![]() In keeping with the map format and the different regions it depicts, the objectives for each level in Two Point Hospital are considerably more varied than Theme Hospital's standard goals of achieving a certain bank balance, treatment stats and overall hospital value. While you only need to get a hospital to a one star rating (out of a possible three) in order to advance to the next, this map screen makes it easy to dip back into a hospital should you feel the need to boost its rating or take a break from the financial and logistical strains imposed by the game's steady difficulty curve. Thankfully the perplexing board game format of Theme Hospital has been done away with, replaced instead by an Overcooked style overworld that shows the location of each of your hospitals. ![]() As you might expect, it also has a wicked sense of humour, with conditions such as verbal diarrhoea or lightheadedness - an illness that causes the sufferer's head to be replaced with a giant glowing light bulb. Building rooms and placing objects is swift and intuitive, with snapping and rotation mechanics cutting out a lot of potential faff. The music is now curated by a series of hospital radio DJs, replete with news snippets and worryingly authentic sounding adverts. The visuals are lovely - vivid animations bring nuance and character to the patients and staff alike, and you can zoom right in to savour the more bombastic moments. Where Two Point Hospital sets itself apart though is in its refinements and, to a lesser extent, its new layers of complexity. The introductory level is even structured like the first level of Theme Hospital, causing me to place a near identical reception desk in its accustomed place before building the GP's office in the same corner I always do because I am nine years old and that's where the GP's office goes. From the building mechanics and hiring processes to the sudden crises and tannoy announcements, this is built unashamedly on old foundations by those who laid them in the first place. That's not to say Two Point Hospital isn't familiar, of course - in many ways it feels like coming back to an old classic. Theme Hospital is very fresh in my mind, in other words, and I started playing it with a sense of trepidation - was I in for a shallow reskin, or would Two Point Hospital prove to be a welcome reinvention of a childhood classic? The answer, I am glad to say, is the latter. ![]() They were delighted by it even now, in fact, my father occasionally refers to his work as a Consultant Parasitologist as 'doctor required in inflator room'. ![]() When Theme Hospital launched, I was nine and my parents, a doctor and a nurse, thought it was hilarious. I should know, since it's aimed squarely at me. Two Point Hospital is a game that makes absolutely no bones about being a nostalgia trip for anybody who played Theme Hospital in the late 90s. Two Point Hospital makes no bones about returning to the foundations of Theme Hospital - and it makes plenty of improvements along the way. ![]()
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