Feeling Lightheaded? Got the Clamp? No worries, Two Point Hospital is here to help! As a spiritual successor to the 21 year old miracle gem Theme Hospital, Two Point Hospital is keen on solving all of your problems… All except one. Managing the hospital itself. That is where you come in; from building a reception area to hiring staff, management and design fall into your lap. Full of humor (sometimes crass, mostly safe for work) and with a wonderfully deep management sim, Two Point Hospital is everything I hoped it would be. It is also everything you need so it is time to go buy it. Now.
Two Point Hospital has a certain yet wonderful sense of humor; light, airy, and generally wonderful all around, which are all terms one normally does not associate with a hospital. For all of the gravity that one finds in a hospital, Two Point wonderfully captures the old Theme Hospital feel and a part of that feel comes largely in the graphics and audio work. Sure, the text and behavior of the staff/patients helps, but the real light-heartedness comes from the ambience and aesthetics. Each area you can build in is bright, airy, and extraordinarily colorful, filled with beautiful colors and a comical bubbliness, Two Point pays homage to its spiritual predecessor, Theme Hospital. Adding to the colorful world is an upbeat and downright *happy* soundtrack and silly yet somehow fitting ambient sound effects. Simply put, Two Point hospital is a joy to just watch.
Speaking of watching … observing the patients can be both a blast and heartbreaking as the behaviors for some of the illnesses are silly (Lightheaded folk wander around looking lost while lighting up every room they approach. Others, like those with the Clamp or any of the other crazy illnesses, will sit on available benches with their heads in their hands and their shoulders slumped and it just hurts. Fortunately though, there are plenty of rooms you can build to attend to these illnesses, the trick though, is to make sure you manage the income of the hospital as well as its expenditures.
From a staffing standpoint, everyone costs. Between the hiring, monthly salary, or raises/bonuses for good works, and ensuring your guests and faculty are comfortable with decorated reception areas or packed staff resting areas, it can become stressful in a way not all that dissimilar from balancing your checkbook. Sometimes it just downright sucks, especially if you are tapped out handling existing conditions, only to have a new condition appear that, because you are lacking the funding, you have to sit on until you raise the money to build the facilities needed to treat the issue, then hire the appropriate staff.
While you are waiting for the income to appear your approval rating will drop, thus making your guests less happy, thus meaning less income. Another option is to close down one of the existing facilities (thus delaying the curing of known conditions), build the new facility, then repurpose staff. This is often the best method for saving cash while reducing rating degradation, but it is still less than optimal. Add to that the lack of facilities such as a fire extinguisher or bathroom may yield other troubles, such as a small fire or people being unable to relieve themselves, and you can have plummeting ratings and then ultimately, bankruptcy.
The comical aspects of Two Point Hospital are a convincing camouflage for a deep and almost tactical hospital simulation game. That very comedic façade can be misleading and is often dangerous as you may find yourself enjoying the humor and being focused on the actual people a little too much, and spending far too little time in the financial sliders of Two Point Hospital. Though it can be challenging, in no way have I found any intentional malice or downright brutality and that is a fine line to walk with simulation titles. Fortunately Two Point Hospital takes itself serious enough that diehard simulation fans will find some enjoyment in it while those new to the genre will be gradually introduced to the finer enjoyments of a deep simulation title.
Game Information
PC
Developer(s):
Two Point Studios
Publisher(s):
SEGA
Genre(s):
Simulation
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
NA
Source:
Provided by Publisher
Article by Robert
