Theme Hospital vs. Two Point Hospital

Explore the key differences between Theme Hospital and Two Point Hospital, from dynamic level design and staff upgrades to research and path-finding.

This section is meant for any veterans of the old 1997 classic, Theme Hospital. If that's before your time or you never played, move along!

Two Point Hospital was developed by former Bullfrog staff members. The game triggered a wave of nostalgia, and for many of us, it brought us back to a play-through of Theme Hospital before the release date. There are a lot of similarities between the two, and I'd say that you have a bit of a leg up if you have played Theme Hospital. However, that being said, these two games run totally different side-to-side. This section was included for former Theme Hospital players looking to get back into the madness.

Here are some pleasant ways the game has evolved:

• A full 3D interface with much better camera work.
• Gender equality means that men and women can now work in all staff roles.
• Not the same at all: while a few conditions from Theme Hospital live on in new ways, other classics like Bloaty Head are missing

However, not everything is totally the same. There are many ways that the two titles differ, but here are the five big sources of change:

1. First and foremost, Two Point Hospital is much more dynamic in late-game level design than its predecessor. There reached a point in Theme Hospital where once you got your level done and had a certain number and level of staff hired, with the exception of an epidemic or an earthquake to occasionally annoy you, you were pretty much set. You'd hear the cheers of a cure roll in back-to-back-to-back. That's no longer the case. After getting your first star in Two Point Hospital, you can't just "coast" any more, and each new star level will require re-grouping and re-organizing of each and every hospital to be successful. People will still die in a well-run hospital in Two Point Hospital! Epidemics are also back. They pop in to just about every hospital once you see them, and now demand a little more vigilance to eradicate. Disasters have returned in many forms, and hooray, in the 21st century, they'll no longer effectively "brick" your rooms (but machines do explode still, there's even a Steam achievement for it).
2. Second of all, staff aside from doctors got a huge upgrade in their abilities. While doctors still do the "heavy-hitting" side of Treatment rooms and are still the only staff qualified for Psychology and Research, they don't do most everything anymore. With the addition of a robust training system, you can now specialize your staff in few more ways, and across all staff types now. Here's how the other roles have changed:
   Nurses: Like modern medicine today, gone now are the days when doctors handled just about everything in the hospital, while nurses where confined to a few simple roles like working the Pharmacy and the Ward. In Two Point Hospital, nurses will handle a large amount of diagnosis and quite a bit of treatment.
   Assistants: In Theme Hospital, all you really looked for in a Receptionist was how high her skill level was - you placed her behind the desk, and you never heard from her ever again. Receptionists have now evolved into Assistants. They still staff reception, but now they have needs! You can now be put them to use in a Marketing office (to attract more patients, patients with a certain disease, or attract staff candidates with certain qualifications to your hiring list). They also staff new unlocked kiosks and rooms like the Newsagent, Gift Shop, and Café! A good team of assistants is now an important part of your hospital, and they matter even more for a hospital full of happy patients!
   Janitors: Janitors also got an upgrade. They're still tasked with sweeping the litter up, taking care of plants, and upgrading machines like before, but they do a little more now. When patients die in Two Point Hospital, there is now a chance they will become a ghost, and your appropriately trained janitors will be the ones to vacuum them up. Because of their versatility, senior janitors also make great trainers for the rest of the staff that can be easily pulled off the hospital floor, but more on that in the Training section. The Close Encounters DLC also introduces Robo-Janitors, which are unlocked by completing its final level, Chasm 24.
3. Third, research has been changed in many ways:
   • All research is now distributed organization-wide (meaning that you don't have to keep researching the X-Ray room every single hospital!) You now can research the X-Ray once, and it's available across all hospitals in the game - this applies to advanced upgrades as well, which are enhancements to certain machines. Those upgrades however, still need to be carried out by a Janitor each time the machine is built.
   • Cures for pharmacy drugs are no longer handled directly by a research item, but are rather factored in by a combination of the pharmacy machine's level, the staff member's level, and a disease difficulty. More on this in the Chance of Cure section. But suffice it to say: even the illnesses have gotten smarter.
   • Machines that can be upgraded have two separated upgrades. Most machines now have a Level I, Level II, and Level III version rather than how it was implemented in Theme Hospital where it was another research item that happened in random order. Some are also unlocks for obtaining two-star or three-star hospitals.
4. Fourth, the game runs on an updated path-finding system: With the full 3D engine, you'll have to plan things better than you did before. Patients aren't paper thin and can walk right past each other anymore, they'll collide instead! Corridors will need to be wider to be effective. Much larger hospitals also mean that in addition to being good at cures, you're going to have to become an expert on reducing the total length your patients will need to walk.
5. Fifth, you have many more items now. Most in the game are decorative, but do feel like they belong in a proper hospital. Others have actual benefits to the room and upgrade its treatm