ER (2005) (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.2 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Alex Navarro
• Reviewed on: 06/23/2005
• Updated on: 06/24/2005
• Released on: 05/31/2005
• Originally published on GameSpot: ER (2005) (PC) Review

For a game based on one of TV's most popular medical dramas, Legacy Interactive's ER is lacking in the drama department. In fact, this may be the dullest game ever concocted around the concept of saving lives and the sexy, melodramatic stories of those who do the lifesaving. ER basically eschews the medical simulation genre in favor of something that vaguely resembles The Sims. You'll create your own doctor, take him through several "episodes" of mundane medical work that requires next to no effort on your part, and occasionally engage in unnecessary social interaction with the random batch of characters who wander the halls of Chicago's County General Hospital. While the game is squarely aimed at those with an interest in the TV show rather than at those who play games on any kind of regular basis, even casual players will find themselves terribly bored by ER's take on life in the emergency room.

The game's general barrenness is apparent the moment you try to create your character. The list of character customizations is limited; you can alter only the most obvious characteristics, like gender and skin color. You'll then fill in a few stat bars with some allotted character points, which help determine your doctor's strengths and weaknesses in the six types of medicine featured in the game: cardiology, neurology, general surgery, toxicology, pediatrics, and orthopedics. The mechanic of learning these different specialties is just about the most stupidly easy thing on the planet. When you first arrive in the ER, Dr. Carter (as voiced by Noah Wyle) assigns you to triage in the waiting room, which is where you'll be spending an awful lot of the game. To diagnose a patient, you click on the patient, which will cause your character to wave his or her arms around in one motion or another, and then a magic diagnosis will appear in the lower section of the heads-up display, along with a level number that indicates how severe the case is. If it's too severe for you, you can opt to assign it to a higher-ranked doctor. If it's on your level, you'll then assign the patient to a bed, at which point you get to play doctor.

Unfortunately, treating a patient is no more exciting than diagnosing one. Once you assign a patient to a bed, you can simply click on that patient's icon, and you'll slowly wander over to the assigned bed (as will the patient). Once you're at the bed, you'll need a nurse. Sometimes one will already be there, and sometimes you'll have to wait for one to show up. After that, just click on the patient again, and you'll begin waving your arms again. Sometimes the patient's injury rating will start to drop, sometimes it'll go up, and other times you'll realize you need a new diagnosis, at which point you'll send the patient to the lab for more tests. Most times, however, you can just cure the patient right then and there, and that's it. That's the extent of the work you'll have to do when saving someone's life. Point, click, point, click, done. It might not be so bad if there were some variation in the process, but there isn't. Occasionally, specialized patients (like a karate master or a robot...wait, what?) will wander in, and one of the main doctors will ask you to treat them, but the only difference between these specialized patients and the regular patients is that the specialized patients often require more lab tests. Otherwise, you're just running back and forth between the waiting room and beds and quickly dealing with them. There are no big, dramatic trauma-room sequences with multiple doctors all trying to heal some gravely wounded person, like on the TV show. The game is devoid of even the slightest measure of drama.

ER does try to toss some story at you from time to time, but mostly it's inconsequential stuff. There are themes to each episode, but they don't tie together well. In one episode, a convention center catches fire during a comic book convention, and a whole slew of superhero-garbed nerds start flooding into the ER. While this could have been turned into something interesting, it isn't. Mostly you triage them like you would anyone else--there just happens to be more of them. Occasionally, the other doctors will toss different objectives at you in the same manner they assign the special patients to you. For instance, in one situation, you have to track down a pair of snooping reporters who are ambling about the hospital. Some of the objectives and special-patient assignments don't have to be completed, but others do, and if you don't finish the ones that are required, it's game over. There's also no checkpoint system in the game, so it's up to you to manually save as often as possible, otherwise you have to restart the game from your last checkpoint, however long ago that might have been.

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ER (2005) (PC): $8.99

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