Surgeon Simulator: Anniversary Edition

Frustrating and fun, these are the two main words to describe the experience you have with Surgeon Simulator. Now with Surgeon Simulator: Anniversary Edition you have the full Surgeon 'simulation' experience that is currently on offer for PlayStation 4.

Surgeon Simulator Anniversary Edition is still giant dripping bucket of stupid fun - and most of the new content is great - but absent is the howling laughter and pure novelty from its debut.

Equally frustrating and hilarious. [Nov 2014, p.89]

It isn't a game for everyone, especially those who demand tight controls and realistic simulation titles or Trauma Center, but if you can deal with the silliness of it all, you'll find Surgeon Simulator to be enjoyable enough.

At its core, Surgeon Simulator: A&E Anniversary Edition on PS4 is still effectively the same game as it was on PC, just with a few more additions.

Not for everyone, but a good laugh for those who want something that doesn't take itself too seriously.

For newcomers, I’d highly recommend the madcap game, which is packed to the gills with extras and insane details resulting in grisly deaths on the operating table. For returning fans, it might be time to move on and leave poor Bob alone on the operating table.

I’m not saying Surgeon Simulator is a bad game. I mean, it is, but it’s supposed to be. The game is interesting in multiple ways, but in the end, I found myself enjoying about three hours of it and then deciding I didn’t have the time or the patience to do some of the later surgeries.

The first few hours are hysterical, but then frustration begins to set in, and in the end, Surgeon Simulator doesn’t manage to become more than a prolonged party trick.

Surgeon Simulator is a gross and hilarious lesson on how not to perform a surgery. Unfortunately the, deliberately, bad controls make the game more of a chore than fun. It’s still a somewhat entertaining experience when playing with friends.

This isn’t a game for perfectionists looking for a true simulation of a busy A&E department: it’s more like a training ground for psychopaths looking to learn the ropes, shave a few eyebrows, and play with lasers.

I enjoyed the idea of Surgeon Simulator, but the difficulty made the game futile more than entertaining.

The novelty and humour soon wears off, but local co-op play is a great addition and perfectionists may get a kick out of the tough challenge of gaining perfect ‘A’ grades. Too frustrating to be considered fun, though it does get easier with practice.

The game is the gag, and in an age where games get wished into existence only through sheer force of wallet, one can't help but wonder what happens when the jokes have no punchline, but enough people are still paying a premium to see someone tell it anyway.

A one trick pony, and once you’ve played through the first operation enough times to complete it you’ll have stopped laughing. The controls err on frustrating far too often, and while deliberately clumsy, the entire system is too inconsistent to provide much fun.

Here's the thing: lack of accuracy in the controls is the whole point of Surgeon Simulator. That is the joke. However, when it comes to the difference between fun and frustrating, it's a matter of degrees. Playing Surgeon Simulator on PS4 is like listening to someone stumble through the telling of what could have been a hilarious wisecrack.

I have to admit: the first five minutes are fun. You can’t escape the surreal and morbid fascination to operate on the helpless virtual patients. But even that won’t keep you coming back once you start getting frustrated about the careless controls or the bugs and freezes.