Life and Death (video game)

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Life and Death is a medical simulation game released for the PC in 1988, with ports to the Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple IIGS following years later. You must diagnose and operate on patients. It is generally known for its painstaking realism in surgery and overall difficulty.

Some gameplay footage can be found here.


Tropes used in Life and Death (video game) include:
  • Funny Background Event: In the second game, go into the lounge. You can see someone endlessly pouring coffee into a cup until it overflows.
  • Spiritual Successor: The Trauma Center games are pretty much this.
  • Ultimate Job Security: No matter how many times you screw up, you simply get sent back to med school.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Oh so much. You can slice open your patient with the scalpel without anesthetizing them first, causing them to scream in pain; you can dope them up with antibiotics and anaesthetics until they die; among other things.
  • What the Hell, Player?: During examination, if you poke a patient in their painful areas enough times (where they yelp in pain), they start to get tired and wonder whether or not you're a real doctor.
    • If you do all sorts of stuff the game makes sure to yell at you. Screw up during brain surgery, then they start giving you a bunch of hysterical people, drug addicts, people with neuropathy and migraines before getting a surgery.
    • Pick up the pin. Click on the patient's eye. Your director then says, "The staff was not amused by your impression of Freddy Krueger."