Two Point Hospital is a 2018 business simulation game developed by Two Point Studios and published by Sega for Linux, MacOS, and Microsoft Windows. Console versions for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch are planned in early 2020. A spiritual successor to Bullfrog Productions' 1997 game Theme Hospital, players are tasked with constructing and operating an empire of hospitals in the fictional Two Point County, with the goal of curing patients of fictitious, comical ailments. Because visiting real hospitals is unpopular, the emphasis on humour to lighten the mood was deemed important by the developers. The game was designed and developed by some of the creators of Theme Hospital, including Mark Webley and Gary Carr.
Within weeks of release, Two Point Hospital was the second most downloaded game in the sales charts for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Australia. The game was received positively by critics, garnering acclaim for its style, humour and its faithfulness to Theme Hospital's aesthetics, but criticised for its repetitiveness and room design. The game received three major updates as downloadable content after its release, adding new regions and illnesses to cure.
Gameplay
Two Point Hospital features a similar style of gameplay to that of Theme Hospital. Players take on the role of a hospital manager charged with constructing and maintaining a hospital. Tasks include building rooms and amenities that satisfy the needs (such as hunger and thirst) of patients and staff (such as toilets, staff rooms, reception desks, cafés, seating, and vending machines), expanding the hospital into new plots, the hiring and management of doctors, nurses, janitors, and assistants to maintain the hospital; and dealing with a variety of comical illnesses. The player can manage several hospitals, each with their own layout objectives. Two Point Hospital features unique, comical conditions such as "Light-Headedness" (having a light bulb for a head), "Pandemic" (having a pan on one's head), "Mock Star" (patients are Freddie Mercury impersonators), and "Animal Magnetism" (having animals stuck to the patient's body). When patients die, they sometimes become ghosts, which disrupt the hospital by terrorising patients and staff. Only janitors with the Ghost Capture skill can remove them.
The process of diagnosing patients begins in a GP's Office before they are sent for further diagnosis in other rooms, and eventually treatment. From time to time, an influx of patients with a specific disease can occur. On later levels, players can also experience epidemics, during which an infectious disease spreads throughout the hospital. Players are issued with a certain number of vaccines to inoculate patients, and there is a reward if all infected patients are immunised. Otherwise, the player's reputation (a performance rating that affects the chances of new patients coming) is tarnished. Every game year, there is an awards ceremony in which the player is given performance-based rewards. Examples of objectives include: making the hospital attractive enough, and finding cures for certain diseases, though the general goal is curing as many patients as possible. The completion of challenges and other tasks awards "Kudosh", a currency that can be used to unlock new items that can be placed within rooms and corridors. Players can research new rooms and machine upgrades in the Research room.
Newly introduced elements include star ratings, hospital levels, and room prestige. The achievement of a one-star rating allows players to progress to the next hospital, though they may continue building up their current hospital by completing additional objectives to increase the rating to two or three stars. If the player moves on, they can return to the hospital at any time. Hospital levels are determined by the number of rooms and staff members a hospital has – increasing the level attracts more patients and skilled staff. A room's prestige is affected by its size and ornamentation, and the higher a room's prestige level, the happier staff are inside it (if staff become unhappy, they may quit).
Staff training is more complex than in Theme Hospital; all staff, not just doctors, can learn and receive qualifications that grant them new skills or improve their ability in a certain department. For example, the General Practitioner skill improves a doctor's skill in the GP's Office. Additionally, staff have personalities and specialisations which affect their job performance. Assistants can run marketing programmes to attract patients with a certain illness or staff with certain skills.
The game features online leaderboards, along with co-operative and competitive multiplayer modes. An update released in October 2018 also added a sandbox mode. Steam Workshop support was added in February 2019, giving players the ability to customise the pictures, walls, and floors of the hospital, either by using image files from the player's computer, or by downloading other players' items. In April 2019, the "Superbug Initiative" update added co-operative community challenges, featuring numerous goals along progression system. The community completing these goals works together towards unique in-game content as a reward for. The update also added the ability to customise the game's soundtrack.
Reception
Two Point Hospital was received positively by critics. Media review aggregation website Metacritic summarised the game as garnering "generally favorable reviews".
Critics were especially positive about how it holds up in comparison to Theme Hospital, with many giving praise for its nostalgic value as well as the improvements. Rachel Weber of GamesRadar+ was positive about the game's use of nostalgia, stating that the game had "taken the funny bones" from the original and transplanted them into Two Point Hospital. Game Informer's Ben Reeves thought that Two Point Studios had done "a remarkable job reviving Theme Hospital". GamesMaster described Two Point Hospital as "the perfect cure" for the "Bullfrog deficiency" and said it is precisely what Theme Hospital fans wanted it to be. Even before release, Dominic Tarason of Rock, Paper, Shotgun described Two Point Hospital as "Theme Hospital 2 in all but name", a view shared by Bit-Tech's Rick Lane and GamesTM. Similar views were held by Edge, Johnny Chiodini of Eurogamer, and Jacob Bukacek of Hardcore Gamer. Other critics who noted the similarity to Theme Hospital include Jeuxvideo.com and James Ide of the Daily Mirror.
The game's humour was also widely praised by critics. UK newspaper Metro regarded the "amusing script and visual humour" of Two Point Hospital as one of its best features, calling it "endearing". Nic Reuben of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also commented on the game's humour, writing: "it’s not that any individual element is hilarious – it’s more of an infinite dads pulling infinite crackers sort of scenario. It just feels comfy, goofy and pleasant ..." James Swinbanks of GameSpot and GamesRadar+'s Rachel Weber echoed these sentiments by complimented the game's British sense of humour. GamesTM believed the humour was taken from Bullfrog and praised the balance, saying the game is not "trying too hard" and keeps it light-hearted. Steven Asarch of US magazine Newsweek with this sentiment, and lauded the game's "sick, depraved sense of humor".
