I have been playing games from Legacy Interactive for a number of years, going all the way back to Shannara, which was one of the first successful PC adventure games. Over the years the company has put out a slew of good titles, including the critically acclaimed investigative games based on the Law and Order television show.
Every year at E3 the company tends to impress me, but this year I think they have a certified hit on their hands. If ER the video game becomes half as popular as the show, it will be a real winner. Let’s hope they remember to advertise the game during commercial breaks from the show.
Actually, I was not really surprised to see the ER game down in Kentia Hall because Legacy sent me a preview disk the week before. The preview disk had the tutorial level and also the first actual level in the game, which ships at the end of this month.
The first question most of you will probably ask is if the cast is going to be in the game. Yes. Noah Wyle, Mekhi Phifer and Sherry Stringfield are all lending their likenesses and voices to the game.
Given that all three of these people are professional actors of the highest caliber, it is no surprise that the voice acting in the game is amazing. When Stringfield’s character dresses you down for making a mistake, you will feel like you are on an actual episode of the show. Granted, it does seem a little odd for Wyle to be telling you things in the tutorial like, "Left click to walk around the hospital," but once the game actually begins each of the main characters settle into their roles perfectly.
The tutorial level is a huge strength for the game. Though some longtime adventure players might find it a bit basic, the game is likely to attract a high number of nontraditional players who are fans of the show. Making sure they don’t get lost along the way will be a key to their success. The tutorial really takes you through how to manage and control your doctor.
In addition to the three actors, fans of the show will instantly recognize another star: the Chicago County General Hospital itself. The hospital’s floors are configured just like the show. In fact, I never really had a very good feel for where everything in the hospital was positioned in the TV show. Looking at the map from the game makes it very clear now. The ER is not really as big as I thought.
You make up your own doctor to start in the ER. You design how they look and also their basic skill set. You can score them based on their intelligence, charm, dexterity and endurance. Depending on how you setup your stats, your doctor will be better or worse at different skills in the hospital. A high intelligence will make you adept at neurosurgery while a high charm makes you better treating kids due to your high pediatric skills for example.
When the hospital is running smoothly things are pretty easy. You pick up a patient in the waiting room area and diagnose them to see what is wrong. Then you send them to the appropriate treatment room like to trauma for the really bad cases or to the lab for mystery illnesses or to the standard medical rooms for most everything else.
Your doctor then tries to treat the injury, though at first a lot of problems are going to be over your head. Thankfully you can call for help and have one of the more experienced doctors come by to lend a hand. And you get better with experience.
In addition to just the normal day to day operations, you will also be given time-based tasks by the doctors in charge of the facility. Perhaps a trauma case is coming in and you have to manage the waiting room area for the other doctors, or treat a particularly cantankerous patient. All that has to be done quickly or you will fail that task. Some tasks that are failed might lead to you being fired, so you need to try to complete all your orders as quickly as possible. While all this is going on you also need to remember to eat and rest. In a way it reminded me or Sim Hospital from a few years ago. I kept waiting for someone with a case of Bloaty Head Disease to walk in the front door. ER is more serious than that, but there is some humor mixed in as well.
You can also talk to the other doctors and nurses in the hospital by clicking on them. This is far from a waste of time because you work better with people who like you. If you get enough people of a certain group to like you, you will be allowed into their clique of friends which also gives advantages. For example, if you get into the nurse’s circle of friends, they will provide you with towels that let you wipe up between patients and maintain a high cleanliness level.
But don’t think it will be easy to make friends. Some people just won’t seem to like you very much and spending time winning them over is difficult when you have so many other responsibilities to accomplish in a short period of time. Supposedly you can also romance characters in the game, though my character’s people skills were never quite up to the task during the demo.
The graphics are quite good. It looks about what you would expect from a game like The Sims for example. It’s not exactly mind blowing graphics or anything, but does look good. You can rotate the screen around to get a better view of the room you are in too, which is very helpful when you are seeing out a particular patient lost in the crowd somewhere. The main characters are however extremely well detailed.
The ER game should appeal to two very large groups of people: fans of the show and fans of simulation-type games in general. I am about halfway up the spectrum of both groups and I had a great time rushing around the stress-filled hospital corridors. The game provides a good challenge without being too impossible, and adequately captures the look and feel of the show.