If you were a kid in the 1990s, you probably know of or played the Bullfrog/EA classic game "Theme Hospital". It was a simple and funny simulation game where you built and run your own quirky hospital, treating equally quirky and goofy "illnesses" that patients presented with. It was a simple game, you developed new rooms and things to put in your hospital while working to make money and balance the books, prevent deaths and basically fulfil your required targets. It saw release on the Playstation and PC at the time and was actually a game I played a lot as a kid. I played it a lot as an adult as well, often on my then boyfriend's old PC, in the comfy leaning chair and often with a cup of tea next to me on the desk while he was playing on the PS2, I can't remember if this was before or after my appendicitis happened so it could have been 2005 or 6.Then someone decided to recreate the game, better graphics, more illnesses, clinics and other things. This game wasn't just a reboot of an old idea though, it was a homage. The creators wanted to pay tribute to the original game play, the idea of being an administrator in different scenerios, including one where the hospital was "publicly funded" and only got money through completion of different tasks and situations. It was created with people who worked on the original Theme Hospital game and was officially named as a "spiritual successor".
That game is Two Point Hospital.
As with the original, the focus in Two Point Hospital is created with the emphasis being on humour and nonsensical illnesses. Where in the original game you had people walking around with "Slack Tongue" (an illness that made the poor patient's tongue swell up) or the notorious "Bloaty Head", in TPH, you are likely to come across unfortunate people with conditions like "8 Bitten" (the person becomes rendered in 8bit) or "Crabbedheadness" (where the person has a crab like creature on their head) as well as some more risque ideas such as "Emperor Complex" (if you know the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" you'll know this one) where someone will be getting a "nude awakening"! OK so I probably found it funnier than I ought to have when I witnessed some poor chap walking around in his "birthday suit" but it was definitely something new and different. Each place has diffferent illnesses and targets to meet, some harder than others. There's also expansions and DLC to take the game even further and the ability to customise your pictures, walls and floors. There is a lot to offer in Two Point and it definitely is an engaging game.
At first when I was running this game, I was running it on my old laptop which was from 2014 (ish) and was basically not able to run it properly so the game would regularly crash or glitch which admittedly I found disappointing.If you have an older computer or one with lower specs, you won't be able to get the best out of this game. Since upgrading to something a bit more modern and a lot more powerful, I have been able to really see what this game can do. On the old system, I found the controls a bit clunky and unresponsive. Things would take a moment to catch up and there was often moments where the mouse would lock up and I would have to wait 5 minutes for the game to realise what I was telling it to do, but I think that said more about my old laptop than the actual game. I also had to run it at the lowest graphic setting and turn off things like music in order to stop the lagging. Obviously this didn't always work and the game would crash completely.
The new system however seems to be more competent in running the game. I am finding the controls a lot easier to handle and am finally able to enjoy the vivid scenery and graphics of the game. I was already very impressed with how they had managed to revive something that was totally new and revolutionary in it's time and make it still feel fresh and new. I would definitely recommend this title to anyone whe likes simple simulation games, strategy and have a nostalgia for the old game. My only nag with it would be that you really do need a decent machine in order to run the game to any quality so if your machine isn't up to the task, it won't be as good an experience.
Overall, I do rate this game very highly and recommend it to others. Especially if you fondly remember Theme Hospital and wish there was a faithful and modern version. There's a lot of witty puns, funny descriptions and the staff actuallu all behave as individuals rather than general all purpose men and women walking around actung the same way. So yeah, I would say that this is a solid game and worth paying for, the DLC is good fun too with some real replayability, which is something that a lot of games are lacking that these days which is a real shame.
Graphics - 7/10 The game looks great, characters are cartoony and have a kind of Ardman style to them.
Gameplay - 7/10 The gameplay can be a bit clunky if you have a system that isn't quite up to the games's specs or is only just able to run. The controls can lag a bit and slow down the game a bit which can be a little frustrating. By running the game on the lowest spec though I was able to ease this.
Everything else 8/10 Really fun, retro feeling game. A bit repetitive sometimes but generally challenging and engaging.
Total rating: 7/10
