1. Gameplay

2. Plot

3. Development

4. Reception

5. References

6. External links

Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2{{efn|Known in Japan as {{nihongo|Kyūkyū Kyūmei Kadukeusu 2|救急救命 カドゥケウス2||lit. Medical Emergency: Caduceus 2}}}} is a video game developed by Vanguard for the Nintendo DS (DS), and published by Atlus in 2008. No version of the game was released in Europe. It is the fourth game in the Trauma Center series and a direct sequel to Under the Knife (2005).

Set three years after the events of Under the Knife, the plot follows protagonist Derek Stiles as he confronts not only the revival of terrorist organisation Delphi and its GUILT disease, but personal insecurities and corporate manipulation. The gameplay combines surgery-based simulation relying on the DS's touchscreen controls with a story told as a visual novel.

The game was developed as a true sequel to Under the Knife for the DS, acting as a counterpart for New Blood on the Wii. Daisuke Kanada and Masayuki Doi returned as director and character designer, but the rest of the staff was new including composers Manabu Namiki and Noriyuki Kamikura. Reception of the game was generally positive, but many journalists noted a lack of innovation while praising its improvements over the original game.

Gameplay

The ten available surgical tools—which range from scalpel and laser to ultrasound and a defibrillator to revive a patient whose vitals flatline—are required for different operations and injuries, selected using icons along the edges of the touch screen and manipulated using the DS stylus. The player heals both surface wounds and internal injuries with the tools available, treats minor injuries and incision areas with antibiotic gel, and is aided through their operation with different kinds of serum which can be injected to aid in certain operations.^[2][3][6][2] Several operations have Stiles working to destroy strains of an artificial virus called GUILT in boss battle-style operations.^[8] While several strains return from the first game, new variants also appear which require different procedures.^[6]

While multiple operation types are carried over from Under the Knife, different operations such as skin grafts and bone repair are included from later entries in the series.^[10] As with earlier entries, Stiles can use his Healing Touch to slow time for a short period, allowing him to treat wounds at a rapid speed.^[2][3] After each surgery, the player is ranked on their performance, with the highest grade being "Super Surgeon". Once the game is completed, a new difficulty and challenge missions are unlocked for the player.^[8]

Plot

The game is set in 2021, three years after Under the Knife where Dr. Derek Stiles, the protagonist, and his nurse, Angie Thompson, travel to the war-ravaged African nation of Costigar to help out at one of their hospitals. While there, they begin to research a new disease, which becomes serious enough for Derek to use the Healing Touch on a patient, the first time in years. Soon after this, Derek and Angie are called back to the Caduceus headquarters, Derek's medical organization, to investigate a new GUILT-related disease tentatively called Post-GUILT Syndrome, a series of critical conditions that affect any patients with past GUILT exposure.

Elsewhere, the medical terrorist organization Delphi returns and begins causing outbreaks of GUILT. The police raid some of their hideouts, but are unable to find their headquarters until they kidnap Derek and Angie. After they escape, the police and a new medical organization called the Hands of Asclepius (HOA) raid the building and arrest Delphi's leader. The HOA, replicates the Healing Touch, using data collected from Dr. Stiles and some other unknown method in order to give their own surgeons the same power. Though the mysterious procedure is successful, many of the other chraracters become wary of the artificially enhanced surgeons, as the latter group tend to appear too intense and emotionless.

Several days later, Angie's father, who works for the HOA, informs the head of Caduceus that many of the HOA's doctors are showing symptoms of GUILT. A police raid of Acropolis, a pharmaceuticals company working with the HOA, shows that the head of the HOA, Patrick Mercer, has been creating four new strains of GUILT, dubbed Neo-GUILT, hoping that one strain could cure his wife, who is in a coma. The Neo-GUILT were developed to be performance enhancers, explaining how the HOA was able to, at least temporarily, provide the Healing Touch, to any surgeon. Mercer tries to escape to another facility; Derek and Angie eventually follow Mercer into a room in which the head of Acropolis, Reina Mayuzumi, is attached to a series of tanks. She explains that she is using the last unknown Neo-GUILT strain to maintain her youth. Mercer injects her with a catalyst to see if the final Neo-GUILT is a performance enhancer strong enough to break comas, as the first three have already been proven as failures. Instead, the activated Neo-GUILT causes Mayuzumi to age rapidly, and necessitates a final surgery by Stiles. Mercer is shot by police while trying to escape. With the threat of GUILT neutralized, Derek and Angie begin to travel the world together to improve their skills, as well as to spend time together in their now budding romantic relationship.

Development

The music was composed by Manabu Namiki and Noriyuki Kamikura of Basiscape, a music studio founded by Hitoshi Sakimoto. The audio direction and sound design were respectively handled by Miki Ito and Kentaro Nakagoshi.^[10] While Trauma Center series composer Kenichi Tsuchiya was contacted about working on Under the Knife 2, his other work at the time prevented him from taking part, leading to Basiscape being brought on board. Due to having access to advanced composition software for the DS sound environment, the quality of the music increased markedly over that of the original Trauma Center.^[11] Neither composer had worked with the series before; Namiki had previously worked on Blood Vengeance, while Kamikura was known for The Demon Blade.^[12] Namiki wrote his themes to express saving lives in an exciting scenario, and take advantage of the DS's sound and control elements. He used the themes of "weight" for the surgical segments and "human praise" for the visual novel elements.^[8]

The game was first announced in April 2008.^[13] Under the Knife 2 is the fourth game in the Trauma Center series, and the second and last produced for the DS.^[1] The localization was handled by Atlus USA, who collaborated on the process with Vanguard.^[14][4][34] The cover design was carried over almost unaltered for the Japanese version. The subtitle went through several versions during the localization process, ultimately settling on a numeral placed in front of the original game's title to denote its status as a sequel.^[15] The game was released in North America on July 1, 2008, releasing a month before its Japanese equivalent.^[16] Its Japanese release came on August 7.^[17] When speaking about a remake of Under the Knife 2 for the Wii similar to Second Opinion, Atlus USA said that taking a game "back and forth" between the DS and Wii did not fit in with Atlus's business model.^[14] Under the Knife 2 is one of two Trauma Center games not to be released in Europe, the other being Trauma Team in 2010.^[18]

Reception

Review aggregate website Metacritic awarded the game a score of 79 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favourable" reviews.^[19] The game was nominated for Best Action Game on the DS in IGN{{'}}s 2008 video game awards.^[28]

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu praised the control refinements and elements which helped contribute to its feeling of speed and pressure.^[21] Andrew Fitch of 1UP.com was wary of going into the game after reviewers of previous entries for the website expressed high frustration, but was won over by its pacing and smooth controls.^[20] Bryan Voor and Jeremy Parish, writing for Game Informer, applauded the inclusion of lower difficulty options and more grounded tone, with Parish calling the available operations "more interesting and varied than any other entry".^[22] GameSpot{{'}}s Shiva Stella said that Under the Knife 2 "successfully blends a creative medical theme with bizarre but fun puzzle gameplay to create an addictive treat".^[23]

Dave Kosak of GameSpy praised the gameplay and narrative improvements made by the game, but found fault with the cutscenes and "repetitive" music.^[24] GamesRadar{{'}}s Alan Kim was also pleased with the general improvements over the original game, but was disappointed by the lack of a multiplayer element.^[25] IGN gave high praise to the story and gameplay, but felt it lacked content and replay value found in New Blood.^[26] Jonathan Metts of Nintendo World Report was less positive than other reviewers, faulting its lack of improvements and new features and calling the game "a complete rehash that it makes me question the reason for its existence".^[27]

The plot was generally praised for its quality and grounded nature,^{[23][26][24][22][27]} but some critics found the cutscenes and dialogue segments overly long.^{[26][24][20][22]} Fitch was particularly negative about the translation, calling it inferior to the localizations of Persona 3 and Odin Sphere.^[20] There was also praise for the improved quality of the controls, art style and music over the original game.^{[23][26][25][24][20][21][22][27]} A common observation by critics was that there was little to nothing new that distinguished it from earlier Trauma Center games.^{[26][25][20][27]}

References

Citations

Notes

External links

• North American website
• Japanese website

• Distinguishing sign of vehicles in international traffic
• Distopia
• Distorted body image
• Distorted news
• Distorted Reality
• Distortion
• Distortion-limited operation
• Distortion (optics)
• Distort Yourself
• Distos
• Distraction
• Distraint
• Distress
• Distress call
• Distressed inventory
• Distressed personality type
• Distressed securities
• Distress frequency
• Distress (novel)
• Distress signal
• Distributary
• Distribute
• Distributed
• Distributed application
• Distributed artificial intelligence