Since 2005, Atlus’ Trauma Center series has delivered a steady stream of fast-paced, interactive surgery action. After four games based solely on that concept, though, Atlus has decided to shake things up a bit. Instead of focusing strictly on the surgical portion of a medical case, Trauma Team will give you the opportunity to play as characters from six different fields of medicine: First Response, Diagnostics, Forensics, Surgery, Endoscopy, and Orthopedics.

One of goals of Trauma Team is to expand the scope of the previous games, and a clear indication of that intention is the diagnostics mode. We recently had a chance to take in a live demonstration of some of the diagnostics gameplay. Read on for the description.

One of the first apparent qualities of the game was the heavy emphasis on the characters. Gabriel Cunningham, the character you’ll play as during the diagnostic sections, is very much the House of the hospital; slightly unkempt and smoking constantly, it appears he’s just as likely to insult his patients as he is to help them.

The pacing of the diagnostics mode might throw off those used to the timed, reflex-based style of play found in previous games, but it should feel just right to anyone familiar with the Phoenix Wright series.  After examining the patient’s medical background, there’s a kind of cross-examination period. During this question and answer session, you will need to decide if something the patient has said could indicate a symptom. Any symptom information you collect will be automatically entered into RONI, your electronic diagnostic assistant.

After collecting enough data from speaking with the patient and comparing diagnostic results to normal levels, you’ll enter RONI to sort and analyze the patient’s symptoms. Several potential diagnoses are presented, and you’ll need to take time to read and understand each one before you start matching symptoms to them. Each potential diagnosis has a set number of symptoms required to reach a complete match, and sometimes its description can lead you to look for symptoms you may have missed

After coming to a plausible conclusion, you can show the results to the patient. If you have acquired enough accurate information, they may consent to further testing. These kinds of tests require you to visually compare the patient’s results against those of a healthy individual, and can range from CT scans and EKGs to X-rays and ultrasounds. Newly gathered information can either confirm your diagnosis or lead you to another.

Unlike previous Trauma Center games, Trauma Team intends to be grounded in real medicine, and that’s apparent from the realistic, procedural based gameplay of the diagnostics mode. Combine that with the new fully-animated cutscenes and much more voice acting than the previous games, and you’ve got a formula for a potentially gripping medical drama.

Trauma Team releases May 18th on Nintendo Wii.

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