Despite the series being a medical drama with treating patients in life or death situations and dealing with man-made illnesses, the games provide a ton of amusing scenes to help lighten up the mood.
Under the Knife and Second Opinion
- One of the operations in Under the Knife and Second Opinion has a very special "patient": a time bomb. Its description states:It's a bomb. Blindly cutting at it would be extremely... bad. Cross your fingers and listen to Dr. Myers.
- Since Derek is obviously a surgeon and not a bomb disposal specialist, he has to defuse it with his surgical tools. In Under the Knife in particular, he can cool down the bomb and delay its detonation with antibiotic gel.
- The briefing in Second Opinion even goes out of the way to give Derek a new voice line for the occasion.
- The various medical briefings in Under the Knife and Second Opinion usually involve the characters summarizing the aims of the procedure before beginning. But come to the first Pempti operation:Victor: I'd say you have one main objective: - Do everything I tell you to.
Derek: ...What kind of objective is that?!
Victor: There's no known treatment yet. Would YOU like to think one up? I'm the one with all the research, so just listen to me. - Victor makes you complete puzzles in order to help research a Pempti treatment. After finishing the last one, you're informed that your efforts only contributed to one percent of the research.
- Spend enough time on the puzzles, and various characters will come in to comment their concern or condescension as if they were poking their head over Derek's desk to see how much he is struggling with the puzzle:Angie: You're not very good at puzzles, are you, Doctor...?
Tyler: ...Dude, are you STILL working on that? I could just tell you the answer...
Leslie: Hm... I though nerd guys like you'd be good at puzzles and things.
Sidney: It looks like there are problems your Healing Touch can't solve.
Angie: ...Doctor, would you like me to help...? ...Actually, that would really defeat the purpose of this puzzle.
Tyler: You've always been bad at these things, Stiles...
Victor: I can't believe it's taking you this long... Very amusing. - In the second puzzle, after finishing the first one, Angie will remind you that it is only the first part, and giving you a teasingly cheerful smile
◊ that has to be seen to be believed. Derek's response is accompanied with his despondent sprite.
- Spend enough time on the puzzles, and various characters will come in to comment their concern or condescension as if they were poking their head over Derek's desk to see how much he is struggling with the puzzle:
- At the end of the second failed attempt to cure Pempti, Victor lets out a voiced "DAMMIT!" twice in a row.
- When Dr. Hoffman gets accepted as the new executive director of Caduceus, he states who he is, as if he needs an introduction, when the room is full of nobody but people he's known for years.
- Chapter 5-6 of Under the Knife/Second Opinion gives us a lovely gem from the ladies: there's an intruder in Caduceus... and the conversation shifts towards martial arts somehow.Myers: Slow down there, Tarzan— I used to be a cop, remember?Angie: *deadpan* I have studied Aikido.Derek: ...You have?!
- Clearing all of the X operations in Second Opinion results in a congratulatory message. note Said message reminds you that you're not a trained doctor and therefore shouldn't dive straight into performing real-life operations... then tells you that if you are a real doctor, you probably shouldn't tell your patients how much you struggled at a surgery simulation game.
- During Second Opinion's X-2 mission dealing with Deftera, Derek's rather blunt response to Adam's pre-operation Motive Rant:
New Blood
- In the very first mission in New Blood, you have to treat a patient that suffered from broken bones and lacerations. How did the patient get into this state? One of the members from the rescue team stated he tussled with a grizzly bear despite being warned by a tour guide.
- If you fail the 3-1 operation on Dr. Everett, Dr. Tsuji, whom you would normally meet after this operation, bursts into the room and is understandably confused about the two strange people (i.e. Markus and Valerie) botching an operation on her co-worker. It's pretty funny, actually.
- One operation in New Blood has a very particular patient: A rich 11-year old boy who complains his appendix operation isn't expensive enough. He learned his friend had received a $40,000 surgery, and he doesn't want to be outdone. Though this Spoiled Brat is a godsend in retrospect as Valerie "tricks" him into making a donation to fund an operation for another patient whose family can't afford it.
- At the end of the operation, the man whose son has the same condition thanks both doctors for what they've done for them and says "That donor must be an angel". Quite a statement considering who the donor was.
- In episode 4-3, the team is forced to appear on Miracle Surgery to dispel Dr. Bello's claims, and has to operate on a patient while dealing with an annoyingly hammy announcer.Announcer: WILL they save the patient!? WILL they prove their skill and determination!?
Markus: (while delivering a Face Palm) WILL that guy ever shut up?
...
Valerie: (mid-surgery) I'd love to suture that fool's mouth shut! - Episode 4-4 has Valerie and Markus appearing on the show again for another round and they complete the operation, only for Bello to chide them for being "too slow". When everyone review's the footage of Bello's surgery, it shows him using the Healing Touch and then the surgery is performed at hyper speed, complete with a ton of "Good" and "Cool" popping up and disappearing just as fast. It's like someone took the recording of gamer's livestream and sped it up to get to the end quicker.
- Later, in episode 4-5, Caduceus has to intervene and save a Stigma patient on the show. Valerie then makes a live declaration about how Caduceus operates and warns the viewers about the Stigma outbreak. In the background, Markus is seen slouching over in embarrassment.Markus: ...Valerie, why don't you start wrapping it up.
- Operation 5-7: The circumstances certainly aren't funny (you're being subjected to water torture and drowning), but the fact that a toy "Hyperlock 3000" is what's between you and freedom is. And your "operation" is to unlock it. Even better is that Kidman uses the lock just because he doesn't want it anymore, like a kid getting bored with a toy.
- Operation 6-4 has you operate to save a dog's life. It regularly goes into cardiac arrest so the team brings out the defibrillator. The defib guide tries to move onto the patient as if it were a human... and then turns awkwardly to fit over the dog.
Under the Knife 2
- Director Hoffman taking care of Greg's baby while everyone is off treating patients. And Leslie referring to him as "Grandpa" before that.
- At one point, Derek tries to practice his Healing Touch again after it fails when he tries to operate on Adel, something that came as the result of losing Emilio to GUILT. He keeps failing, to the point where the game issues out a fake "Operation Failed" screen. This would be pretty heartbreaking, but the slogan above the "Operation Failed" text still reads "The Medical Board will be notified." The implication is that Derek is going to get in trouble for private, informal training that didn't even hurt anybody!
- Mary and Cybil obviously trying to set up Derek and Angie together in Chapter 4-6.
- Since its introduction in chapter 5, the Hands of Asclepius has been a rising star in training proficient doctors and greatly contributing to the fight against GUILT, and it's even got the government's endorsement to recruit staff from other hospitals, including Caduceus. Victor's already irritated by the staff shortage it has created, but his anger at the system starts to peak after the HOA begins to overshadow Caduceus.Victor: Those government bastards can fly over here, walk down to my office, and kiss my--
- In chapter 6-4, Derek and Angie are kidnapped and are forced to fix up a broken bone while in a moving vehicle. The driver will give you ample warning before making a turn so that you can brace yourselves, but the game will randomly determine whether they're turning left or right. It's entirely possible that you experience, for instance, a continuous string of right turns, implying that the vehicle is being driven in circles to confuse the pursuers.
- In chapter 6-6, Derek uses his operating tools to pick a few electronic locks. As he gets started, he even gets into his usual Ass Kicking Pose before catching himself.Derek: Alright, I'm starting the— Er... Right.
Trauma Team
- The choices in the Forensics section of Trauma Team generally has one choice that is obviously wrong but ends up sounding hilarious. Case in point - one of the choices on figuring out why the murderer did was "that's just how he rolls!" and "That's not blood at all!"
- This is subverted in the optional Medal challenges that gives you a bunch of false yet seemingly plausible answers.
- In a scene with María Torres, someone suddenly gets into cardiac arrest. María's team actually tries to check for a pulse. María, outraged at how they are wasting time with the wrong procedures, is implied to hit the chest of the victim... which somehow manages to get the victim's heart working again. Even better: later on in the First Response scenarios, you will have to do the same to resuscitate some patients.
- Anything involving an exchange between Gabe and RONI applies.
- "For the love of God! This thing talks?!"
- The conference for Nicole Summers's diagnosis:Gabe: So... how do I use you?
RONI: Examine the patient and enter in observed conditions. Then I will calculate the most probable disease. Currently—
Gabe: Hey, just one step at a time here, buddy...I'm not a robot.
RONI: Correct. There is a 90% probability that you are human.
Gabe: ...You can get back to me on that 10% some other time... - The first time RONI records a symptom:RONI: Congratulations! You received the symptom "Dyspnea"!
Gabe: What the...?! Do you need to say it like that? You make it sound like we're playing a video game or something...- What makes the above even better is the fact that RONI's designers actually programmed that as the default syntax.
- It's later revealed by Tillman that the government designed RONI... meaning the above-mentioned default syntax was programmed by army engineers.
Gabe: Now I see why taxes were so high. - "Proud One" is probably one of the funniest missions in the entire game, at least until the end.
- His reaction to seeing RONI again.
- When you choose to examine Trumbull's rather toned arms:Gabe: I'm no vet, but those pythons are sick!
- Eventually, he's given orders to stop diagnosing, and RONI has spyware installed on her to warn the army if they try to defy these orders. But due to Artificial Stupidity, the spyware only triggers on blatant diagnostic activity, so Gabe and RONI disguise their work as casual conversation."I would love to do that. Meaningless, friendly observation: Muscle Pains."
- At one point, Gabe makes a particularly... odd connection. When RONI asks about it, Gabe tells her that sometimes you just have to say, "To Hell with it." RONI proceeds to save that as a subroutine. The best part? She actually reuses it to help Gabe finish his fourth diagnosis!
- "Oh ROOONIII! We have a bad image here!"
- If you try to examine Shelly Brooks', um, "bazookas" while her shirt is up:Gabe: Focus, Cunningham... Don't do anything stupid in front of the robot.
- Before that, you can try to exam her cleavage:Gabe: Dayum!RONI: ...Understood. It is a glandular condition. I'll make a note of it.
- While her shirt is up, you can examine her stomach:Gabe: Can she really be that thin? Where are her internal organs?
- Before that, you can try to exam her cleavage:
- Examining Jacob Tillman's chest gives you this gem:Gabe: This is not the most pleasant thing I've looked at recently...
- Hanzou suddenly warping into the high class airplane the doctors were riding back home. Gabe falls down to the floor, and he and the chief start freaking out how the hell he did that if said airplane was already hundreds of feet away from the ground and he was way down below.
- In a mixture of this and CMOA, when Tomoe's father collapses and the doctors need to treat him, it's quickly revealed that his skin is so tough, a needle ends up bending. Cue Hanzou showing up and using a friggin’ katana to secure an open airway.
- During one Forensics case in Trauma Team, you have to send a broken guitar to Little Guy to have it analyzed. His reaction when he finds out that it's worth $100,000 is just priceless.
- It's not that it's just worth that much, it's that it belonged to a musical legend that Little Guy is obviously a huge fan of. At that point, he literally states that now It's Personal for the destruction of this precious relic of the past.
- In the second bonus quiz in the Forensics stage that you will need to answer in order to unlock Naomi's Medals, it will be all about trivia relating to real-life surgeries. With one the the question being on how to correctly handle blood vessels when suturing them together. If you have played any of the other games in the Trauma Center series, your experience will actually be turned against you, since the correct answer will be 'Don't use the forceps on arteries'... e.g EXACTLY what you have been doing for the past 4 games whenever you treated a patient with aneurysm! Lampshaded by the game as well, since Naomi would wonder out loud on how 'he' (a reference to Derek from Under the Knife and Second Opinion) would do in this quiz.
- The seventh bonus quiz in Forensics breaks from the theme of real-life medical knowledge as it tests you on the game's trivia. This confuses Naomi.
- Gabe's escape from USAMRIID involves riding a helicopter back to Resurgam... or rather holding onto a rope ladder for dear life and landing in the same dumpster that Hank did earlier.Gabe: That damn old geezer... "safe" my ass...
- Maria's Big Damn Heroes moment has her and a crate of antiserum being dropped on the grass in front of Resurgam... and almost landing on Chief Patel.
- All the bonus recordings (minus Rosalia and Sartre's) unlocked after completing the game. Highlights include:
- CR-S01's has him struggle with trying to smile.
- Maria's has her try on some new clothing, only for Gabe to not compliment. It's strongly implied she beat him afterward.
- Gabe's involves him using RONI to help make scrambled eggs, and RONI being rigidly uncooperative.
- Tomoe's has her using Hanzou as target practice for her bow and arrows. Hanzou sounds audibly nervous as Tomoe follows through... and it's implied she accidentally shot him in the process.
- You get Doctor Medals for completing various tricky tasks across the game. As you fill it out, you unlock voice clips from each of the cast commenting on your proficiency. If you get 100% Completion, which includes the monumental task of getting XS in all missions on Specialist difficulty, the final voice clip comes from RONI.RONI: Performance succeeds measurement capacity. I calculate a 45% chance that you are not fully human.
Cranberries!
