Theme Hospital

"You'll never step into a hospital again"

WARNING: This game may make you sick due to uncontrolled laughing, vomiting and other diseases of which we have the Copyright. Don't worry, our doctors will gladly take care of you. Don't feel uneasy, settle down and let us have our own, safe way. Welcome to the world's most dangerous hospital, Theme Hospital!!

Remember Theme Park? Yeah, the game that kept you glued to your PC screen for hours on end trying to solve all the problems your great park was encountering. One of the greatest simulation hits finally gets a sequel. But now, you take on a more responsible and important task as you are now in control of a hospital and lots of work await you. Needless to say, you are not alone and the truth is nowhere ! :)

In Theme Hospital, just as the title implies, you must build and maintain a hospital. Your first task is, of course, to build the hospital and then to make sure that everything goes well. First, you need to know where all the different rooms will be, where the most important toilet and pharmacy will be and how big or small all the rooms will be. You also need to know how many doctors, nurses and handymen you will employ in your highly efficient cemetary, err, I mean hospital ! And please, put some dustbins, flowers and even drink machines unless you want to see people going to the rival hospital. Next, all you need to do is sit down and enjoy life before the problems comes looking for you in groups…

And believe me, you're going to have to deal with a lot of problems. From rats to angry patients without forgetting about the doctor who constantly wants a rise in salary, you'll need a lot of patience and luck before finally moving on to the next level...to encounter bigger problems! Even Mr. Death will roam your corridors, wondering who he may take with him and the Mayor has nothing better to do that to come inspect your hospital. Besides, why must that Movie Stat come to your hospital !? You always hated him…Aw, just kill him and be happy !

You've already guessed it, Theme Hospital is a funny game which will make you laugh for hours on end. The diseases are just the common ones you'll see in every day life like colds, slack tongue or even aliens. The game has a lot of little nice details which will make you laugh and yes, the diseases you'll see in it are the weirdest ones ever. And weird diseases get weird cures. Be careful too as Mr Death himself roams in your corridors and will not hesitate to take someone's life if you take too much time to cure them. Lose much time and your popularity will go down.

And what about handyman ? Do you want all your machinery to break down and people to vomit everywhere ? Yeah, I know the vomit looks like chocolate but still that's not a reason…Lotsa problems await you and even your own employees want you dead…! You must also take care of a lot of other things like making sure that your plants remain fresh and healthy. To do this, simply hire some handymen - aren't they useful ! - although most of them don't like their job and they still want more money... Talk about good career guidance ! Don't forget to create a staff room for your doctors and nurses to rest as they get tired very often. And prepare to face a very crowded hospital if you haven't put enough benches in the waiting rooms.

The amount of things you must take care of is simply amazing. And you're gonna pay the consequences soon if you have forgotten about something. Be sure to clean the hospital every day or patients will spot rats and will automatically vomit, causing people to go to rival hospitals. It's also recommended to place machine drink at strategic places to make money on the sick people's back and toilets to make sure they don't complain too much…They're so good at complaining, better not give them any reason to do so…You've got it, Theme Hospital is not just a sim, it's the sim!!

''It's a matter of laugh or death in the sequel to Bullfrog's best-selling Theme Park.''

Bullfrog's intro says it all! The game has cute graphics with a lot of details for each disease. The characters are all drawn anime-style but they're wonderfully done and even thought they're that small, they look pretty good. Once you've built the hospital, you'll notice how it is well-done and how detailed everything is. You can just guess from what disease someone is suffering by just glancing at him as each disease has a very noticeable symptom. The expressions are cute and well-done too, just like those fantastic hospitals.

The music is great too and will soon make you addicted to the game. Although there's not really variation is the music, this isn't a problem as the music in Theme Hospital is great and you'll find yourself humming it even when you've managed to turn off your computer. The sound effects are very realistic like when the patients are vomiting in the corridor. You'll feel as if someone has just vomited in your room after hearing it.

And most important, the fun-factor in Theme Hospital, to put it in only one word, awesome. The number of stages is great and you need a lot of time to reach your objectives and to take on bigger projects. And, as you progress, more diseases appear and you'll have to find suitable cures for them before losing control of everything and your hospital. Thankfully, new machinery will appear and your researchers will soon know what to do unless they do nothing apart sleeping when they should have been working. Create epidemics and abuse your patients!

Theme Hospital is a great title which you should have if you love this type of games. And if that still hasn't convinced you, it's one of the funniest games available! With cute graphics, a good challenge and a really enjoyable music, this can only be a hit ! Go on and make a killing out of your patients !

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/01, Updated 11/09/02