The world of simulators is now quite varied, with experiences of all types that often struggle to meet the approval of the public, proving to be unconvincing and far from their intent.
To have carved out a category of its own is Surgeon Simulator, released in 2013 and immediately appreciated for its gameplay with an arcade imprint and not exactly simulation. “Simply” by moving our hand on the screen, it was our job to perform rather delicate operations, but most of the time we inevitably ended up in situations bordering on ridicule. In short, who would ever rely on a surgeon who handles an organ without gloves, places it on the patient and, at the time of the transplant, drops it to the ground? None, of course.
The only real limitation of the first chapter was the general static nature of the gameplay since, as mentioned, it completely revolved around the control of the hand.
After 7 years, the guys from Bossa Studios are back on the front line with the new one Surgeon Simulator 2, which promises a renewed and decidedly more varied experience.
The cheerful surgeon
Surgeon Simulator 2 leaves no room for pleasantries, welcoming us with a short and immediate tutorial and then immediately starting the path of admission to the order of "surgeons". The Story mode includes several levels with requirements to be met in order to obtain the best evaluation and unlock the various rewards, or cosmetics useful for customizing the character chosen from the four available.
The first substantial difference from the predecessor is the ability to move freely in the surrounding environment, thus abandoning the static nature of which we spoke a little above. This allows for more complex and varied operations, as it will often be necessary explore various rooms to find tools and sometimes solve puzzles more or less simple to access apparently inaccessible places. The interaction with all the objects present always takes place through the control of the hand with the mouse, which although it is rather easy to master, in the most frenetic cases it could be slightly frustrating. To get the most out of the experience in terms of comfort and precision, therefore, you need a virtual reality viewer, undoubtedly the most accurate and suitable system.
The dubious professionalism of Surgeon Simulator 2's surgical operations and the discrete freedom of approach to them will often give rise to bizarre and rather hilarious situations. During the transplantation of an arm, for example, we can decide to use a saw to cut it, with a minimum of dedication, or save time by tearing it directly with our hands, all while we mess up half the operating room in search of the replacement limb.
Whenever we remove an organ, the victim will begin to lose health, represented by the milliliters of blood in his body. Unorthodox maneuvers and blunders will increase the bleeding speed, but we can count on the limited use of two different types of syringes to ensure patient survival until the end of the operation. One is able to temporarily stop the bleeding, while the other acts as a blood bag to carry out transfusions and replenish some of the lost blood. It goes without saying that their wise use is fundamental for the outcome of the operation, and a minimum mistake made in a critical phase could totally compromise its success.
Predictably, the use of the tools of the trade such as the scalpel and more meticulous actions will lead to a slower blood loss but, at the same time, a slight dilation of time, thus requiring the right balance between speed of execution and precision if you aim to get the best rating.
The fun multiplies if all this is shared with friends. The great protagonist of Surgeon Simulator 2, in fact, is the cooperative up to 4 players: each game mode can be tackled both alone and in company and not infrequently the intervention of other aspiring surgeons is required to be able to complete certain objectives. Unfortunately, however, we must point out that we had quite a few difficulties in finding other players during the search, a symptom that we hope is only linked to the fact that the servers have yet to be populated.
Power to the community
In addition to the campaign there is another mode that allows you to play random levels created by users. Bossa Studios, therefore, let the players expand the experience of Surgeon Simulator 2, who can unleash their imagination by making projects of all kinds. Starting from an empty room, the rich editor provides a lot of elements to furnish the environment as well as the ability to choose objectives, maximum number of participants and other options. Unlike history, by the way, it is not necessary to base the level on the completion of a surgical operation, but you can give life to the most disparate ideas. We happened several times to play well-designed maps capable of testing our skills, including one in which we had to hang on a hula hoop and follow a path on pipes, sometimes jumping from one to another, or another. in which we had to escape from a cell.
Il progression system structured by seasonsin addition, it provides for the unlocking of several extra rewards for reaching each milestone. By playing and evaluating the custom levels and completing the daily challenges it is therefore possible to obtain other cosmetics of different rarity.
Undeniably, the choice to allow the creation and sharing of content between players benefits the variety as well as the longevity of the title, which in this way is always fresh and potentially infinite, making the community its strong point.
Operations for everyone
Being a title that aims to have a rather large audience, Surgeon Simulator 2 turns out quite generous in terms of hardware requirements, managing to run very well even on less performing PCs. With our setup we had no problem managing it with each graphics setting at maximum:
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-5820K |
| But by the full GPU acceleration tech | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB |
| RAM | 16 GB |
| Monitor | Acer Predator 27 ″ Full HD with active G-Sync |
The cartoonish graphic style returns a very clean and appreciable aesthetic impact, with bright colors and nice animations. The game also requires only 2 GB of disk space, proving to be very light even for download.
The sound effects are also well-made, well differentiated from each other, as well as the accompanying music, relaxing and cheerful. Finally, the dubbing is only in English and easy to understand, but those who do not chew the language well can still count on the texts completely in Spanish.
Final comment
Surgeon Simulator 2 totally renews and improves the experience of the first chapter, introducing the possibility of moving in the surrounding environment and, in particular, the 4-player cooperative, the great protagonist of the title. In the company of other friends, fun is guaranteed, especially considering that decidedly hilarious situations will arise that will make you more than a laugh. In the face of a basically short story, Bossa Studios' decision to let the players expand the game with new levels is undoubtedly spot on, thus keeping it always fresh and durable over time. In short, if you had already had fun with the predecessor, Surgeon Simulator 2 is absolutely worth the purchase, hoping that becoming a real surgeon is not in your plans.
