Trauma Center: New Blood
Encyclopedia
is the third game of the Trauma Center surgery
simulation
video game series, for the Wii. New Blood is a new installment with features not seen in the previous title, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation
, a cooperative mode, online leaderboards, full voice-over dialogue and a 16:9 widescreen mode.
in the year 2028. The game follows doctors Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock, two surgeons with the Healing Touch ability who worked at the Concordia Medical Institute in Los Angeles. Dr. Vaughn moves over to Montgomery Memorial hospital in Alaska and is followed by Dr. Blaylock. They perform a few operations here, including one on Dr. Hoover, the director of Montgomery Memorial. In one episode at Montgomery Memorial, a man was shot with a rifle, and a young woman brings him to Montgomery Memorial, and she actually turns out to be a nurse, who then helps them in the operating room. Later, they find out that this nurse is from Concordia and her name is Elena Salazar, and she had come to ask Dr. Vaughn to perform an operation to replace an implant in her pancreas. Later in the plot Elena becomes a permanent nurse for Blaylock and Vaughn. When the hospital closed down, Dr. Hoover tells them to return to Concordia. Markus is reluctant to return to Concordia, but realizes that he must go back.
Once there, they learn from Professor Wilkens, an old acquaintance of Markus's, about a new and mysterious parasite called Stigma. After Markus and Valerie operated on Wilkens, who was infected with Stigma, the professor is kidnapped and all of his data regarding this new disease is stolen. Fearing for the worse, Dr. Vaughn and Dr. Blaylock are invited to join Caduceus
, because of their valuable knowledge on Stigma. The first couple of cases were mostly kept from the public eye, but shortly after appearing on Miracle Surgery to take the show off the air, things only got worse. After saving Doctor Tsuji's cousin not once but twice when the discovery of Culurium was responsible for triggering Stigma. They were soon kidnapped by the Kidman Family, a criminal organization who have seen their skills and the profitability of Stigma, and forced to operate on patients intentionally infected with Stigma. Markus then confesses to Valerie and Elena that he was responsible for the creation of Stigma, which was from an accident from when he was working with Professor Wilkens. Professor Wilkens wanted to continue his research to the world with the intentions of becoming famous with the research. Markus, however, rejected the idea of using a potential threat to become famous and left for Alaska. After travelling to South America to treat more Stigma patients, they find Kidman dead, and one of his companions in critical condition.
When they returned to Caduceus, they discovered Cynthia Kazakov, a close friend of Valerie's, was in a relationship with a man named Master Vakhusti, who planned to give a similar implant to Elena that Cynthia has (The implant in question Cynthia has had a remote control which could stop the bloodflow, likewise, he planned to use it on Elena in order to coerce Markus in continuing Stigma research for him.). After removing the device from Cynthia, they encountered Vakhusti, who has the Cardia Stigma, Valerie and Markus deals with the final Stigma and finds out that Cardia was meant to be used as treatment for a terminal illness, but in doing so has made him sociopathic and insane. He dies acknowledging his sins shortly after the operation. As life returns to normal, Valerie, Markus and Elena contemplates on how it is up to them to save a life when needed.
Derek Stiles and Angie Thompson from the previous TC games make a cameo appearance in Episode 7-4 and the 4th Challenge mission, in which Derek and Angie introduces to Markus and Valerie a VR simulation designed to simulate treating patients infected with both GUILT and Stigma.
is assigned based on the style and accuracy of the player. The rankings are:
The XS rank can only be achieved in Hard or Extreme difficulty.
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
video game series, for the Wii. New Blood is a new installment with features not seen in the previous title, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest. It is indicated in those who are unresponsive...
, a cooperative mode, online leaderboards, full voice-over dialogue and a 16:9 widescreen mode.
Plot
New Blood starts off seven years after the events of Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
is a surgical simulation game developed for the Nintendo DS and the fourth in the Trauma Center series. The game is a sequel to Trauma Center: Under the Knife...
in the year 2028. The game follows doctors Markus Vaughn and Valerie Blaylock, two surgeons with the Healing Touch ability who worked at the Concordia Medical Institute in Los Angeles. Dr. Vaughn moves over to Montgomery Memorial hospital in Alaska and is followed by Dr. Blaylock. They perform a few operations here, including one on Dr. Hoover, the director of Montgomery Memorial. In one episode at Montgomery Memorial, a man was shot with a rifle, and a young woman brings him to Montgomery Memorial, and she actually turns out to be a nurse, who then helps them in the operating room. Later, they find out that this nurse is from Concordia and her name is Elena Salazar, and she had come to ask Dr. Vaughn to perform an operation to replace an implant in her pancreas. Later in the plot Elena becomes a permanent nurse for Blaylock and Vaughn. When the hospital closed down, Dr. Hoover tells them to return to Concordia. Markus is reluctant to return to Concordia, but realizes that he must go back.
Once there, they learn from Professor Wilkens, an old acquaintance of Markus's, about a new and mysterious parasite called Stigma. After Markus and Valerie operated on Wilkens, who was infected with Stigma, the professor is kidnapped and all of his data regarding this new disease is stolen. Fearing for the worse, Dr. Vaughn and Dr. Blaylock are invited to join Caduceus
Caduceus
The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings...
, because of their valuable knowledge on Stigma. The first couple of cases were mostly kept from the public eye, but shortly after appearing on Miracle Surgery to take the show off the air, things only got worse. After saving Doctor Tsuji's cousin not once but twice when the discovery of Culurium was responsible for triggering Stigma. They were soon kidnapped by the Kidman Family, a criminal organization who have seen their skills and the profitability of Stigma, and forced to operate on patients intentionally infected with Stigma. Markus then confesses to Valerie and Elena that he was responsible for the creation of Stigma, which was from an accident from when he was working with Professor Wilkens. Professor Wilkens wanted to continue his research to the world with the intentions of becoming famous with the research. Markus, however, rejected the idea of using a potential threat to become famous and left for Alaska. After travelling to South America to treat more Stigma patients, they find Kidman dead, and one of his companions in critical condition.
When they returned to Caduceus, they discovered Cynthia Kazakov, a close friend of Valerie's, was in a relationship with a man named Master Vakhusti, who planned to give a similar implant to Elena that Cynthia has (The implant in question Cynthia has had a remote control which could stop the bloodflow, likewise, he planned to use it on Elena in order to coerce Markus in continuing Stigma research for him.). After removing the device from Cynthia, they encountered Vakhusti, who has the Cardia Stigma, Valerie and Markus deals with the final Stigma and finds out that Cardia was meant to be used as treatment for a terminal illness, but in doing so has made him sociopathic and insane. He dies acknowledging his sins shortly after the operation. As life returns to normal, Valerie, Markus and Elena contemplates on how it is up to them to save a life when needed.
Stigma
Stigma is a series of highly dangerous man-made organisms. The main objective in many stages throughout the game is to save patients infected with Stigma. Initially, for a strain of Stigma to become active, it needed to come into contact with a rare metal named Culurium, which is used in many artificial materials employed by the medical industry. However, later in the game there were reports of people infected by Stigma, despite not having any trace of Culurium in their bodies, indicating that it was evolving into a much greater threat.Gameplay
Trauma Center:New Blood can be played in 3 difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, or Hard. New features include the possibility to play with both characters throughout almost every stage in a new co-op multiplayer mode, and the "Challenge Missions", where a player must perform on a set number of patients in a limited time.Ranking
At the end of each operation, a rankRanking
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either 'ranked higher than', 'ranked lower than' or 'ranked equal to' the second....
is assigned based on the style and accuracy of the player. The rankings are:
- C - Rookie Doctor
- B - Specialist
- A - Senior Surgeon
- S - Master Surgeon
- XS - Medical Prodigy
The XS rank can only be achieved in Hard or Extreme difficulty.
Healing Touch
The Healing Touch is a rare ability that can only be practiced by select doctors. It can be used only once per operation and requires great mental concentration. It is used so that in the surgeon's mind, it can do superhuman things that would otherwise be impossible. Both Healing Touches can only be used for a limited amount of time before returning to normal. By using the Healing Touch, Markus can temporarily slow down time during a procedure (Similar to Derek Stiles'). This allows him to accomplish more. Valerie can prevent a patient from dying by using the Healing Touch. When she uses this technique, the patient's vitals will temporary stabilize. The player can continue the procedure without having to worry about the patient's vitals dropping. However, the player cannot improve the patient's vitals during this time.Reception
New Blood received generally positive reviews. Some praised the new features introduced in the series (mainly the voice acting throughout cutscenes), while others pointed out the unbalanced gameplay for the single-player campaign as its weakest spot.Voice cast
- Troy BakerTroy BakerTroy Baker is an American actor and voice actor who works with anime films, television series, as well as video games....
- Markus Vaughn - Kimberly BrooksKimberly BrooksKimberly Brooks is an American voice actress in the anime, feature films, video games, and theatre industry. She started her acting career when she was nine....
- Valerie Blaylock - Dan WorenDan WorenDaniel E. Woren is an American voice actor who is also known as Jackson Daniels, Warren Daniels, Dan Warren, Daniel Woren, and Dan Worren...
- Miles Hoover, Guy Davidson - Derek Stephen PrinceDerek Stephen PrinceDerek Stephen Prince is an American voice actor who is most memorable for his various roles in the Digimon series, as well as the voice of Elgar in the live-action Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers in Space.While a talented actor, with vocal skills capable of anything from High School girls to...
- Leonardo Bello, Master Vakhushti, Hans Nilsen, Sergeant Major Lopez, Eugene Carlton - Doug ErholtzDoug ErholtzDouglas J. Erholtz is an American voice actor. He is well known for voicing Asuma Sarutobi from Naruto and Ichimaru from Bleach.- Anime roles :* Battle B-Daman - Joe, Biarce* Bounty Dog - Additional Voices...
- Kidman - Karen StrassmanKaren StrassmanKaren Strassman is an American voice actress and actress who is most known for her television and film appearances as well as voice acting. She voices many characters in many video games, animated series and anime series, including Zhalia Moon in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers, Fantine in IGPX, Kallen...
- Elena Salazar, Kanae Tsuji, Isabella Vazquez, Maria Estrada - Kirk ThorntonKirk ThorntonKirk Thornton is an American voice actor.-Bio:He is known for playing tough or grouchy men in English-dubbed anime and video games. His career includes Hotohori in Fushigi Yūgi and Jin in Samurai Champloo...
- Robert Cromwell - Mary Elizabeth McGlynnMary Elizabeth McGlynnMary Elizabeth McGlynn is an American voice actress, ADR director, writer, and singer best known for her extensive English-language dubbing of various anime, and her singing in multiple games from the Silent Hill series, as well as the movie adaptation and Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME. She has...
- Irene Quatro - Michael McConnohieMichael McConnohieMichael D. McConnohie is a voice actor and is the President of the Nevada-based Voxworks voice-acting corporation. He is known for his recognizable deep booming voice and is generally known for playing more charismatic characters...
- Lloyd Wilkens, Narrator, Thor Gunderson - Mona MarshallMona MarshallMona M. Ianotti is an American voice actress. She is often cast in the role of young boys. Her roles have included parts in not only Japanese anime, but also in American cartoons as well. Mona Marshall has recently lent her voice to the talking bear Koby the Study Buddy...
- Marcy Bloom, Sister Catherine Jackson, Chandler Forbes - Wendee LeeWendee LeeWendee Lee is an American voice actress. While she has done voice work for many video games as well as several episodes in the Power Rangers franchise, she is particularly prolific in the dubbing of anime. As of April 2009, with 223 credits to her name, she has more credits in this medium than any...
- Cynthia Kazakov, Tutorial Voice, Angie Thompson - Yuri LowenthalYuri LowenthalYuri Lowenthal is a voice actor that has voiced several anime and video game characters. He also voiced Kamal for the alternate reality game I Love Bees....
- Luc Rousseau, Erik Hayes (helicopter pilot), Derek Stiles, Leland