Two Point Hospital
The realm of comedic hospital simulators is a niche that undergoes reinvention periodically, and Two Point Hospital stands as the latest endeavor. This game fares well compared to its predecessors, despite possessing some drawbacks that may prevent it from becoming a staple in the management simulation genre.
Welcome to the peculiar world of Two Point County—a locale where bizarre mishaps, such as getting a pan stuck on one’s head, are common enough to have tailor-made cures. Your mission is to establish a network of hospitals to tackle unusual health issues affecting the populace, whether through a structured campaign or a more open-ended Sandbox experience.
The mechanics are intuitive, with the mouse and keyboard controls providing a seamless experience. The interface is user-friendly, primarily governed by three prominent buttons: Rooms (for construction), Items (for decoration), and Hire (for staffing). To set the ball rolling, select the rooms to construct, outline the space by clicking and dragging, and furnish the necessary items that the game highlights for you. Then, simply assign an underpaid employee to operate it, and you’re good to go.
The core challenge lies in patient management, particularly dealing with the influx of individuals waiting for treatment. Patients initially visit the General Practitioner, and a shortage of GP offices can create bottlenecks, resulting in frustrated, departing, or even deceased patients. As you expand, be mindful of the demand for certain rooms and how to keep patients entertained with amenities like food, entertainment, and seating. And don’t forget the toilets—your patients will prioritize their queue spots over cleanliness!
Two Point Hospital introduces increasingly complex elements as you progress. This includes tasks like staff training, developing new technologies, and treating new bizarre ailments that require specialized care. You’ll also encounter events such as epidemic outbreaks, staff requests, and sudden influxes of distinctive patient types.
Space management poses one of the game’s greatest challenges. Each room type has specific size and shape requirements, often requiring expansion beyond the minimum for optimal functionality. Initial hospital floors quickly fill up with essential rooms, necessitating expensive additional buildings—these too will fill quickly as patient numbers rise. This is especially true for mid to late-game rooms, which demand considerable space.
This is where the appeal begins to wane for some players. The primary tactic for escalating difficulty involves introducing quirky diseases needing specialized treatment rooms. Initially, treatments are logical, like requiring psychiatrists or injection rooms. But problems become increasingly abstract, and the solution often involves launching lengthy research projects. Once completed, you construct a new room with elaborate machinery. Despite humorous diseases and animations, it feels uninspired. You accumulate rooms dedicated to single-wacky-disease cures. Delay tactics, like awaiting research completion, result in game interruptions via relentless pop-ups and requiring you to manually handle each untreated patient.
The campaign mode may feel repetitive after a time. It contains 15 base missions where you’re almost always starting new hospital setups from scratch. Basic procedures become repetitive with only small unique elements added. Objectives must be achieved to gain stars: one star is enough to unlock the next level, with subsequent stars offering item rewards. Eventually, even the first stars take substantial effort, often needing research projects to unlock necessary rooms and enduring prolonged waits to meet game criteria.
Initially, my approach was to complete the campaign first to experience all mechanics, then explore Sandbox. Yet, concluding the campaign became challenging—it felt as though I’d replayed the game multiple times.
Despite this, the game’s humor redeems it, persuading me to revisit Sandbox mode. The game’s cartoonish charm is undeniable. Patients who pass away can transform into ghosts, haunting your facilities. The curing process includes dubious, yet comically animated methods. An array of amusing radio hosts entertain you with stories and music throughout. It’s been a while since a management simulation made me genuinely laugh, but Two Point Hospital achieved this effortlessly.
If a hospital management game piques your interest, Two Point Hospital is a recommended choice today. It emits a strong Theme Hospital influence while modernizing tycoon game mechanics for a refined experience. My chief concern is the potential stalling of long-term appeal due to excess dependency on research projects and specialized rooms, alongside a campaign mode that becomes too monotonous as levels progress.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with the game, investing around 15 hours—a respectable duration, albeit less than some beloved management sims. I am confident I’ll return to it. For those intrigued, I suggest completing initial campaign missions as a tutorial before venturing into Sandbox mode. Completing the campaign can be a long-term target, but tackling it all at once might hamper your enjoyment.
