Quite interesting.
A very fun short game to play with somewhat of a story line to keep us busy. An interesting theme for a game, and while not new, still pretty innovative. The whole idea of medieval times surgery game hasn’t been too well known till now. Though I’d like it with a much more modern twist as well. But then again that might actually require some understanding in medicine unlike here where since we don’t know, we don’t care. The game is very well animated, though the garlic slots in level 3 were a bit hard to see, hard enough to see that at some point I tried shoving them down his throat. Which didn’t seem to work till I saw the slots. But the game was very fun overall and a lovely way to spend time. Visually a great game, effects are good looking and still animated enough to not freak you out, though if possible a super gory option would be great fun. I do wonder about another version of it in different ages. Sounds were decent, nothing much but enough to make it sort of real. The game play itself was very good, all of the different actions and what not, and it was explained how in the beginning as well so it’s alright. Violence is minor because it’s supposed to have a medical purpose, but it’s still cutting into some one’s neck and using an axe on some one…A bit of humor I suppose, the notes before each operation had a tone of let’s say, less seriousness. Diverse for a game of its genre, original because of the time frame and generally very good. I hope to see more games of this kind and with many more options that I’ll bring up now: Firstly the medieval times was the major characteristic of the game and its measures, but a different time slot, all the way from that era to modern times would be very interesting to play. Then there is the idea of small mini games in between, such as, remove the arrow without it touching the sides of the wound with your mouse, or all things of that kind. It would also be good to see options we can use and not a linier path. Like the use of different instruments, but only one would work properly to succeed the operation and stuff like that. Nice work putting the disclaimer thing at the start, some people really don’t know better.
And now I’ll expand simply on the game’s technical features:
Graphics: 9, A visually great game. The effects are quite good and the animation solid. It felt real enough in most parts except for the stitching, it just seems like poking him in a zig zag motion. Maybe a little bit of work would be nice on that part, just a little more skin visibility that would make it feel like stitches.
Style: 8, a worthy gadget game, I like operations and stuff like that. The time frame it was done in did make it look a bit more different than the rest. Though more levels and options as I suggested before would be lovely.
Sound: 8, Decent sound effects and music as well. It seemed a bit odd at times but I managed to work with it.
Violence: 6, Of course there was some because the whole game is of medical point of view. But there was no intent to cause harm or anything so as far as I’m concerned it’s perfectly suitable.
Interactivity: 7, A lot of different things to do over the course of the game but some new features would be a nice change. Like what I said about different tool possibilities and something that requires some skill with a mouse or crap like that. Just to burn time. By the way, the leeches I found were a bit not realistic, burning them and then removing them would have been much more convincing in my opinion.
Humor: 7, The notes, especially the last one, were rather humorous. But screwing up an operation makes me laugh every single time. Sort of a: “I sliced your neck, my mistake”.
Overall: 9, In general there might be a thing or two that are possible to improve but the game is innovative, original and interesting for its gadget/medical genre. Some changes, more specifically in the category of operation missions, the instruments and their way of use would all contribute to improving the game even further as well as different time frames. Still, hell of a job…
