Theme Hospital

"Theme Hospital Makes Its Way To The PlayStation!!!"

A year after its PC arrival, Theme Hospital finally makes its way to the PlayStation. Apart from the atrocious controls, it still retains its charm and innovations that were once attracted by many theme fans.

The concept is simple. Design a hospital of your own, employ as many professional doctors, nurses, handymen and so on, [Huh, a handyman can also be professional? Well... attitude of the cleaner? Is this okay?] and equip your hospital with the state-of-the-art facilities. Sounds easy? But, how you manage is a big question and that's where the depth of the game comes in.

You can build facilities like a vending machine for patients to buy some drinks, set up plants to beautify the environments and so on. You also need to have a few fire extinguishers, just in case a fire happens. That's for safety purposes. Other facilities for the patients include surgery room, ward room, X-ray room, pharmacy room and so on. You also need to build a staff room to allow your staffs to take a rest when they are tired and a reception desk for the receptionlists to record down the number of patients who have visited the hospital.

Perhaps, the most interesting feature is the fact that your staff is ranked in terms of profession. Do you want an inexperienced surgeon to operate on a sickly patient? If not, you must be prepared to spend more money to hire a more professional staff. The same goes to receptionalists, doctors, nurses, handymen and so on. How you spend the budget is another question? On facilities or staff? Furthermore, if there are many people who died while being treated in your hospital, your reputation will be terribly ruined.

There are about twelve levels, if not slightly more. [I have forgotten how much levels there are.] Don't be mistaken that the game is short. The first few levels may take around half to an hour while the more harder levels will probably take around two to five hours or even more. The objectives of each level are pretty straightforward. In each new level, you have to build a hospital from scratch and to complete a level, you need to fulfill certain objectives like treating a certain number of patients, earning a certain amount of money or reputation and so on. Furthermore, you need to compete with other hospitals that are run by the CPU.

Well, i haven't play the PC version of Theme Hospital so i don't wish to make any comparisons. Now, my opinion of the PlayStation Theme Hospital. Generally, the graphics are really good. The backgrounds are very detailed and bright. Different machines have different looks to make them more distinguished. What's the most interesting part is to look at the different behaviours of the people in the hospital, be it a doctor, a cleaner, a nurse, a patient or whatever. Watch how a doctor heals his patient. Watch how a plant withers, when without any waterings. Watch how a patient gets angry and fustrated when he is tired of waiting.

As for the music, there's not much to talk about. The sound effects are really good. Just hear the sound... when a doctor is giving a patient a diagnostic test. Listen to how the announcer speaks or hear the rattling sound of a machine, that is being switched on.

The controls, as mentioned before, are atrocious. I have to admit that the presentation of the menus are quite user-friendly. All the information that you need, like how to treat a certain disease, the qualifications of a doctor, nurse, surgeon and so on, are quite organised. However, the bad thing is Theme Hospital don't offer support for the PlayStation mouse. The pointer is truly annoying as you try to move it. I don't know about others but i personally thinks that the controls are really annoying.

Overall, anyone who loves Theme game, will definitely welcome it. As usual, non-Theme fans or those who don't like management games will be most unlikely to love it. The developer, Bullfrog has done a great job for porting Theme Hospital on the PlayStation. Humour is where the fun of the game really lies. Theme Hospital could have easily gotten an 8 but because of the atrocious controls, i have to give it a 7. I suggest that you play the PC version instead because the controls are better. Generally, the PlayStation version isn't that bad.

Graphics : 8.0/10.0
Concept : 8.0/10.0
Control : 3.0/10.0
Sound : 8.0/10.0
Gameplay : 7.5/10.0
Replay : 6.5/10.0
Challenge : 7.5/10.0
Presentation : 7.5/10.0
Overall : 7.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/00, Updated 12/16/02