Жарақат орталығы: Шабуыл астында (Жарақат орталығы: Қанатын астында)

2005 video game

Trauma Center: Under the Knife is a simulation video game developed by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. The debut entry in the Trauma Center series, it was published in Japan and North America by Atlus in 2005, and by Nintendo in Europe in 2006. Set in a near future where medical science can cure previously incurable diseases, the world's population panics when a new manmade disease called GUILT begins to spread. Doctor Derek Stiles, a surgeon possessing a mystical "Healing Touch", works with the medical group Caduceus to find a cure to GUILT. The gameplay combines surgery based simulation relying on the DS's touchscreen controls with a story told as a visual novel. Designed to take advantage of the DS's control options after planned development for earlier consoles stalled due to inadequate hardware, development lasted just over a year. Its early inspirations included Western television series ER and Chicago Hope, with science fiction elements incorporated during a later stage. Development proved challenging for the staff, who were veterans of the Megami Tensei franchise and had little experience with genres outside role playing. The game was positively reviewed by journalists, who praised the title for its use of the DS controls while criticising its difficulty spikes and repetition. While a commercial disappointment in Japan, it sold beyond expectations in both North America and Europe, boosting Atlus' profits for that year. A remake for the Wii, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, released the following year. A DS sequel, Under the Knife 2, was released in 2008.

Trauma Center: Under the Knife is a video game that combines surgical simulation gameplay with storytelling using non interactive visual novel segments using static scenes, character portraits, text boxes, and voice clips during gameplay segments. The top screen of the Nintendo DS is dedicated to story sequences and level statistics displayed as 2D artwork, while the bottom touch screen is dedicated to the operations themselves rendered using 3D models. All of these actions are accomplished using the DS stylus. The story follows Derek Stiles, a young doctor who discovers his mystical Healing Touch during a difficult operation on an emergency patient from a car crash. After treating another patient infected with an unknown parasitic disease, Stiles is offered a position at Caduceus, which he accepts. The parasite is known as GUILT (Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin), a manmade disease being distributed by the medical terrorist cell, Delphi. Along with his companion and assistant, nurse Angela "Angie" Thompson, Stiles begins confronting new strains of GUILT in different patients, along with surviving attempts on his life by Delphi. During their work, several Caduceus staff members are infected, including the director, Richard Anderson. While the strain is eventually removed, Anderson ultimately succumbs to the stress on his body from multiple operations and gives his position to Stiles's old superior, Robert Hoffman. During an attempted raid by Delphi on Caduceus, the intruder is identified as Angie's father Kenneth Blackwell. Trailing him to a Delphi laboratory, Stiles and Angie successfully treat a highly virulent GUILT strain, first in a nascent form in a test subject, and then in Blackwell himself. Once cured, Blackwell offers his full cooperation and rejects Caduceus's offer of amnesty, wishing to serve out his term in prison to atone for his actions. Blackwell's information leads to the location of Delphi's headquarters, which consisted of an ocean vessel. When Stiles and Angie assist with a raid in cooperation with Caduceus Europe, they find that Delphi has been using children to incubate GUILT, and after curing the patients, they encounter Delphi's leader, Adam, now a vegetable host for all seven strains of GUILT, as well as a unique, eighth strain known as "Bliss." Caduceus Europe impound Adam's remains, and Stiles is hailed for his actions.

The original plan for Trauma Center was created by the game's producer Katsura Hashino. During this early stage, many staff compared the game to similar surgery simulations for Windows. The concept behind Trauma Center originated several years before development started. While Atlus had explored the possibilities of a surgical simulation game, gaming hardware at the time was not able to realize their vision. This changed with internal previewing of the DS, which had the controls and functions to make the simulation elements work as intended. Planning for the game began in the summer of 2004. Most of the staff were veterans of Atlus's Megami Tensei role playing video game (RPG) franchise, making the development a difficult one due to its thematic and gameplay differences. Production proved a challenge due to the new gaming hardware and its deviation from the RPG mechanics Atlus was known for. One of the more difficult elements was getting the gameplay to function, which they finally achieved after settling on a first person perspective for surgery. The art style was described as "very anime styled".

The game was first announced in July 2004 alongside five other Atlus titles for the DS. The game was released in Japan on June 16, 2005. A commercial demo was released through Nintendo's online store on May 29. While it lacked the high amount of blood and gore that would have earned it a mature rating, its content still merited a CERO rating of "B", indicating an age range of early teens and up. A soundtrack album was released by Sweep Records in October 2011. It released in North America on October 4. The game was localized for the West by Atlus USA. For the game's English version, the game's setting was changed from Japan to North America. Derek Stiles's English name was written as a pun on the word "stylus", referencing the DS stylus. The English dub was handled by PCP Productions, who had previously worked with Atlus on Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. Voice acting was restricted to shoutouts during operations, while Stiles himself did not have a voice actor. Due to their lack of a European branch, Atlus USA did not publish the game in the region. The game was instead published by Nintendo of Europe on April 28, 2006.

In Japan, Trauma Center did not appear in Japanese gaming magazine Famitsus top 500 best selling titles for 2005, indicating sales of less than 15,000 units. In contrast, the North American release was described by Atlus staff as "absolutely fabulous", with sales going "off the charts". The game's popularity prompted Atlus to issue further print runs of the game. The game also met with strong sales in Europe. While Atlus had seen financial losses prior to 2006, the international success of Trauma Center contributed to the company making a profit. Famitsu praised the game's innovative use of the touch screen, In the years following its release, Trauma Center would become a notable success for Atlus, breaking into mainstream gaming when they had previously been restricted to niche success. In a feature by Jess Ragan for 1UP. com, Trauma Center: Under the Knife was described as having "helped pull the Nintendo DS out of a debilitating software drought and demonstrated the system's potential to both hardcore gamers and skeptical outsiders alike". Website VentureBeat listed Under the Knife as one of the most memorable games of 2005 due to breaking away from gaming trends and creating an experience focused on saving lives. Following the release of Under the Knife, most of Hashino's team shifted to work on the Persona series, with a small number of staff being assigned to form a new team for further development of the series. This group would be known internally as "CadukeTeam". The Trauma Center series would be continued with three subsequent games on Nintendo hardware; Trauma Center: New Blood for the Wii in 2007, the direct sequel Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, released in 2008 for the DS; and Trauma Team for the Wii in 2010. In a series retrospective, Peter Davison of USGamer noted both the series' notable position in Atlus's gaming library, and how the titles made use of the Nintendo console mechanics.