There is still room for improvement but the quality is already enough to sink hours into this game. ---------- Contrary to other hospital simulation, this game tries to be realistic, and it succeeds. There are real diseases with a well-made diagnostic mechanic. The patients have symptoms that can be discovered by doing tests (provided you have the right equipment in your hospital) the discovered symptoms will shrink the list of possible diseases until only one is correct (the game also gives probability if you somehow can't reduce that list to one). Each diseases has a treatment that can be prescribed if you have enough room and equipment. You can let your doctors do this automatically or you can take control of the patient and decide what tests and treatments will be done by the doctor. ------------ On the management side, there are 5 different departments you can build with different rooms and equipment. You have to balance the number of beds, the number of staff for day and night shifts, the number of surgery rooms for each department. It is also important to manage the skills of your staff, this nurse intern costs less but sometimes you wished you had hired a second surgery nurse because this first one is currently transporting a patient who collapsed in the corridor. ------------- Lots of variables but the tutorial are pretty well made and the sandbox mode has objectives to guide you on your way from an emergency room to a complete hospital complex. But you also learn while playing and your second hospital will be better than your first, and your third even better. ------------- There are room for improvement though, but fortunately the devs are active, release patches regularly and take bug reports seriously. My main criticism is that actually, it is a bit linear. Very quickly, if you don't open new departments, you get stuck on a pre-defined number of patients per day. No room for creativity, like saying I want to make a huge orthopaedic hospital.
I finished this game in exactly 2h8min (with a short break). It's too short and not fun. I didn't quit before the end but I don't think I would have opened the game again if the first session hadn't been enough. ---Just buy Gemini Rue instead (It's also in sale at the moment I write this review and it's way better)--- CONS: - Terrible controls (I only tried point&click controls but the game also has keyboard and gamepad support, keyboard didn't convince me so I stick to mouse). Several commands linked to left click leading to mistakes that will often lead you right under a security camera. Inflexible system, you must be right under a platform to start climbing, you can't plan your move from a distance. Great when you need to go fast. - Easy puzzles (either two doors, the second giving you an item that allow you to continue behind the first one, or buttons unlocking door/platforms or distracting guards with a flying TV) - Unrealistic, the guards are distracted by a flying TV screen and you can then go right behind them without sneaking (it's not an option in game). It felt like a big puzzle game where the enemies are only a pretext for the simple puzzle mechanic. - Gun fights are not bad but not interesting. When you go right in front of a guard the camera zooms in and you can either fire or use an energy shield. - Some graphical glitches (superposing speech text, flying TV screen disappearing behind background elements.) - Short and shallow story : why is an unwilling janitor chosen to save the world ? It feels unfinished you don't learn anything about your character or the world. I have never felt involved or concerned by the story. - The "multiple endings" is almost a trickery : you don't have any choices during the game. You only have two choices at the last scene. So there is two endings and given that you have no clue about what exactly is happening and what you are doing, you don't know what to choose. I have choosen what felt good but it was almost random. PROS: - The graphic style is not too bad but the environment aren't that interesting to watch. - Technically it's playable. Even though it's not that enjoyable and no t worth its price.
