Welcome to the Underrated Gems, a brand-new review series for underrated games. Every other week, I will be reviewing a game I consider to be Underrated between all the games that are released. These games would be considered not that well known in the mainstream media, hidden gems, and most importantly: just Underrated. All these games will be reviewed on my Steam account unless otherwise stated. This week, it’s time to save lives through a Zoom call, and on the seventh beat.

Ever wondered what it’s like to work at a hospital, with all the lives of patients at stake, ridiculous work hours, and trying to stay calm? Now imagine trying to do all that, but through a computer screen, and having a program up that monitors and stabilizes the hearts of patients. A very conventional, and useful program that allows assisting patients from the comfort of their own homes, while utilizing what you learned in elementary school music class. Well on February 26th, 2021, 7th Beat Games released the title: Rhythm Doctor, which allows us to explore the possibilities of such a program.

Gameplay

Rhythm Doctor is another one of those rhythm games, but it stands out from your typical “DFJK Keys” games. In summary, it’s a rhythm game in which you heal patients by defibrillating a patient’s heartbeats in irregular time signatures. You take control of a “hand” pressing a button, and the goal is to match the rhythm of the patient’s heartbeats to help stabilize them. Along the way, the patients are getting more interested in their stories, their heartbeat, and their ways of making their time there a bit more…problematic. Oh and did I mention that this was an internship and you’re most likely not going to be paid? Yeah about that…

Each level has you taking care of a patient, and defibrillating their heartbeat through a time signature. As of now, the two main time signatures are actually irregular, one being the 7/8 time signature, and the other being 1/2. There is also an accompanying track for each level, and has its own style too, from techno to lo-fi. There are five different “acts”, each having 3-5 levels. Each act also contains a boss fight, where you can expect glitches, your window itself going haywire, and constantly moving on a train(Yes, an actual train). If you were to be a musical maestro, chances are this game would be pretty easy for you if you know your time signatures very well. If that’s the case, each level has its own “night” variant, which makes that level a bit harder, adding in more patients to treat, adding in new stipulations like a silent note, or just completely glitching out your screen. Meaning that even if you may be talented at an instrument or music theory, the game has a cruel way to easily throw you off balance.

Assuming you passed the main storyline(which is still being developed), with your sanity still intact,  there are other levels to play that make you wonder why you even accepted such an internship. The game has collab levels with other rhythm games, and with it, adding more stipulations like adding in one-time or two-time fluctuations in their heartbeats. If you manage to get past that, you can be treated with other intern’s custom levels in which you treat a multitude of other patients with custom time signatures, slow and fast keys, and even levels that will make you think that your screen is actually glitching out. And, as a way to give back to the hospital, you are able to create your own levels as well, with custom music, characters, and other incredible features that will make a person want to quit immediately. In short, there are more patients to treat other than the main storyline, and now I’m starting to think the hospital got a really good deal in getting interns to deal with patients without having to pay them(Which is part of the storyline itself).

Overall

Rhythm Doctor is an incredible and fast-paced rhythm game, implementing time signatures to actually go along with the rhythm. Combining it with an incredible storyline, complex characters, and making each level question why you accepted to join this hospital, it makes things fun and challenging for any type of player. Just be careful when you start to see your notifications on your phone start to pop off when playing, the game’s windows going insane, and the game-changing the x and y axis from time to time. It’s all part of the game…well at least I hope it is on your screen.