Waiting for an appointment to get your ailments looked at has never been fun, but they’ve always been far more hilarious to observe at within the walls of 1997’s Theme Hospital.
Just three years after the release of Theme Park, Bullfrog delivered another installment to their business sim series, putting you in charge of patient care.
With its absurdities towards customer care and darkly humorous peril, it’s no surprise that after 25 years, it remains a cult classic.
As soon as you hear its title though, it’s hard not to think of patients swarming the white corridors, having eye-watering amounts of debt alongside the grim reaper traipsing around as you’ve managed to off yet another victim. With all this in mind, I'm looking back at its legacy for PC Gaming Week, and how it can be played on your modern PC.
Waiting room
The aim of the game is to open your hospital in a new area under timed conditions and land under certain reward brackets. Once it's open, you’re able to begin curing patients. It sounds easy enough, yet as we progress through the game with its leveling system, we find out the hard way that healthcare isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Maintaining your hospital is just a quarter of the battle. Sure, you have staff to aid you in keeping the KitKat machines stocked and the plants watered, but wrangling your staff once a vile case of a sickness bug sweeps past reception, becomes a mess in more ways than one.
Thankfully, its ailments bring a lot of light relief as opposed to real-life atrocities. We’d obviously rather not have Bloaty Head syndrome, yet we’re more than happy to pop it for a patient and inflate it back up to its usual size.
A Two-Point successor
As time amassed and PC games continued to graphically push the boundaries, as well as other sim titles taking the reins, Theme Hospital still appeared to hold its presence. Yet in 2016, original Theme Hospital producer Mark Webley and lead artist Gary Carr co-founded Two Point Studios along with Ben Hymers, a previous programmer who worked with Webley and Carr at Lionhead Studios.
Just two years later, Two Point Hospital was released - a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital. The comparisons are certainly there; it features a wider range of items, new illnesses and far more music to listen to, complete with radio hosts, yet it still holds the same feeling as before in respect its tongue-in-cheek nature.
The announcer returns as well, delivering hilarious quips as you manage your wards and ensure that the patients are being tended to. However, there’s something about the Two Point series, Campus included, that just doesn’t hold the same feeling of chaos that Theme Hospital continues to emit.
Let’s be clear, the Two Point titles are well-loved and the additions that the studio has made embellish the business sims genre to no end. Being able to find out a little more about patients and staff, as well as having the ability to build on pause mode, is a welcome blessing. Thankfully, both the gender inequality and pay gap from Theme Hospital has been scrapped, as well as a more diverse cast of characters.
Two Point has certainly found its audience with newcomers and fans of its previous, yet it’s more than just the nostalgia for Theme Hospital that keeps us coming back to, year after year. It’s constantly a wild ride from start to finish and if the wheels haven’t well and truly come off, you’re doing it wrong.
No one likes stress, but for some reason, if you’re not holding a mild panic about the queue times for the GP’s office, spending time covering the numerous mice holes with KitKat vending machines or constantly mopping up mess, then it’s just not a shift well done for me.
Playing Theme Hospital in 2023
There’s a simplistic charm to not having certain features at your disposal and only having eight songs to accompany your seemingly endless shifts. Although, when there’s an emergency due to touch down on the helipad, you tend not to notice it as much when seven people are waiting to be cured in the slack tongue clinic – it’s quite the sight.
Unlike some simulation games from back in the day, we’re still able to play Theme Hospital with ease. EA's Origin service and GOG allows us to purchase the sim for the absolute current steal of $5.99 / £5.39 / AU$6.19. You’ll gain retro features by playing with a 4:3 aspect ratio and not-so-smooth edge scrolling as you navigate around your hospital.
Luckily for us all, CorsixTH exists and it serves as the perfect cure to scratch that persistent itch of nostalgia. It's a custom engine that's tailor-made for Theme Hospital, so you’re able to play in a native widescreen display with crisp textures and the ability to zoom in closer to your hospital for example, ensuring that your plant placement is just right.
However, there are a few steps in order to be able to play Theme Hospital this gloriously. First, head over to CorsixTH; you’ll be able to check out the blogs and also download the demo file for Theme Hospital – you’ll need that or the full version from GOG.com or Origin in order to play the CorsixTH version.
The steps in order to do this aren’t overly complicated at all, so even if you’re an absolute novice, you’ll still be able to access and enjoy. You’ll find full help via their website to get you set up and started.
CorsixTH’s work is extremely commendable; the attention to detail within the improvements is subtle, but such a welcomed addition that you could argue it's almost an extension of the original. They’ve taken the time to preserve Theme Hospital, keeping its fundamentals front and center, all the while being able to impress with additions.
It also includes the original music from the game, which really is the cherry on the cake. CorsixTH also allows us to create our own hospitals, with the ability to play campaigns created by the community.
Being able to relive the 90s in the present day via CorsixTH delivers the perfect dose of hilarity. It’s no walk in the park, but setting a little time aside to whizz back in time for a few hours is always the right remedy.
