1997 was a significant year.
It was a year that many of us realised that a game based around running a Hospital, wasn't
as ludicrous as it sounded.
In fact, it was actually damn good fun, and we had Bullfrog Productions to thank for expanding
our minds and wasting countless hours of our days.
Although its life began under DOS, it would also make its way to the Playstation the following
year.
Theme Hospital was in fact, such a good game that people still play it today, and indeed
there's even an Open Source high resolution engine called CorsixTH which allows owners
of the original base files to game in much more socially acceptable resolutions.
So really, there's no need for a sequel, or even games like Hospital Tycoon and Hysteria
Hospital, which failed to recreate the same charm, amusement and addictiveness, offered
by a game written over 20 years ago.
Personally I would be happy just listening to this music all day.
But then, from the end of hospital corridors, we began to hear whispers of a new game.
A game called Two Point Hospital.
A game which aroused those Theme Hospital feelings all over again.
Well, it turns out those whispers weren't Chinese in origin, even if the names we applied
to that old children's whispering game were perhaps a little dubious in origin.
Because HERE, is Two Point Hospital.
A game my brain keeps telling me to call Two Point Four Hospital, but has no connection
whatsoever to the average number of children in a British Household during the 90s.
So this video is here to serve two itches.
The first is to find out whether this new management sim is any good, the second is
to draw comparisons with Bullfrog's Theme Hospital and then mull on what 20 years of
programming & evolution has brought us.
Now allow me to set your expectations here, because people like ex-Bullfrog developers
Mark Webley & Gary Carr have worked on creating Two Point Hospital, and given he worked on
both Theme Park & Theme Hospital, expect some distinct similarities.
No Peter Moleneux this time I'm afraid though, I presume he's currently been held hostage
in Larry's basement.
We start with an introduction, which, although no where near as dark as Theme Hospital, merges
the same style of comedic wordplay & blatant disregard for patient life, that we all know
and love.
But instead of being thrown straight into a hospital, we're now presented with a map.
I mean, to start with, we can only select one hospital, but I like where this is going.
Now, from this point on, it really does feel like you're playing a modern Theme Hospital.
I expected similarities, but I didn't expect it to be THIS similar.
We've got the same isometric angle, the same reception desk, the same room layout design,
the same items in the room, in fact, I'm sure that's even the same tannoy announcer....
Rebecca Green did the original announcements... hmmmmmm, I can't find her name in the Two
Point credits, but she sure as hell sounds similiar.
Anyway, the point is.
This feels so much like Theme Hospital, that I barely had to think to play it.
Everything is where I expect it to be, and everything moves how I expect it to move.
From the placement of items, to the rotation of the screen.
Woah, wait a minute, Theme Hospital was strictly an isometric game, this 3D malarkey is new,
annndd pretty nice too.
Although it felt wrong to move the game out of that original isometric perspective.
I started to lose my bearings.
So, what are we missing?
Well, the original cartoon look of Theme Hospital has been replaced by more generic 3D representations.
When I saw this style on trailers, I had my reservations, but now, in the flesh, it looks
good and it feels right.
In fact, many of my concerns about this remake, especially the overall quality, floated away
within the first half hour of playing.
It's clear that Two Point Hospital is a labour of love, and a true spiritual successor to
one of my favourite 90s games.
This meant, that although there's a handy assistant throughout, to help you improve
and avoid pitfalls.
I barely needed him, as anything from placing radiators to keep the place warm, to hiring
the right staff, to building the right number of GP rooms was almost intuitive.
What's more, the niggles from the original, like having to heat the whole damn building,
even the empty parts to keep people happy, are gone.
I can now happily heat only the parts where people are passing through, and this works.
Like it should.
Along with more familiar ailments, we've got new problems to deal with, requiring new machines,
new rooms and new staff training.
We've also got statistics, graphs and tables, just like Theme Hospital.
In fact, we've got an even wider array of things to keep tabs on than before, all of
which will satisfy, even the most die hard analytics fan... well, probably.
But regardless, there's not to much to overwhelm you.
Alongside this are numerous challenges raised by both staff members and authorities.
For example, you might be tasked with capturing 2 ghosts.
For that you'll need a janitor with ghost catching skills, and you'll need some dead
patients who have come back to haunt your corridors.
Fulfil this and you'll earn some KuDOSH.. which you can spend on new items for your
hospital and it's rooms.
Perhaps a bean bag, a coffee machine, or even a SEGA arcade machine, running Sonic apparently.
Some of these we saw in Theme Hospital, others we didn't.
It's a nice balance.
Now this is all great.
But what's really key, is whether this combination of new and old keeps you engaged the same
way the original did.
Theme Hospital just used to suck days and days of your life without realising it.
The formula was so balanced that kept all the right areas of your mind busy and interested.
Thankfully Two Point Hospital seems to have just about pulled it off.
There were times when I was waiting for machines to be researched, or just for the hospital
to play out, but it wasn't enough to make me bore-quit, and just when you think there's
nothing else to do, a new problem crops up, or a new hospital is offered to you.
Here's where that world map comes into use.
In Theme Hospital, you'd often be offered new hospitals to take charge of.
But this meant giving up your current hospital.
All that hard work, might have levelled you up, but now it was pulled away from you.
Well, Two Point Hospital doesn't do that.
You get to keep your previous hospital and move onto the next, creating a empire of hospitals.
You're then free to go back to your previous hospitals at any time and level them up further.
3 stars seems to be the highest achievement for each site, but they'll keep on running
after that.
Your ultimate aim is therefore to build on every hospital site, from the rural outbacks
to the City locations, with each site offering different challenges and diseases.
For example, the University hospital starts you with only student medical staff.
From there you have to build your medical centre as normal, whilst providing training
to ensure everything runs efficiently.
Other outback locations may give you more facture cases, I presume because people fell
more trees directly onto their legs.
Then as you move to the city pharmaceuticals become a bigger role.
These new challenges keep you engaged and give you a reason to progress.
So, what's the verdict?
Well, it actually feels like how I would expect a modern day Theme Hospital to feel.
It plays like I would expect it, and throws a few surprises in there to.
Such as the ability to move entire rooms, rather than deleting and starting again.
I'll tell you now, this feels like a revelation after playing Theme Hospital for so many years.
The music does its best to conjour feelings of those classic midi tunes, whilst throwing
a few radio DJs into the mix who provide their own style of comedy inbetween tannoy announcements.
So, it's pretty much perfect.
My only niggle would be that it's sometimes harder to work out how to fix a problem, when
compared to Theme Hospital.
But really, that's a good thing.
It gives more depth, more variety and more intensity to proceedings.
I am somewhat pleased with how its all turned out.