Pretty much an exact copy of the original. Good thing the first one was so great!
The storyline takes place a few years after the first game ended and you are thrown into the far reaches of Alaska in a remote town with two extremely gifted doctors: Dr. Markus Vaughn, and Dr. Valerie Blaylock. Apparently, the Healing Touch, a unique power that certain doctors are gifted with, has become more widespread as it is the topic of much discussion between the two doctors, Markus being the expert and Valerie wanting very much to learn the technique. After being treated to a few tutorial-style missions that really help you learn or re-learn how everything works while still being interesting, you will be thrust back to Caduceus and recruited to fight against a new parasite known as Stigma. Stigma pretty much is the same thing as GUILT from the first game, just with a different name and purpose. Honestly, if you played the first game, the storyline really isn't all that different and even has an extremely similar ending. Fortunately though, the storyline isn't the focal point of this game. That happens to be the amazing gameplay.
You don't have to know how to be a doctor to understand how the surgery's work, you just have to have a steady hand! Trauma Center does a great job of walking you through each individual step, essentially telling you exactly what to do. The challenge lies in the mass amounts of tasks to do at once. In one particular mission, you have to use the laser to fight some strains of stigma, extract tumors, suture (sew up) lacerations, drain another form of Stigma, drain the tumors that stigma leaves behind, laser some more tumors, and keep the patients vitals up... ALL AT THE SAME TIME! If that doesn't sound difficult enough, you generally have a 5 minute time limit for each mission! All this packed together can really make each mission pretty nerve-wracking which doesn't help at all when you need to keep your hands as steady as possible! All in all, the game has plenty of challenge for even the most extreme gamers but is extremely fun for everyone!
The graphics haven't really changed much from the first game. Other than different characters and backgrounds, everything's the same. All dialogue is still passed through static character shots set up against different backgrounds. This system would be extremely boring if it weren't for the pretty great voice overs. Most of the voiceovers really fit their characters and the three main characters both do great jobs. Even most of the small, one-line characters do pretty decent jobs. Overall, it's one of the few anime games where the VO's are worth listening to. You'll even find yourself waiting for them to finish their lines even if you've already read the subtitled text, they're that good. The only real downside about Trauma Center is that it has very little replay value. A nice addition to New Blood is the ability to post your scores online through Nintendo Wifi and compare them to others around the world. It's not groundbreaking by any means but it is a nice feature that adds a little competitivity to the game. Once you beat the game, you have the X missions to deal with which are challenging missions that involve taking out each individual strain of Stigma in it's hardest mode possible. Unfortunately, they stripped this mode of it's storyline so it ends up being a lot less entertaining than before. Finally, the co-op mode has a lot of problems with it. When you do co-op, the game really doesn't change at all from it's single player counterpart. What this essentially means is that the missions are all far too easy with 2 players. There are a few missions that are still challenging in co-op but they are few and far between. Maybe enough to entertain you for an hour but not much more than that.
Trauma Center: New Blood doesn't really offer you anything that the first one hadn't already but if you enjoyed the first, you'll definitely find plenty to love in this one.
SUMMARY:
Pros:
*Challenging single player campaign
*Great voice-overs
*More of the same surgical awesomeness!
*Controls handle perfectly (which, if you have an unsteady hand, could be a good or bad thing ;) )
*Interesting characters make up for slightly weak story
Cons:
*More of the same...
*Little to no replay value
*Co-op is severely lacking in challenge
Actual Score: 8.7/10