’s interesting to see that all of the doctors in the game will interact with one another, and sometimes one doctor’s patient will return to be treated by a different doctor. I know before, when playing the DS Trauma Center games, I’d feel so depressed after repeatedly losing patients, and at least here there’ll be other modes to switch to while I recover and regroup. Plus, knowing that the Wii MotionPlus peripheral isn’t used is a bonus! Trauma Team comes out May 18, 2010, is rated “Teen” by the ESRB and will cost $49.99.

Site [Trauma Team]