Dark Cut is a freeware trilogy of Medical Games developed by John "jmtb02" Cooney and published on Armor Games. The series can best be summarised as a much Darker and Edgier Trauma Center, with each game centring around the protagonist performing various medical procedures in places such as a medieval hut, an American Civil War-era tent, or a dozen different locations through history.
The first Dark Cut was released on November 15th, 2007 and puts the player in the shoes of a medieval scholar conscripted by the royal guard to remove an arrow from The Captain's leg. This is followed by a number of other surgeries, all at their behest, in which the player must use a series of tools (and their not inconsiderable knowledge of Meatgrinder Surgery) to treat several individuals' ailments.
The game was followed by three follow-ups:
- Dark Cut 2 (December 2007): In this game you play as a young, fresh-faced doctor serving in the Union army during the American Civil War. Sent to the frontlines to combat heavy losses from Confederate cannons and bullet wounds, they have to perform surgery in a battlefield tent to ensure wounded soldiers survive. This game was marked by a notable change from cartoony to photorealistic artwork and the introduction of the pain management mechanics.
- Dark Cut 3: Set some time in the 2000s. The plot revolves around the unnamed protagonist using a Benevolent A.I. and advanced tech to travel back in time and perform life-saving surgeries on their deceased family members, in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and restore their all-but-extinct bloodline. The game features a notably more elaborate and philosophical plotline compared to the other games, as well as the first set of "bonus" levels.
- Light Cut: A non-canonical joke game in the series. Much Lighter and Softer than the main timeline, it features the protagonist performing "surgery" on a teddy bear and helping out an injured unicorn.
The series can be played in full for free at Armor Games.
"You have been uplinked to provide real-time troping to real people."
- Agony of the Feet: Dark Cut 3’s second surgery involves reattaching a wounded nurse’s severed leg and relocating her other foot (which has been dislocated.) You get to hear her shriek in agony as you do it.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The initially benevolent AI assistant in 3 eventually goes rogue, refusing to let you log out of the system and trying to force you to further re-write history. You're forced to saw off your own arm to survive.
- Anachronic Order: The surgeries in Dark Cut 3 bounce around from World War One to the modern day.
- An Arm and a Leg: Several patients either lose a limb that you have to re-attach, or end up needing them amputated during the surgery. This includes two of the protagonists, who are forced to make Life Or Limb Decisions.
- Apocalyptic Log: The American Civil War patient in Dark Cut 3 has several letters to his wife that appear as you perform surgery, beginning with him marching for Virginia to engage the enemy, detailing his increasing nervousness as the battle draws near, and ending in a blood-smeared page in which the badly wounded man says his final goodbyes to his wife.
- Art Evolution: The first Dark Cut game's graphics relied more on flat, cartoonish designs and somewhat choppier animation. The second leans into a more realistic art style with much more detailed depictions of wounds and smoother animation; this was preserved into the third.
- Back from the Dead: The driving force of Dark Cut 3’s plot is a doctor trying to retroactively prevent his ancestors’ deaths. The ethical ramifications of doing such a thing are also discussed, with the narrator questioning just how moral it is to essentially decide who lives or dies.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Owing to the Art Evolution between the first game and its sequels 2 and 3 are a great deal gorier than the original, with multiple close-ups of the patients' injuries and blood.
- Body Horror: The series runs on this, sparing no detail on the injuries the patients suffer from. Maggots within infected wounds, blown-off limbs that must be reattached, and large foreign objects in the flesh that have to be cut out or extracted from punctures are some of the least you’ll encounter.
- Career-Ending Injury: The American Civil War soldier in Dark Cut 3 ends up being sent back home due to his injuries.
- Catchphrase: The computer ends every philosophical intermission in Dark Cut 3 with "Good luck human."
- Early Instalment Weirdness: Dark Cut's last surgery is the only one in the series where you’re actively trying to kill the patient, as you’re dealing with a vampire the royal guard wants to dispose of. It also lacks the photorealistic gore and pain-reducing mechanics that are staples of the later games.
- Famed In-Story:
- Implied – after the Dark Cut 2 protagonist amputates their own leg in order to survive an otherwise mortal wound, they’re summoned to the Union’s HQ so that President Lincoln can personally decorate them.
- Downplayed for the Dark Cut 3 protagonist. The post-surgery screen for the Civil War patient notes that he survived to tell his family of “a mysterious healer arriving in his darkest moment” to preserve his life; other than this, none of the patients talk about them.
- Featureless Protagonist: The most that’s ever seen of the protagonist is an arm or a leg. Most notable in the “Log Out” screen of Dark Cut 3, where the usual profile pictures are replaced by a blank black square and the words "no doc."
- Feel No Pain: Averted to the point it’s a core mechanic. An unsedated patient’s health will drop far faster than a sedated one due to the pain of surgery.
- Fingore: The first surgery of Dark Cut 3 involves reattaching a soldier’s blown-off finger.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite actively trying to kill the patient in Dark Cut’s final surgery, lowering their health to zero causes a Game Over with the admonishment that "You messed up your patient." (In fairness, the briefing implies it’s more a measure of your own health than the vampire’s.)
- Genre Shift: The first and second games are Medical Games grounded in real-life historical periods, complete with somewhat realistic (for the time) surgeries. The third takes more of a shift into Science Fiction by introducing a Benevolent A.I. and Time Travel as core plot elements.
- Heal It with Booze: Dark Cut 2 features “Deathwish” brand whiskey being used as a makeshift anaesthetic for the patients. A beaker of pure alcohol is also used to keep a wound clean during the second surgery.
- Heroic Willpower: During the last surgery of Dark Cut 2 you have to mash the spacebar to keep your patient's "will to live" up while also managing their health. Letting the bar deplete completely leads to a Game Over.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: The protagonist of Dark Cut 2 is forced to amputate their own leg after an artillery shell leaves them trapped under a wooden beam, with a steel splinter driven through the leg.
- Pre-Explosion Buildup: The five or so seconds before an artillery shell nearly kills the Dark Cut 2 protagonist is heralded by a low, drawn-out whistle.
- Roadside Surgery: You end up performing surgeries on battlefields more often than not, with the only tools available to you.
- Self-Surgery:
- Dark Cut 2's protagonist is forced to amputate their own leg after being badly wounded.
- Dark Cut 3's protagonist is forced to amputate their own arm during the finale of the game.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The core plot of Dark Cut 3: Many of the protagonist’s ancestors died in wars or accidents, leaving his family much diminished. He proceeds to use Time Travel to find them at the time they died, then patch up their wounds to ensure that they survive. The ramifications of doing such a thing are also questioned by the protagonist’s assistant, who remarks on what might happen if those you save go on to kill others and the ethics of essentially choosing who lives and dies.
- Off with His Head!: The vampire in the first game ends up by decapitated in order to put him down for good.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Very aggressively averted. Even a relatively minor injury will kill your patient without intervention, which is exactly where you come in.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Killing the vampire in the first game requires you to hang up a holy symbol overhead, stake him through the heart, cut open his side and fill the wound with garlic before sewing it up, and finally decapitate him.
- Time Travel: The core conceit of the third game’s plot is that of a surgeon using this to save his long-deceased ancestors.
- Wham Episode:
- Surgery 3’s ending in Dark Cut 2. A Confederate shell hits the medical tent, and the protagonist is left pinned under wreckage with a giant splinter of debris rammed through their calf. They only get out of it by amputating their own leg with a hacksaw.
- “Log Out” in Dark Cut 3. The computer isn’t too keen on letting you go, and tries to force you to remain plugged into it. You’re left with no choice but to amputate your arm to escape while it tries to disrupt your senses and prevent you logging out.
Good luck, Troper.
