I performed Lovecraftian physician simulator Do No Hurt, and let me inform you, my brother in Cthulhu, I did some severe hurt
The primary affected person I killed was a mistake. A burly fellow named Victor Harlow walked into my surgical procedure complaining about fatigue, however I used to be distracted by the little pig popping out and in of my cuckoo clock. This is not a euphemism for something—there actually was a small pink pig the place the cuckoo ought to have been.
Anyway, I downed a complete bottle of laudanum and the pig went away. I gave Victor a shot of blood drugs (that is drugs for treating blood-related sicknesses, not drugs manufactured from blood, though it’s the identical color) and he simply keeled over, his spirit leaving his physique like steam from a kettle.
I nonetheless do not know what occurred. Perhaps I bought the dosage unsuitable, or misinterpreted his signs. In any case, the purpose is it was an accident. As for all of the others, effectively, we’ll get to them.
I used to be drawn to Do No Hurt by its good three-word premise: Lovecraftian physician simulator. These phrases do little for me individually. I by no means wished to be a health care provider, and even fake to be a health care provider, whereas videogames have totally exhausted Lovecraftian horror for me. However for some purpose, the mix resonated with me, and I opened up a brand new apply below the identify “Physician Eadful”. I used to be moderately happy with this identify, till I realised the sport fills within the ‘Dr’ half for you. Consequently, my character’s identify is definitely “Dr. Physician Eadful”, which is arguably funnier than what I used to be going for.
Do No Hurt performs slightly just like the spooky botany journey Unusual Horticulture. It is a mix of narrative journey and light-weight deductive puzzling set across the each day routine of serving clients. As a substitute of individuals coming to you asking to purchase bizarre vegetation, nonetheless, they arrive looking for remedy for sicknesses.
Healthscare
This all begins merely and benignly sufficient. A affected person will stroll by your door complaining a couple of symptom like itching or a abdomen ache, and also you look it up in your large guide of Victorian drugs for dummies. The symptom shall be listed below one of many 4 humours, and all you must do is inject your affected person with the matching drugs.
But Do No Hurt rapidly complicates proceedings. The addition of a brand new syringe requires you to infer the suitable dosage of medication to manage, in addition to the kind of treatment, whilst you additionally start to obtain sufferers who do not know precisely what’s unsuitable with them. At its most complex, you may have to establish a number of signs utilizing instruments like a stethoscope and magnifying glass, then synthesise cures from a number of kinds of drugs.
In case you deal with sufferers incorrectly, they’re going to get sicker, turning inexperienced, sweating profusely, and within the excessive, outright expiring. And naturally, this being a Lovecraftian affair, there are different challenges to take care of. Your good physician begins experiencing hallucinations, just like the clock operating backwards, listening to voices by his stethoscope, or large, furious eyes peering into your store home windows. A dose of laudanum taken instantly will dissipate these phantasms, however when you miss one, it will chew a gap in your sanity, and the bug-eyed totem in your desk will chastise you on your negligence.
As Do No Hurt progresses, the balancing act turns into more and more troublesome, with you striving to diagnose sufferers whereas your eyes flit across the background for indicators of insanity. It was such distractions that led me to inadvertently kill poor Victor. Useless sufferers injury your status with the village and arouse the suspicion of the native police constable. However extra importantly, useless sufferers do not pay for his or her remedy, and also you want that cash to replenish your medical provides.
Victor’s dying was the purpose the place issues started to spiral. After the slipup, I began investigating circumstances extra totally. However this meant I used to be treating fewer sufferers per day, due to this fact incomes much less cash total. A number of of the villagers tried to help, just like the native reverend who shared extremely particular particulars of a number of affected person sicknesses with me. I am fairly certain he should not have finished that, but it surely was helpful.
But even with such assist, I quickly ran brief on cash. Which is when the native gravedigger rocked up, handed me an inventory of individuals, and provided me an enormous sack of money if I slipped up once more once they got here for remedy.
Deathbed
Naturally, I used to be aghast, however on the identical time, if I did not get my arms on some cash quickly, my sufferers had been going to begin dying anyway. So when Balthazar Wifflepuff got here in complaining of diarrhoea, I may have combined the unsuitable medicines collectively to deal with it, and when Charles Murray arrived with a foul case of vomiting, I probably gave him a dosage of medication that set off his egg allergy. Clearly, I really feel horrible for these poor souls. However their sacrifice meant the remainder of my sufferers did not have to fret about drugs shortages any longer.
That is what Do No Hurt does greatest. The assorted pressures in your physician, the visions, your funds, the manipulative provides and threats by numerous members of the group, slowly push you towards making selections that you’d reject outright in a extra standard choice-based RPG.
I did not need to present my sufferers the potion that crazy-looking cultist gave me, however he strongly implied he’d kill them if I did not. I suspected the reverend might need ulterior motives for giving me that checklist of sufferers, however I used to be overwhelmed and the cures had been proper there. I might need killed the sufferers on the gravedigger’s checklist. However I swear I am not a assassin. Cannot you see? I did it for the higher good.
Naturally, the police did not see it that method, and opened an investigation into my apply. Not that it finally mattered. Whereas I did the perfect I may for my sufferers (effectively, most of them) I could not cease my very own psychological well being from slipping. There are quite a few endings to Do No Hurt, and with out eager to spoil something, I bought the one that happens when your sanity hits all-time low.
Do No Hurt’s methods generally is a little obscure, and it typically punishes you unfairly, like dinging you for not noticing hallucinations that solely seem when you use a sure instrument. In any other case, it is essentially the most attention-grabbing Lovecraftian sport I’ve performed for some time. Its narrative tightrope is elegantly weaved, however extra importantly, falling off that tightrope is arguably more true to one in every of Lovecraft’s bizarre tales than safely navigating your method alongside it. I used to be an completely horrible physician who killed a number of folks and went mad, and as they drag me away howling in my straightjacket, know that I do not remorse any of it.