Another big PC hit from last year has arrived on the PSN. How does it hold up with the change to a controller from a mouse and keyboard?
The most critically acclaimed, one-handed, clumsy, bumbling, surgery simulation game has now arrived on PS4™! Players use their controllers to operate one of Doctor Nigel Burke’s flailing arms, in an attempt to perform life-saving surgery on his peaceful and trusting patient, Bob.
Nigel’s surgical adventures will take him through over 20 operations and across 6 different locations, including brand new Eye and Teeth operations. We’ve also added over 100 trophies for you to collect and admire. Fantastic!
Poor Bob. Oh, you don’t know Bob. He must be the unluckiest person in the world. He needs to have surgery to replace his heart, kidneys, brain, eyes, and teeth. I can only assume he doesn’t have health care for this since he’s coming to us to complete those surgeries. Not good for him. Not good at all.
Surgeon Simulator is a pretty straight forward Surgeon Simulator (surprise!) from the worst doctor you could ever imagine: yourself. You start off in your office at your desk, and this is where you can start to master the controls. You can interact with all of the objects on your desk, and even answer your phone. The controls are very different from most games: L2 controls your hand’s elevation, and R1 will control the Thumb and index finger, while the R2 Trigger will control the other three fingers. You can choose to have the six-axis control your hand’s direction or use the right thumbstick. Personally, I preferred the thumbstick to the six-axis.
Myself completing a Heart Transplant while on the move
The controls sound simple until you start to play. They are very clumsy when picking items up and controlling them when doing your surgeries. It’s hard to get them in the hand just right, not to mention using them for surgery. That being said, this is by design, and the game has been created with you as a horrible doctor. Your hand will bob around and not get to where you want it to be. Overall, it comes down to learning how to compensate for your control, and at least TRY to save your patient.
Your first surgery is a heart transplant. First off you must do some reading to show you how to do the transplant, or you will be completely lost. Once you do that, prepare for a few hours of frustration as you start the process. You will Brutally Murder – the game’s words, not mine – Bob several times while you are getting used to the controls. As you start to get better, you will finally be able to get through the surgery, moving on to the next one. Then you start repeating the same surgeries at different venues: you will doing surgery on a moving gurney, in the back of an ambulance, and even in space. Each location adds some unique factors to make your surgery more difficult.
I didn’t get the joke about the game at first as it’s very tongue and cheek, but I invited a buddy over and we took turns, and I realized how fun the game is since you can pretty much do whatever you want. There are a lot of tools at your disposal, and you can be as creative as possible. We took turns butchering Bob while still trying as hard as possible to save his life… and it was a extremely fun! Next week I believe a patch goes live that adds multiplayer so you and a friend can simultaneously work together, and I can’t wait to try that.
There are 56 trophies including a platinum, but you will need a considerable amount of skill and patience to get it due to the difficulty. There are trophies for game completion, for the time taken during surgeries, and even for odd things you do. I got one for picking up the ringing phone on my desk. It’s a great mix, but it will be hard to get them all.
Once I got the joke in Surgeon Simulator I started having a lot of fun. The game is a great way to burn some time and get some great laughs while trying to save Bob. There is a lot of value to the package, and this is a great game to play with friends around as you can see who can get a better time, or even work together once the new mode is available. Go ahead, save some lives or brutally murder them today… it’s your choice.
————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @the_nmac for more reviews and live streaming from the PS4. Also follow @PS4blog_net and @PS3blogdotnet for updates on PlayStation info and reviews you need.
