Two Point Hospital is a spiritual successor to 1997’s Theme Hospital. Both games task players with building and managing hospitals, overseeing everything from staff to the facilities that are being used to treat patients. Two Point Hospital was released in 2018 on PC to much fanfare and now the game has finally made its anticipated debut on consoles. Simulation management games don’t always make a successful transition from PC to console, but Two Point Hospital retains its quality and is an absolute joy to play.

Two Point Hospital’s premise is simple enough; you’re tasked with managing a chain of different hospitals where your ultimate goal is to obtain profit. The game is currently largely campaign-focused on console, where you have to work your way through different hospitals by completing challenges and obtaining a one to three star rating. You need at least one star to proceed to the next hospital. A post-launch update scheduled for March/April will unlock a sandbox mode, though it’s worth noting the campaign itself is lengthy and will take a long time to complete if you pursue achieving the maximum three star rating at each hospital.

The campaign is well paced and gradually introduces players to the mechanics of the game. The basic needs of any hospital are a reception desk, general practitioner office and a pharmacy. As you dive deeper, you will soon find the need for psychology offices, wards and cardiology offices, among other rooms, to meet the increasing health requirements of patients. All these different rooms require hiring staff as well. Generally speaking, the higher a staff’s wage the more skills they have. Not every doctor, for example, has a psychologist skill. Some staff also have weak bladders and will require regular toilet breaks – not necessarily the best workforce when you’re trying to maximise profits! There’s a balancing act at play here where you can hire lower wage staff to get a better profit turnover, but they’ll also be less efficient at their job. You do have the ability to train and promote staff, so sometimes patience is key and a better strategy is to educate your workforce.

Your hospital will also require general facilities to keep both staff and patients alike happy. Facilities such as toilets, waiting areas, drink and snack machines, staff break rooms and plants go a long way in ensuring the happiness of everyone. You also need to hire a small team of maintenance workers who clean up messes, fix and upgrade machines and, humorously, get rid of the ghosts of patients who have died.

One of Two Point Hospital’s main features are the fictional and downright crazy illnesses that patients suffer. For example, some suffer from Light Headed syndrome where their head is a light bulb. To fix these cases you need to build special facilities where humorous animations play that show the patient being cured. For Light Headed syndrome, there’s a machine that unscrews the patient’s light bulb head and then replaces it with a normal head. Jest syndrome is where clown patients need to be rehabilitated for a “post circus life”. The facility that tackles this illness is a circus tent which flashes dark and scary images in front of the patient that devoids them of happiness. A lot of time and effort has clearly been put into these whacky scenarios, and it’s guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

As your hospital gains popularity you’ll start to get overwhelmed by an influx of patients. This is when the game’s challenge ramps up as you have to expand the hospital by purchasing plots of land in the surrounding areas, hire more staff and build duplicate offices. Afterall, why have only one general practitioner when you can have several? It’s a lot of fun setting up the hospital in just the right way to ensure there’s a steady flow of patients, everyone’s needs are being met in a timely manner and the general layout satisfies your inner architect. As a reward for completing challenges you will also be given Kudosh points which can be spent on cosmetic items such as posters and different styles of benches, as well as more practical items like drinking fountains. Once the items have become unlocked they will automatically become available at all hospitals. This further enhances the amount of customisation options available to you.

There’s an in-game PA system where doctors are called over the hospital’s intercom if there are patients waiting to be served or there are messes to be cleaned up. This doubles acts as hints as to any major issues that players should address. It is a bit disappointing however when staff are called to a particular office but the AI just lets them linger in the halls, literally looking for something to do. Thankfully, players can always pick them up and move them to wherever their attention is required.

The transition from PC to console has meant the UI has needed to be modified. All menus can be accessed via the face and shoulder buttons. Camera control is handled by the analog sticks and you can control zoom by using the triggers. It can sometimes get a bit confusing navigating the menus, but after a few hours of play it feels natural and intuitive.

Two Point Hospital adopts claymation aesthetics which make it resemble a Wallace and Gromit film. It’s simple yet charming and better suits some of the whackier scenarios you will encounter. On the Xbox One X system, which we reviewed the game on, everything runs smoothly with no slow down even when there are dozens of patients walking around on screen. The game’s music is upbeat and sets the perfect tone for some of the craziness that occurs in the hospitals. However, it also isn’t too memorable and can get repetitive with extended play sessions.

Two Point Hospital is just as crazy and engaging to play on console as it is on PC. The campaign is lengthy and gradually introduces players to all the mechanics the game has to offer, there’s lots of customisation options available and the controls on console are natural and intuitive. If you missed this on PC, then there’s little reason to not pick it up on console.

Rocket Chainsaw reviewed Two Point Hospital on an Xbox One X console. It is also available on PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC.