Theme Hospital

"Where are you going you stupid handyman?"

Theme Hospital for the Playstation is a port of the PC game of the same name. It is a simulation/comedic game that puts you into the role of owner of a hospital. It overall is a good game, and I searched a year for it when I finally found it.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are standard original Playstation stuff. The characters are detailed but all really look the same. The doctors all look the same and you can hardly differentiate between them. The patients all look the same but given the technology limitations of the period, this wasn't a problem in my book. However, my big problem was the rooms of the hospitals themselves. You could only decorate your rooms a little and the machinery looked kind of bland. It did not look like the PC version, in my humble opinion.

SOUND

The audio is kinda bad. The receptionist is by far the most annoying sound clip in all of video games. All you'll hear is "Doctor to Inflater Room please!" in the most annoying voice ever. It sounds as if someone is taking their finger nails and digging into a chalkboard three inches from your ears. Yeah, it is that painful to listen to. The good parts of the audio are in the form of alerts. You'll hear a good sound effect when a patient dies, or when a box appears to either give a doctor a raise or fire him. These parts are good, but all in all there is very little audio to speak of, and what you will hear will drive you crazy.

STORY

As with any simulation game of this nature, you are a GM of a lowly hospital looking to move up. You will progress through 12 levels with the challenge going each time. There, however, is no real story in the game. The story is more of a drawn inference.

CONTROL

Here is the most annoying part of the game, the controls. The controls for the first thing have to put a keyboards worth control schematics onto a let's say 10 button controller. There still is nothing like playing this game with a mouse and the point and click interface is messed up. When you are trying to target a specific doctor that you want to get into a specific room, you better pray that he stops walking. It is a chore to actually try and pick up, said doctor, in this way without divine intervention. There is no rotating camera angles, which also hurts in your ability to find certain doctors and put them in certain spots. This becomes a problem in later levels. When you only get a certain amount of skilled doctors, and finding and picking them up after a stint in the crew room becomes a hassle and may even lead to patient deaths. The people at Bullfrog did an admirable job trying to map a keyboards worth of info onto the Playstation controller it just does not work.

GAME PLAY

The game is fun, if you are the sort of person that can overcome control problems; (or can not get their PC version to work anymore). The game features many illnesses that are hilarious to behold and funny texts to read. The doctors have a wide range of skills and abilities. The game itself has 12 levels in it and provides ample challenge to the player, especially in the later levels. The business end of the simulation is well made and simple to understand. The game is a joy to play if you can overcome its issues.

OVERALL RECAP

The graphics were standard Playstation graphics for their time, the audio was pretty bad, and do not get me started on the controls. But if you are a fan of the PC version, it is a loyal port of the PC version just with these issues. If you have never played this game, I'd try to find a copy cheap or if you can find it somewhere, rent it. It is a good game but a short game.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/14/07