ER: Saving Lives, Kissing Nurses, and Taking Showers
Company: Legacy Interactive
After 11 years on the air, ?ER? is finally getting the video game makeover in a title from Legacy Interactive entitled ER. The game itself seems to be a simulator-take of the show. You build your own doctor and run, or rather walk very slowly, around the ER treating patients, building relationships, and taking showers. My initial take on it is that it has the potential to be mildly entertaining to fans of the show and mainly a few other people who enjoy these types of games.
The primary flow of ER is fairly straightforward. You walk to the waiting room, diagnose a couple of patients, send them to appropriate rooms, and then travel to them one at a time and treat their injuries. Slowly but surely you build up your skills as a doctor and are able to tackle the more serious injuries.
Naturally there are few interesting sidebars to this. You can call for assistance from other doctors if the patient?s condition is too serious to treat alone. That includes well known characters from the show such as Dr. Carter. You must also keep up your hygiene, energy, and composure with activities such as showering, eating, sleeping, and exercise.
Patients can also offer ?perks.? These are items you can keep in an inventory. Their uses can vary like towels that raise your hygiene on the fly or even things like ?Doctors' Intuition,? which, when used on a patient, ensures you will successfully treat their injuries to a specific degree. Another major component of the game is building relationships with other doctors and nurses. While it wasn?t clear what the scope of the practical reason for doing this was, it did include things like a steady stream of towels from nurses or easy ways to regain composure. Some people may be skeptical at the idea of an ER video game, and rightfully so. However, so far the game appears to be shaping up to be fairly entertaining, so we?ll just have to wait and see.
-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche
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