In 1998 I bought Theme Hospital and played it on my Dad’s
laptop. Nearly 20 years later in 2018, I completed the game on my own laptop.
And what a delight it was to play it again!
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| Vomit waves are always fun to deal with... |
Theme Hospital has you managing a succession of different
hospitals, researching cures, helping patients and run your hospital at a
profit. It was an interesting age of video gaming; 3D graphics were becoming
the standard for consoles and there were interesting franchises on PC as well.
The game’s developer, Bullfrog, had done very well with Theme Park a few years
before, and were pushing the envelope with what could be done with thematic
management games. And then along comes this little gem of a game…
How it works is that each level has a certain criteria that
must be attainted in order to progress to the next. You have to have your
reputation above a certain level, have cured a number and percentage of
patients, have made a designated amount of money and have your hospital above a
certain value. Curing patients happen as a matter of course, and you plan your
hospital carefully so that not too many of them die. The value of your hospital
increases as you buy more buildings and build more rooms. Reputation is
affected by a number of different factors; the better you perform, the higher
your reputation will be. Acquiring money takes time, but once you reach a
certain point in the level it will come rolling in. When you fulfil the
criteria, you’ll be offered the next level on the next quarter of a year, but
if you underperform, you’ll lose the game.
As for curing patients, this is where the design of the
hospital comes in to play. They first have to visit the GP and potentially a
number of diagnosis rooms before they can be cured. Once the diagnosis is
established, they are then sent for treatment, if it is available. If not, you
have the option to tell them to leave, or wait in the hospital for you to build
a treatment room. However, you only have a limited amount of time to cure the
patient before their illness kills them. The process is straightforward, but researching
all the available diagnosis and cure equipment can take time. Also, in a busy
hospital, they may have to wait a hopelessly long time in order to see the GP
if you don’t keep on top of managing the queues. Not to mention the amount of
walking between diagnosis and treatment rooms, and the occasional need to use
the toilet!
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| Funnily enough it never occurred to me to design my toilets like that... |
Managing the staff of your hospital is crucial as well.
Generally, the higher level of skill each staff member has, the quicker they
will do their job, so you want this as high as possible. Certain doctors are
needed for certain specialisations; for example only researchers can research,
only psychiatrists can handle psychiatric cases and only surgeons can perform
surgery. Doctors can be trained to improve their skills, and in later levels
this is crucial to the efficient running of the hospital. Also they need to
take a break every now and then.
The game starts out basically, and introduces mechanics and
gimmicks as it progresses. This does a good job of teaching you what does what,
but ultimately it is on you to come up with the best strategies for creating
the most efficient hospital possible. The emergencies (cure a certain number of
patients in a few minutes or they will die,) epidemics (cure everyone infected
with a contagious disease within a few minutes without any of them going
outside or face a fine and take a reputation hit) and earthquakes (maintain
your machinery properly or they’ll blow up in the event of a quake) add random
layers of challenge to the proceedings and make sure there’s always something
to do after you’ve built all the rooms.
I really enjoyed playing through Theme Hospital again. It’s
brilliant concept, and while the graphics are pretty basic, they’ve lost none
of their charm. It’s great fun to play and beat, with the occasional wobble
with execution and glitches. I’d highly recommend giving this one a go.
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