The additions of the co-op and VO make New Blood better than the original, even if there are only a few changes.
- Slightly improved gameplay makes New Blood a better experience
- More operations and challenges
- Better visuals with fully voiced dialogues
- Controls are still stellar
Negative
- Very little improvement done to the core gameplay
- Maybe a little too much dialogue
When Second Opinion was released in the beginning of the Wii era, it was so unique and original that one must try it out. With the second installment under the name Trauma Center: New Blood, the game makes less impact. There are very little changes to the core gameplay, but this time around there are more challenges and operation, with 16:9 display and having a fully voiced cast. New Blood is a better version than the original in many ways, even when it comes to difficulty levels.
One of the things that are fresh is the story. This time around you will be using one of the two doctors; Valerie Blaylock and Markus Vaughn. The story starts in Alaska where the two doctors are working, but after that hospital closed they return to America. After certain events, including a new kind of disease called stigma. They are invited to join Caduceus, because of their valuable knowledge on Stigma. In operations it is not as frequent as GUILT was in Second Opinion but it has similar feel. Stigma has high mobility and evolves quickly, but basically it is the same as GUILT. Both doctors possess the infamous healing touch, allowing them to slow down the disease from spreading for a few seconds.
From the gameplay perspective, New Blood is virtually unchanged. You will be using your old tools, such as the laser, syringe, your trusty scalpel and more. There are some minor additions of other things when dealing with appendixes, operating on the burnt man and new liquids which must be injected in Stigma with the syringe. Those who played Second Opinion will find most of the operations here easy as cake. Through this point, New Blood is not original anymore, but newcomers will still find this one of the unique games on the Wii. There is still the existence of the time limit which will make you think fast and act fast.
New Blood offers more operations than its predecessor. There are quite some interesting operations like there were in Second Opinion such as performing on Miracle Surgery – a game show, removing skins from unburned parts and put that skin on burnt parts, removing and replacing machinery components from inside patients and even brain surgeries. Sometimes you may even have to massage the heart without the Defibrillator. Most of the surgeries are familiar, such as removal of tumors and glass removal. At the end of an episode you might want to take the challenge. This challenge is very challenge, which makes you take the operation performed in that episode together with a time limit. Some lack of clear instructions can make it tedious, but some operations can come out with some common sense. You are rarely shown how to do things in motion, just by hearing them and reading the dialogue.
One could say that New Blood inherited everything including the flaws. There is still the time limit which will add tension and might make you panic with your hand shaking in difficult operations. You'll still be awarded with points with every successful chain move you do without doing an error and at the end of each operation you'll be assessed on how well you did. Normal players will get no more than A, possibly mostly C. It requires a lot of patience to get a score over A. The controls are still superb, with rarely any problems. You will be needed a firm hand and sometimes nerves of steel in certain operations. The basic controls are still the same. The only difference is how you use the magnification tool, which it certain operations will make you furious.
Another of New Blood's addition is the co-op mode. Co-op lets you take operations with a friend and requires both the Nunchuk and Wii Remote to play. One of the advantages of this is that an operation can be completed quicker and with a better score, but you must be both good at this. The co-op mode, like each difficult has their own rankings; so if you co-op you obviously won't get a ranking for single-player. You will unlock what you already played in co-op for single-player. The high difficulty level of Second Opinion made it one of the toughest games on the Wii. However, New Blood is less difficult for those who played the original. On easy difficulty, it is a rarity to get stuck unless you know how to do the procedure.
There are some fields where New Blood seen superior. One of them is the graphical front. New Blood looks very similar but it's better in its own ways. The 16:9 display is available this time around. Cutscenes are still motionless, but this time around we get a fully voiced cast. Second Opinion featured a ton of dialogue with very little voice acting, but New Blood is fully voiced, from the long cutscenes between surgeries and in surgeries. It makes the story more credible and interesting this way but you might feel that there are far too much. If you played the original, New Blood will give you less atmosphere than before, because you played something like this before.
It's not much of a sequel, but New Blood outdoes the original. The gameplay was unique and immersive and still is even without any fundamental improvement. The 16:9 display is a welcoming addition that wasn't in the original, the sound design received a major leap forward with the new VO and soundtrack and a lot of operations and challenges to do. New Blood offers a long, more replayable experience than its great predecessor, making this the best Trauma Center of the two.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics = 7.8
Not very different from the original. Display available at 16:9. Backgrounds and characters are almost all new though.
Sound = 8.2
All the dialogues in the game are voiced which makes it quite an improvement. Soundtrack is same as great as the original.
Presentation = 7.9
Little improvement. Cutscenes are all voiced thankfully this time around. The controls are still superb.
Gameplay = 8.4
Still the same as Second Opinion, but it is still fun and enjoyable. More operations and challenges this time around with two doctors. Precision required can still be infuriating. Some instructions could have been clearer, especially new operations. Good co-op and acceptable difficulty this time around.
Story = 8.3
Set some years after Second Opinion, New Blood introduced a new virus named "Stigma". The new characters are interesting. A long story and challenges make it more appealing. The addition of voice-overs makes the story better in many ways.
OVERALL = 81 / 100
The additions of the co-op and VO make New Blood better than the original, even if there are only a few changes.