Several years ago when we first got our PC we were given a trial disk with Theme Hospital on it. I soon became hooked. It is an easy game to get obsessed with. The trial game unfortunately lacked some of the main features. A few years ago I saw Theme Hospital PC version in Comet for only £5. I find that every time I play it I get obsessed and end up until the early hours of the morning watching my money go up. In fact I have asked for the Hotel Tycoon for Christmas, another one to get obsessed with.

THEME HOSPITAL
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If like me you enjoy watching hospital dramas such as All Saints, Casualty or Holby City, and believe that running a hospital would be easy. Or that you pay a visit to the hospital and wonder what it would be like to work in one then this is the game for you. You may well find that running a hospital is actually quite challenging.

The idea of the game is to build a hospital whilst taking into account waiting times, quality of research and treatment. When all factors are combined it is quite difficult to keep up with the pace, in one building a patient could be dying, in another someone is being sick and in the other the staff are resigning and the machines are blowing up!

The game consists of 3 levels the hardest at Consultant level, medium being doctor and the easiest as Junior Doctor. Each level involves a challenge for example after 5 years you will need to cure 1000 patients and have a profit of 10,000 pounds. As the game progresses the levels get harder until eventually it seems impossible, although it is still fun to continue so you can watch patients come and go. If you have built a great hospital it can be a bit frustrating to start at another.

FEATURES
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You can control your staff hiring and firing when you wish. The character profile is displayed for every member of staff before you chose whether to hire them or not. The staff can be polite, friendly, surly, obnoxious or aggressive so you chose whether or not you want to risk choosing someone with a negative personality just because they cost less to hire.

You can control wages and duties. You can also check how happy your staff are by looking at the tiredness, morale and skill ratings. The staff sometimes ask for pay rises when they are overworked, tired or unhappy so you need to make sure that they remain content. Your staff can train for progression e.g. to be a psychologist, doctor or consultant.

The can build many different rooms containing medical equipment. There is a GP room for diagnosis, and then patients are either sent to the ward, to the bloaty head clinic, to the operating theatre or pharmacy. Psychiatric room for diagnosing illnesses then a ward for treating them. The x-ray room is quite fascinating to watch.

You need to think like a hospital manager and a patient alike when placing rooms, furniture and other facilities. You can place radiators, fire extinguishers, benches, bins, plants and drinks machines. It is important that you place plants to keep your patients happy but then a caretaker must be employed to care for these plants.

If you are struggling for a bit of cash you can visit the bank manager and request a loan but you need to plan this carefully as the repayment can be a bit high. You could try and save money like the real hospitals do and turn off the radiators making the hospital very cold.

Placing rooms, benches, drinks machines, plants etc can all be fun but you need to make sure your patients can still walk around the hospital.

You can pay to conduct research into new cases and often a new treatment will be created meaning that if you have not left enough space in your hospital you will end up with deaths and unhappy patients.

DETAILS
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I always seem to spot new things when playing this game. I used to like watching the people walk into the hospital with enlarged heads. Instead of sending to the GP for diagnosis I would send them straight for treatment. If you get it wrong you can watch them die. They either fall into a red hole in the ground on their way to hell or float with angel wings up to heaven.

Looking around the hospital you can see small mouse/rat holes. Occasionally a rat will run out, if you zap the mouse you can earn £20.

You can build a staff room and watch the staff taking a break. You can either watch them play snooker or see them watch TV.
You can watch an air ambulance land in the hospital grounds delivering lots of 'emergency' cases; if you can treat these in the short allocated time then you can earn a nice sum of money and increase your ratings.

You sometimes receive a fax explaining that a minister from the department for health or an inspector is about to visit your hospital, if you do well your ratings go up and you of money.

It is often quite funny to hear the announcements given over the tannoy...WARNING: A man entering with a severe case of the squits or patients are reminded to not puke in the corridors.

You can often see patients being sick, going to the toilet or talking to the doctor. These small details help make the game far more interesting.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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This game will work on computers with Windows 95/98/Me or XP with 55Mb hard drive space. You will need a minimum of 16Mb RAM and a mouse and keyboard. The recommended age for this game is 11+ which is quite accurate really as the game requires a lot of strategy and thought into placement of objects.

PRICE
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I bought this game for £5 which was an excellent price. The average price for the game is £15-£25 depending on where you purchase it.

GRAPHICS
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The graphics are great you can see minor details quite clearly. I have found however that the game can sometimes jump and the picture does go a little fuzzy. You can choose to have low, medium and high quality graphics however you need to have 55Mb space to use the high quality profile. I tend to use the low or medium quality depending on my current speed of computer.

SUMMARY
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This game is highly obsessive and if you have little control over the time spent on your computer then this game can be quite annoying. I once spent little over 17 hours on the game stopping only for drinks and food and I will never be doing that again.

Believe it or not watching money rolling into your bank and hearing the cheer every time you cure a patient is quite addictive. I really enjoy playing this game due to the strategy and having to think, as it is ongoing it is easy to save and come back to.

Playability & Enjoyment - Excellent
Originality - Excellent
Graphics - Good
Sound - Good
Difficulty & Complexity - Average