| Combat Medic: Special Operations has a novel idea: You take the persona of a combat medic during a great conflict where only you and you alone stand between a wounded hero’s death sentence or evacuation. Like I said, novel idea, very bad execution, and while the game could have proved to be something great, even for a budget game it fails on almost every level.
I find it very hard to write reviews about games that don’t look favorably on what the developer was trying to accomplish. Unfortunately for me, I do have to write reviews like this from time to time, but luckily they don’t come very often. For our review on Legacy’s 911 Paramedic (the latest in their Emergency Room series of games) we had a real doctor take a look at the game, and gave it an favorable 8/10 review, so we do know Legacy is capable of producing games that stay true to the medical field and are offered at a reasonable price. Combat Medic is not one of them.
The game focuses on a combat medic for an unknown branch of the military. Centering around two distinct types of gameplay is where Combat Medic really falls short; it doesn’t deliver on either, or on the promise of being an action game. The first part -- we will call it "run and gun mode" -- has you on a battlefield against many different enemies who all look the same, run the same (or lack thereof running) and present about as much of a challenge as a dog playing poker. The nonexistent A.I. is almost insulting. To pass this part of the game all you are required to do is click on an enemy and he is dead. You may never even get hit during the entire course of the game. It leaves the challenge up to the players when they go get pizza and leave the game running; chances are they will be right where they were when they get back.
The second part of the game, the "I’m wounded mode," stands closely with Legacy’s other titles in the Emergency Room series and 911 Paramedic. Carrying a realistically equipped medical bag your job, even if you don’t choose to accept it, is to heal the wounded. When I initially heard about this part of the game I had visions of Saving Private Ryan’s opening sequence when medics are struggling to keep those that are wounded alive, amputate limbs if needed, provide protection. Instead I get the sensation that I’m five playing doctor with my next door neighbors while they are trying to locate the bone connected to my wrist watch.
Cue Dr. Nick.
Using the interface much like a heads-up display, you use a variety of the realistic tools to help the wounded. You will be faced from small scratches (what pansy soldiers, didn’t anyone see Forrest Gump?) to injuries that may take limb amputation (See: Soldier of Fortune). Legacy has touted this game as their first 3D title, and while that claim is true, it isn’t exactly Quake III: Arena. Actually, it’s nowhere close.
Try as I might, Combat Medic: Special Operations wasn’t my cup of tea, and may not be anyone else’s. But for a select few who dive into budget games like candy for cheap thrills the game could offer some fun with the realistic portrayal of the medical skills needed to keep soldiers alive in the battlefield, here’s just hoping we don’t ever have to fight a battle from a top down perspective. Give me First Person or give me death… | 
