The chances are you have already heard of Surgeon Simulator, whether that’s through the incessant stream of ‘Let’s Plays’ on YouTube, or you’ve already played the game on PC or iOS. Either way, the game has just recently been released again, this time on PS4 with the A & E (Anniversary Edition). This contains all the ‘best’ parts of the Steam and iPad releases, while employing some exclusive features (which I will get to later).
For those who need a reminder of what Surgeon Simulator has on offer, it is essentially a puzzle game which evokes terrible memories of QWOP. The ‘simulator’ in the title should be taken with a large pinch of salt, as the game is more comparable to a psychopathic amateur surgeon suffering from Parkinson’s than a genuine medical simulator. Of course, this is intentional and clearly the core point of both challenge and humour.
The game features a variety of operations that you can perform, including heart transplant, kidney transplant, brain surgery, etc. Placed next to the patient (read: victim) are a variety of tools, which can be utilised to perform these operations; for example, scalpels, a drill, a saw and a hammer. If you need to perform a heart transplant, say, you will need to use the hammer or drill to get through the ribs, and then scalpels to cut your way through the obstructing organs in order to reach said heart, which can then be ripped out and haphazardly replaced – no need to worry about putting any of the other organs back. In the corner of the screen is a number indicating the remaining blood in your patient – obviously once this runs out they die and you need to start again (you can use injections to slow any bleeding you have caused). Once you finish an operation, you are graded depending on the time it has taken and the remaining blood left in the patient.
The first thing that will probably strike you about Surgeon Simulator is its handling. It is imprecise to say the least. You can move your one arm and rotate your hand rather clumsily around using the analogue sticks. There are two buttons dedicated to grabbing – R1 for your thumb and forefinger and R2 for the rest of your hand – and L2 is used to lower your arm (which will automatically rise to its usual height once you let go). It’s like a slightly more complicated claw crane, only instead of teddies you’re removing lungs.
As I’ve already said, the game is intentionally difficult to control. On the one hand, the chaos that ensues and the ridiculousness of the whole game are quite humorous – organs flying everywhere, knocking tools and other items around the room. Aside from the game’s slapstick qualities, it also possesses a degree of wit. It is highly transparent about its terrible controls and butchering of the Hippocratic Oath – there are little secrets to discover on the main menu, such as answering the phone to a voice that says “leave the hospital and we won’t kill you”. However, on the other hand, if/when this humour wears off then the game is rendered nothing more than a frustrating, broken mess.
It’s a weird situation, because essentially the game’s positive qualities are also its negative ones. It can be fun to indiscriminately rip out organs and see tools, items and blood flying everywhere; but the only reason those things come about is because the game is so badly designed. There is an element of strategy to the operations – certain organs need to be cut in specific places to remove them, and ultimately finding the least dangerous way of performing the operations is a challenging and mentally engaging task – but this can never really be fully appreciated when you so often manage to drop your scalpel into your patient’s gaping chest.
Additionally, there is a certain thrill/satisfaction to be had from figuring out how to complete the operations – contrary to its presentation, it is not a brain-dead game and requires thought and skill to succeed – but I don’t consider the frustrations endured to do so as worth it.
There are also some problems which I don’t think were deliberate – items and my hand getting stuck, glitches, and my console crashing (this only happened once). I am not suggesting that this is a bad port, though. In fact, there are features exclusive to the port that is a boon providing you are actually endeared by it in the first place. You can use the motion control in your DualShock controller, which manages to make the game even more ludicrous, and there is reported to be a co-op mode on its way.
It’s an odd game – with inherent contradictions and highly subjective in its appeal – and I absolutely hated it. But a lot of people don’t hate it. The whole “so bad it’s good” argument has some credibility here – if you find erratic, mind bogglingly terrible gameplay funny or even a legitimate source of challenge, then maybe you will like this game. That said, it’s a reminder for me that what makes good Let’s Play material doesn’t necessarily make for good leisure time.
I struggled immensely to give this one a score, but have decided to settle for a 5/10. I’m ambivalent about its intentional uselessness as a means of creating humour, and the objective consequences of this. It’s a game that succeeds at being defective – take from that what you will.
