Two Point Hospital Review: Laughter (And Good Gameplay) Is the Best Medicine (PC/Steam)

Over the past few months, I’ve been digging in to my backlog of games that I have purchased in the past and never got around to them. Doing so, I’m glad that I did as it expands my game knowledge and peaks interest in other genres I’ve never even considered. One of those games was Two Point Hospital, which if you asked me a few years ago if I was ever going to play it, I would have said probably not. Unfortunately, I wrote it off as generic and since it was focused as a PC resource management sim, I never really gave it any attention. Come to January of 2024 and I played a small indie game called dotAGE and it was about taking care of a village of people and preparing them for future doom and disaster events. It was the only full game I’ve had played in the genre and it let me open up the flood gates for more games in similar fashion. Having played the Sims in the past, TPH may be thought of as a clone or ripoff of it and that can’t be further from the truth. In my opinion, it was if you combined the RM system from dotAGE and other games like it and the customization of your world/home in the Sims. And what you get is an amazing, hilarious, and fun game for hours on end building hospitals to your liking and style.

OVERVIEW

Two Point Hospital starts you with the basics of what I like to call: “The Flow” of building each hospital. Each one may be a little different in the end result depending on rooms, but regardless you will always start out with building a reception desk, a General Practitioner room, a diagnostic room (ex. Cardiology or General Diagnosis), and a treatment room (ex. Ward or Pharmacy). From there, you will have to focus on what is needed for the current situation, accommodate each patients’ needs, and hire the correct people with the adjoining skills, as well as objectives to give you higher star ratings for overall performance. From how the game starts to when it ends is all the same, but the challenge comes from the volume and amount of diagnosis and treatment needed for each area of the hospital. It never feels too overwhelming as you can control the speed rate of patients coming and going, and can always pause & making on-the-fly adjustments as needed. The whole point is to cater to the current situation and TPH does that wonderfully in terms of how you can build & customize the hospital (like saving previously-made rooms for quicker building and adjusting each plot & decorative item). It is fairly simple, but there is quite a bit of items to make your hospital not only look good, but to make each room a higher grade for easier diagnosis/treatment. You can bring each room up to Level 5, with each level giving added boosts like increasing overall happiness, hygienic, and temperature to name a few. There is a lot of accommodation to manage such as the latter and others, like making sure patients and staff are well-fed, not thirsty, or even overcoming boredom. It gives it a more sense of realism while keeping itself grounded with it cartoony and humor-focused setting. It is really fun to watch your hospital come to life and see how efficient it can become with just an hour or two.

One of the biggest things that has surprised me about this game is the depth of management, as explained previously without it feeling too much. As I get older, I have a harder time with games that are more than 20 hours to finish due to life, but the good thing about Two Point Hospital is that you can pick up and play it for anytime you like. It doesn’t necessary have a story (although the setting is to becoming the best hospital CEO/CNO of the world lol) and you can enter and exit any hospital at any time as long as you unlock the areas, which is usually easy with getting the minimum 1-star for each hospital. As long as you remember “The Flow” and know that what to look for in terms for patients’ health and wellness. Working in a hospital setting myself, I really enjoy the tongue-and-cheek humor that can feel all to real sometimes and am very impressed with Mark Webley, Gary Carr, and Two Point Studios for doing there homework and making the best hospital-type game I’ve played.

ENVIRONMENTS & GRAPHICS

When I said that the style blends some previous elements in games like the Sims, the character models, rooms, and objects all breed a similar cartoony-realism, with more of the emphasis on the silly. They have what i like to describe a sort-of Pixar-esque look with tone down features, although each one is able to emote a good amount of actions and emotions making them feel like individual patient with there own personalities. They do have there own feelings and traits to counter and fit there correct need as well as names (with the occasional Eggman reference as a last name). And some of the names of the illnesses and rooms also bring that cheeky humor, like curing a bunch of clowns of there “Jester Infections” or getting sick with “Lightheadedness” and the patient has a lightbulb for a head. This is where the soul of the game comes from and I really appreciate them adding come character into the world and going out of their way to do clinical research to add that touch of depth (even recorded real-life hospital monitor sounds to add in the game). Everything else is very rounded and soft-looking which adds to the cartoon style, making beds, hospital equipment, and other objects stand out easier. It helps with the floors and walls (that can be change and customized) are mostly specific with each type of room. I will explain later how it really help in terms of triaging the patients (finding which patient goes to the correct room/unit), but the fact that you can almost put any object in any room, change the layout, walls, & floors, and even add decorative items out on the main hospital floors to make a grand institution. I think it fits well with what the game offers and can never get tired of looking and dealing with my 300th case of “Grey Anatomy”, Freddie Mercury-like “Mock Star” or “Headcrabedness” (reference ala Half-Life 2).

GAMEPLAY

“The Flow” has a double meaning: it defers to the path to being cured in the game (Reception->GP Office->Diagnosis Room->Treatment Room) and it also references the term “workflow” in the what & the how of a real hospital manages patients. I know I totally made that up, but that is what the main gameplay is about and the complexity is dealing with the amount of both patients and types of illnesses that come through the door. And what follows is basically a few RNG checks & rolls on how that patient is cured based on your hospital, staff, and equipment. In the early game, managing patients can get to about 70 or 80 but near the end of the game, there might be up to 300 patients at almost all time in flux. What matters is really up to how much effort you put into the layout & customization of your hospital, your staff hiring, and how you not only cure patients but make sure they are catered during downtime so they don’t leave or die. First, you must make sure your hospital has the correct configurations in place by making sure it is well equipment with what is need. For example, about 1/5 of the way through the game you will enter a colder area and will need to add radiators to heat up the surrounding areas. This can make everyone’s temperature to comfortable levels, so that way patients will be more likely to stay, staff will be less likely to quit, and both overall happier. Later on, the idea is flipped so you will need air conditioners to do the same. You even can add that some machines produces a small heat radius nearby and it layers on to what is around, which can affect the plants making them needed to be watered more. It is a constant check of what needs to be maintained, also counting in overall hygiene (ex. clean bathrooms and placing hand sanitizers on walls) and overall hospital attractiveness (how it looks and curing boredom). If managed correctly, then patients should be both cured and happy, noted by the info in the percentage of chance. It isn’t always a guaranteed success, but you can get it is close to perfect at 99%, thus increasing your hospital reputation & level. Both are advantageous in terms of reputation having more patients and overall likability of the hospital and level basing your size of staff & rooms, as well as more hirable options.

Keeping both up will create a successful & profitable hospital in the overall managing of it, but the big key is your objectives. By clearing certain tasks (ex. cure a certain amount of patients or teach staff a specific skill) you will gain stars which increases more reputation & levels and will be rewarded new equipment, rooms, and other items. You can use each new unlockable in any hospital you made or have made, and can always go back to edit or start over & build a new one. And all the money made is be use to purchase other unlockable items in your items list, other rooms, hire new staff, and training. Different rooms can be bought to diagnose or treat different kinds of illnesses and new staff can be hired with which type (doctor, nurse, janitor, or assistant), certain set of skills (or not!), and there own quirks & maybe pros/cons. Training comes in later on, but is used to a good degree later on the second half of the game, where it definitely helps in managing patients by selective skills in what is needed. More of the complexity comes with how much you need in size & scope and you only will have limited room. Another thing you can buy is plots of land for more space, but that is also limited as your hospital becomes more busier. Research rooms can also unlock more advance rooms and you can have a marketing room to run certain kinds of campaigns to various buffs by paying to increase hospital reputation, more attention toward a certain room/unit, or advertising for new hires & new skills. You can even upgrade machines for better turnout or if your really in need for money, you can take out a loan or even adjust pricing for every transaction in your hospital. All can be a balancing act and sometimes it does get a little hectic, but I never felt overwhelmed with what I had to managed. The game does a great job of slowly introducing new things to add to the difficulty and complexity later on, as well as offering optional emergency tasks (ex. several VIP patients come in at one time or get a room to certain level). There is also online tasks you can complete and compete against with your friends. By the end you will become the best hospital builder and manager and it feels all the more satisfying when you get that third gold star, make that enormous profit, and have overall health & happiness at its max.

CONTROLS & SOUND

While I can’t speak for the Switch version. the Steam PC controls are perfectly fine and you can move and adjust the world to your liking. You can zoom in almost to the personal level and zoom out for an eagle-eye view of your hospital. Rotating the camera is easy and with a few hotkeys, you really only need the latter and a mouse. Most of the time will be interaction with the mouse by the UI, which is laid out in a very nice and not too overblown way. You are able to see all important info as well as grab, move, and rotate objects to whatever you see fit. I never had an issue with making rooms, moving objects, and all the keyboard keys are customizable as well. As for the sound, I think it does a very good job of capturing that chill & relaxing feeling in the customization like a Sims game while also adding a few songs to the humor, which works sometimes when I’m in the mood (I can only hear my face smelling face so much lol) but kudos to the female singer in them as she is wonderful. The majority of songs are instrumentals & melodies that about half I wouldn’t be mistaken if it was in a loading screen or a Persona game. There are some songs that offer jazz, piano, easy listening, and synth that give a wide array and adds to the lighthearted humor of the game. The PA announcer also chimes in with either a helpful need of assistance in a room or some of her dry humor (ex. plants needing water as a constant reminder) as well as the radio host occasionally spouting a few cheeky lines. And interactions with objects and patients have a nice pop sound when moved and both makes noises accordingly (ex people grunt and machines buzz/hum).

CONCLUSION

At the end, Two Point Hospital is worth the time and can easily be taken in any pace you like. The gameplay offers a satisfying loop that lets you feel like a master overlooking each hospital, with fun & charming humor that is well received. Each one you build is a bigger and more complex than the last but it never feels boring or too much to handle. My only complain would be that once you know the overall loop, there isn’t much in terms of personal depth, but the depth comes from each objective needed and how to manage the rest. And the price can be a little much for a now 7 year old game that offers a lot but can feel a little samey. Overall a very great resource management sim and you can spend hours on building, chuckling, and enjoying what the game has to offer along the way. I definitely will check out Campus & Museum in the future for sure. Two Point Hospital is out now for the PC and Nintendo Switch, and is currently on sale on Steam for 50% off at $14.99 til May 8th (as of 5/3/2025).