Amber’s Airline: Seven Wonders (Gamehouse)

Amber’s back and she’s leading a tour of the Seven Wonders of the world! Will this trip go smoothly, or will there be new obstacles in her path?

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Heart’s Medicine: Hospital Heat (Gamehouse)

Allison’s mother comes back in her life and needs an organ transplant only she can give her.  Meanwhile, Little Creek falls under new management and burns to the ground.  Daniel also comes back into Allison’s life after she starts a relationship with Connor.  Can our favorite medical intern juggle family, relationship and work drama?

While it may seem like I mentioned a spoiler in the very first paragraph, the game starts out with the hospital on fire.  Angela’s friend, Jenny, makes an appearance as the on location reporter.

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The story starts out in the middle and flashes back to how they got there.  I will warn you that the rest of my review contains spoilers, so read with caution.  Remember what happened in the last game, when Daniel stole drugs from the hospital?  Now, he faces the consequences.  The game expects you to take pity on Daniel and cheer for him and Allison as they try to hide any evidence of Daniel’s wrongdoing.  Allison ruins her relationship with Connor and even prepares to lie for Daniel at the board meeting, throwing her own life and career on the line.

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I get that Daniel’s trying to clean himself up, but he’s still the one responsible for stealing drugs in the first place.  A patient almost died because of his addiction.

While we’re on the subject of unintentionally unsympathetic, I feel that I should discuss Allison’s mother.  We already learned in the last game that Allison’s father died.  Now we learn that her mother abandoned her shortly afterwards.  One section of the game flashes back to Allison’s childhood to explain her mother’s reasoning.  After Allison’s father died, her mother experienced blackouts during times such as cooking and driving, becoming a danger to Allison and herself.  Therefore, her mother decides to leave Allison with her grandparents and never look back.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making light of her situation.  It’s just that, while I do feel that Allison’s mother needed extra help, there’s no reason why she couldn’t stay with Allison.  She straight out abandoned Allison in her time of need and we’re supposed to not only sympathize, but also agree with the actions of the deadbeat parent.  Then Allison’s half-brother has the nerve to guilt trip her into going through with the operation, despite Allison’s own issues with her deadbeat mom.  The only shining light in this plot line is the mystery of what Allison’s mom suffers through.  Believe me when I say that it will take more than an organ donation to save her.

I mentioned that the game has a flashback inside a flashback and that’s how we meet this story’s villain.  He’s the father of the arrogant Mason and he’s all about making money.  This is a villain so blinded by greed that companies bribe him to use their low-quality medicine and he bribes ambulances to bring all patients to Little Creek.  Not once does it ever cross this man’s mind that, if Little Creek gets a bad reputation, people will stop going there.  In present time, he takes over the hospital when the board fires Daniel.  This new boss makes budget cuts so drastic that the hospital barely functions.  He hints that he wants to destroy the hospital in order to get revenge on Daniel’s father for rightfully reporting his stupid misconduct.  What this villain doesn’t get is that, if the hospital shuts down, he’ll receive a fair share of the blame as a business failing due to his own incompetence.  This whole incident reminds me of an episode of House of Mouse where Scrooge McDuck bought the club and went through serious character derailment.  He makes stupid decisions just to save a few bucks, such as feeding everyone a single pea and going on as the club’s entertainment showing off his #1 Dime.  The difference is that you’re not supposed to take the latter seriously.  The game seems to be aware of it due to having Connor point out what I already discussed, sans the Scrooge McDuck reference.  However, the writers still expect us to take this plot seriously.

The game play is nonstop addicting, as your job is to get the patients to the necessary stations and then check them out.

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Some of the treatments require playing mini-games and you have to get all three hearts.  You can complete tasks to earn diamonds that you can use to purchase upgrades for Allison’s apartment.

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There is no in-story reason for this and Allison moves out of her small apartment at the end, making the purchases null and void.  You have to get the first star in order to advance to the next level but try for all three, if you feel lucky.  You can play challenge levels in-between where you can collect three diamonds based on your score.  The levels go from the regular hospital game play to finding Oliver the guinea pig and completing one mini-game after another.  Like the last game, Emily also makes a cameo and you can play as her for one level in the hospital cafeteria.

This game is addicting and a tiny bit sad.  I give it 6 out of 10, serious plot problems, but still an enjoyable use of your time.