I gotta say, this game is rough.
The game is about a group of 6 doctors with unique gameplay styles doing their things as doctors. Unlike the last 3 games, which had a visual novel style for their cutscenes, Trauma Team uses a comic book style instead, and it looks pretty good, though they reuse some drawings of characters a lot. As for the voice acting, like in New Blood, it's alright. Nothing terrible, but nothing spectacular.
Outside the cutscenes, the game also has a bit of a different style than the other games, going for less realism. It looks pretty nice, and ages a bit better than the more realistic characters in the others games. I do prefer the realistic models, but honestly that's moreso a nitpick. The game looks pretty good all-around when played in its intended resolution, 480p, but when upscaled in Dolphin, seams show. I won't hold that against the game though.
The game sounds alright. Same schtick as the other games, nice, fitting, but not very memorable.
As for the gameplay, hoo boy. The game is split into 6 gameplay styles. The first part of the game splits them up like Sonic Adventure, where each character has their own campaign that sometimes intersects with the others, while the second part of the game is more like Sonic Adventure 2, where you play certain styles in a certain order. Regular surgery is what you would expect at this point, except no more healing touch, so it's pretty fun. Emergency response is a simplified, more stressful version of surgery, focusing on cleaning people up for further treatment. It's also pretty fun. Orthopedics focuses on slower, more precise movement. While it's fun at first, it's also too simple, and gets old rather fast. Endoscopy is rather boring, easy, and tedious. Diagnostics and Forensics are similar in that they don't focus on treating the patient. Diagnostics plays somewhat similar to the trial part of an Ace Attorney game, where you look for discrepancies and problems. The diagnostician is an entertaining character, so while this part is on the simpler side, it's still entertaining. Forensics, though, plays like the investigation segments in Ace Attorney, and boy do they suck. They last forever, you need to look in rather obscure parts of the room sometimes, and I overall dreaded when I had to play one.
Overall, the game is a mixed bag. Pretty good presentation, can only get you so far when only 3 of the 6 gameplay styles are consistently enjoyable. The game also has the issue of being too easy, with the hardest difficulty only being unlocked after you beat the game. On the normal difficulty, though, I only failed a mission once in my entire playthrough. However, I respect this game a lot more than Under the Knife 2, as that game reused ideas and was just a worse version of New Blood. This game, however, tried new things, and I give it props for that. If this weren't the last game in the series, I would love to see a second game that tries multiple gameplay styles. However, as it is, the game is highly inconsistent gameplay wise, with an enjoyable story. When it's fun, it's pretty fun, but when it's not, it sucks. It's okay, but a step down from even Under the Knife 2. If only this game got the sequel it much needed and much deserves.
6.5/10
The game is about a group of 6 doctors with unique gameplay styles doing their things as doctors. Unlike the last 3 games, which had a visual novel style for their cutscenes, Trauma Team uses a comic book style instead, and it looks pretty good, though they reuse some drawings of characters a lot. As for the voice acting, like in New Blood, it's alright. Nothing terrible, but nothing spectacular.
Outside the cutscenes, the game also has a bit of a different style than the other games, going for less realism. It looks pretty nice, and ages a bit better than the more realistic characters in the others games. I do prefer the realistic models, but honestly that's moreso a nitpick. The game looks pretty good all-around when played in its intended resolution, 480p, but when upscaled in Dolphin, seams show. I won't hold that against the game though.
The game sounds alright. Same schtick as the other games, nice, fitting, but not very memorable.
As for the gameplay, hoo boy. The game is split into 6 gameplay styles. The first part of the game splits them up like Sonic Adventure, where each character has their own campaign that sometimes intersects with the others, while the second part of the game is more like Sonic Adventure 2, where you play certain styles in a certain order. Regular surgery is what you would expect at this point, except no more healing touch, so it's pretty fun. Emergency response is a simplified, more stressful version of surgery, focusing on cleaning people up for further treatment. It's also pretty fun. Orthopedics focuses on slower, more precise movement. While it's fun at first, it's also too simple, and gets old rather fast. Endoscopy is rather boring, easy, and tedious. Diagnostics and Forensics are similar in that they don't focus on treating the patient. Diagnostics plays somewhat similar to the trial part of an Ace Attorney game, where you look for discrepancies and problems. The diagnostician is an entertaining character, so while this part is on the simpler side, it's still entertaining. Forensics, though, plays like the investigation segments in Ace Attorney, and boy do they suck. They last forever, you need to look in rather obscure parts of the room sometimes, and I overall dreaded when I had to play one.
Overall, the game is a mixed bag. Pretty good presentation, can only get you so far when only 3 of the 6 gameplay styles are consistently enjoyable. The game also has the issue of being too easy, with the hardest difficulty only being unlocked after you beat the game. On the normal difficulty, though, I only failed a mission once in my entire playthrough. However, I respect this game a lot more than Under the Knife 2, as that game reused ideas and was just a worse version of New Blood. This game, however, tried new things, and I give it props for that. If this weren't the last game in the series, I would love to see a second game that tries multiple gameplay styles. However, as it is, the game is highly inconsistent gameplay wise, with an enjoyable story. When it's fun, it's pretty fun, but when it's not, it sucks. It's okay, but a step down from even Under the Knife 2. If only this game got the sequel it much needed and much deserves.
6.5/10