![]() Cure rate is not a factor for achieving this first star the second and third stars often require you to have cure rates of 70% and 90% respectively and are intended to provide additional hours of fun for people who like optimising their hospital layouts, but tackling those challenges is entirely optional. Only the first star is required to progress to the next level, and this will have a basic set of objectives attached which revolve around the level’s gimmick - usually by treating a certain number of patients afflicted with the level’s themed disease, which in turn requires researching and building special treatment rooms. Staying solvent is only part of the game, however, as each level has its own set of tiered objectives, each of which awards one of three stars. The only way to lose a level of Two Point Hospital is to stay in the red for a full year - however, as you’re paid for diagnosing and treating people and unsuccessful treatments will lower your reputation as (presumably) you receive bad reviews on Yelp, which in turn will lower the number of people coming to your hospital, it is generally in your best interests to make sure at least some of the treatments work so that the patients - and the money - keep flowing in. ![]() Note that it is not particularly your job to cure people, or to stop people from dying, as patients will often pay up for even a lethal course of treatment as long as the price isn’t too high and you’ve kept them relatively happy as they shuffle off this mortal coil. Your foundation is put in charge of a series of hospitals and it’s your job to make sure that the hospitals turn a profit. Two Point Hospital sets you up as the head of the Two Point Foundation in, uh, Two Point County (they really hammer that name home), which serves as your Dungeon Keeper-esque overworld. Perhaps it is about time somebody just tried to remake one of these games without messing with the formula, and we can see just how well it stacks up when transported into the glorious future world 2 of 2018. ![]() War For The Overworld did good work but ultimately came unstuck because it messed with Dungeon Keeper’s winning formula. Satellite Reign did good work but ultimately came unstuck because it messed with Syndicate’s winning formula. At first I was a little taken aback at how little the developers (they’re called Two Point Studios, and they have ex-Bullfrog devs at the company - this is a little less impressive-sounding when you consider that just about every British game developer has ex-Bullfrog devs at the company) have done to take the mechanics forward - I’ve only spent a few belated hours with the GOG version of Theme Hospital, but even I can see that it and Two Point are pretty much identical - but after a brief mental review of the previous attempts to update Bullfrog classics I decided that perhaps they were on to something. I suspect Two Point Hospital is called Two Point Hospital because it is a pretty much a direct point-for-point remake of Theme Hospital, right down to the radiators. What is a little surprising is how literal that do-over is. Odd choice or no, though, Theme Hospital remains one of Bullfrog’s most fondly-remembered titles (for those who actually played it, at least), and so it’s no surprise that it’s the latest one to receive a modern attempt at a do-over in the form of Two Point Hospital. Even now I think running a for-profit hospital was a really weird theme for a British developer to build a game around unfortunately the severe cuts the NHS has suffered over the last decade has given private healthcare the opportunity to become more deeply entrenched in the UK’s healthcare system 1, but back in the 90s it was still a deeply alien concept to the British psyche and I often wonder how exactly Bullfrog ended up deciding to make it. ![]() Theme Park made all the sense in the world, even when I was 11 years old, but I just didn’t understand the concept behind Theme Hospital. I’ve always regarded Theme Hospital as the odd one out when it comes to Bullfrog’s strategy games.
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