Busy Gamer Review - Heart's Medicine: Season One

By GrrlGotGame on November 3, 2010 8:58 AM | No Comments

Busy Gamer Review

 

Too busy to devote 12+ hours a day to your gaming habit? Here's a review that's sensitive to your needs: Short and focused on just the things that a busy gamer like you really needs to know.

 

 

Reviewed On: PC (GameHouse exclusive downloadable game)

The Heart's Medicine time management clinic In a Nutshell: A time management game with a soap opera veneer and some challenging mini-games. You play as Allison Heart, a medical student performing her residency at the Still Creek Clinic. The game opens with the event that changed Allison's life: assisting a doctor at the scene of a traffic accident. Based on a few simple tasks ("fetch my doctor's bag"), he identifies Allison as a natural. Flash forward six years to today: Allison's first day at the clinic.

Your goal for the day? Treat 'em and street 'em. The first few levels double as training sessions, with only a few patients and a very forgiving time limit. Patients have a seat in the waiting area, displaying a location above their heads: changing area, treatment bed, treatment chair, etc. It's up to you to match the location to the image and direct the patient there. Once the patient is in place, the required treatment will appear above their heads along with hearts. Naturally, patients with fewer hearts are sicker than others.

As the sole doctor in the area who is actually working, it is up to you ensure the patients are moving at a steady pace from location to location, freeing up beds/chairs for those still waiting to be seen. The treatments themselves range from simply clicking on a pill bottle to mini-games like spot the sore (you look with a magnifier for their causes such as fishhooks and bees). My favorite is x-ray, a partial puzzle that requires you to place or "set" the bones in the correct positions before time runs out. I also enjoyed the fast but challenging blood-pressure game, which requires you to identify where the blood pressure needle hesitates (just like in real life!).

As the day progresses (and you pass levels), Allison becomes embroiled in a real-life soap opera, complete with beloved but dying patients, battling coworkers (they're divorced... or can't you tell?) and, of course, a suitor. The back story also has Allison traded around to different departments (levels). The Lab, which includes the x-ray mini-game, was by far my favorite. Pediatrics just proved that working with children is not my forte... but at least no one died.

Learning Curve: As with most good casual games: Easy to pick up, hard to master. I chose the middle level (not a newbie, but not a time management expert) and did fine for the first few levels but began having problems remembering to stock shelves and handle other maintenance work while trying to keep an eye on the truly sick patients. Fortunately, you can send a limited number of patients for a lovely beverage (water, coffee), thus adding a heart to their already diminished health. That kept me going through some particularly hairy times in the game.

The Save Game: You can escape to the main menu at any time. Your current go-round will be lost, but levels are so short that completing one in a few minutes is no big deal.

Allison's first mission in Heart's Medicine Family Factor: Extremely family friendly. The dialog is completely innocuous and even the sickest patients just look like they need a nap.

Buy or Skip? Buy. The game is extremely enjoyable and challenging without being overbearing. It's perfect for a mid-day break or end-of-day wind down.

On a Personal Note: I have tried many time management games before (most notably Diner Dash) and never really saw the appeal. The games tended to be stress inducing and made my head swim. I really enjoyed Heart's Medicine though. The pacing was just right, and the mini-games broke up the tension of trying to figure out who needed to go where.

The x-ray game was a bit jarring at first because it immediately reminded me of the night two years ago when Pikachu Fan broke his then 5-year-old arm. While I know the doctors were doing much more than putting a puzzle together, I still felt a kinship with the fine surgeons who reassembled the bones in our boy.

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