Two Point Hospital: The Review

People have been calling Two Point Hospital a spiritual successor of Theme Hospital, but I’ll go one further. Two Point Hospital is as close to Theme Hospital as you can get without being Theme Hospital. After all, this is made by the same people who were in Bullfrog during the heady Theme Park and Theme Hospital day. It’s just that they’re in Two Point now (with Sega publishing), when I assume the Theme Hospital brand is still under EA.

For those who have never played similar games before, Two Point Hospital (and Theme Hospital before it) involves you as a hospital director. You build a hospital and place rooms in them, much like you would in any Sim- game. You hire doctors, nurses and others, and try to balance making enough profit to survive, with ensuring enough people survive staying in your hospital that you don’t become a pariah. There’s a great feedback loop between building and curing, and anyone who is into the Sims or Cities Skylines would probably enjoy their time in Two Point Hostpital.

For those who have played Theme Hospital, just clicking on the trailer will show you how close Two Point Hospital is to its predecessor. If you need any more proof, the first ‘special disease’ you come across has people whose heads turned into lightbulbs. The disease? Light headedness. The cure? The De-Lux clinic. If that level of Dad Puns doesn’t convince you that Two Point Hospital is Theme Hospital is with a new lick of paint and snazzy graphics, I don’t know what will.

In Two Point Hostpital, the isometric view, the easy listening muzak, even the bri’ish voiced receptionist, are all programmed to harken back to Theme Hospital. Yes, there are some improvements. The skills system in your employees is much deeper (with skills such as emotional intelligence), and you’re able to increase AND decrease the temperature of your hotel (with heaters or air-conditioning). The UI is also more more easily understandable. But these are ultimately minor changes.

To be honest, I’m a little bit undecided on if I think that Two Point hospital is perfect as is, or if I think that the Two Point developers should have done a bit more.  One of the biggest tweaks is the implementation of the ‘Kudosh’ system. Kudosh is a secondary set of currency that you get by completing challenges and that you can spend to get access to optional items. Your ‘rep’, essentially, and something I’m not super keen on. I’d much rather have access to everything at the get go, rather than get gated behind some challenge system. On one hand, I do like a bit of innovation in my games. On the other hand, Theme Hospital is undoubtedly a classic, and why fix something that’s not broken?

To be sure, I am perfectly content with Two Point Hospital. Maybe the developers could have pushed the innovation a little bit more, but if you’ve never played Theme Hospital before, or if you have and want a bit of nostalgia, then here’s the game to pick up.

Two-point hospital is available on Windows, Mac and Linux now.