Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition Review – Jumbo-sized hospital fun

The Jumbo Edition of Two Point Hospital contains the entire base game and DLC for consoles—this review will cover all of that.

For those who are unfamiliar, Two Point Hospital is a management simulator that lets players run their own hospital. I played the PS4 version of Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition on the PS5 for this review. Note that the Jumbo Edition is also available on Switch and Xbox One.

With that said, let’s dive into this review of Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition.

Presentation

What makes Two Point Hospital stand out from its closest competitor, Project Hospital, is its cartoony art style. Personally, I enjoy the game’s look as it helps to tone down the serious world of saving lives. However, some gamers may naturally dislike a cartoony approach to a simulation game, so do consider how comfortable you are with characters who look like they come from Wallace and Gromit.

Looks aside, the game sounds relaxing with its choice of music. It feels like a morning radio show. After a few numbers, there will be an announcer who says a few lines followed by more music. There is quite a large pool of music to choose from which is great.

While there is no difficulty setting, the game is quite easy, overall. You might be losing money here and there at the start, but making a profit would naturally come after as long as you are following the game’s objectives. While this is appealing to new players, veteran management sim players eager for a challenge ought to beware.

Building a Hospital

As you might already guess, the building aspect of the game is not overly complicated. Beyond the laying down of walls and the placing objects, there is not much to it.

While there is the freedom of designing how you want your hospital to look inside, the game does not let you change the exterior of the establishment. The outer wall is already pre-set, so you cannot alter the size of the hospital. If the map has you playing a hospital in a shape of a cross, then you can only design the rooms within the cross-shaped hospital.

As a result, I do find this to be quite disappointing. Project Hospital allowed players to create just about anything, from a huge swastika-shaped hospital to a tiny hallway of a clinic. If building is something that you are looking forward to, you will be let down.

As a silver lining, the building process itself is streamlined and it is convenient. You can designate a room, draw out the area and place the required items within the room and you are set. Keep in mind that there is a minimum requirement for each room. For example, a GP office needs a 3×3 size space at the least.

In addition, the game lets you copy and paste your rooms which is really convenient. Layouts can be saved into Room Template and can then be pasted onto another hospital. It is a simple yet useful quality of life feature that takes the hassle away from building.

The Management Side

Managing your staff and running the hospital is pretty much the majority of gameplay. Staff is divided into four different categories, namely Doctors, Nurses, Assistants and Janitors (who also double as paranormal investigators).

The staff does a lot more than just their jobs. They have quirky personality traits assigned to them and it can be fun watching your doctor dance while on the job. The game does not take itself too seriously and because of that, running a hospital actually feels fun. Your patient died? No worries—you can still see him kicking about as a ghost.

Besides the fun and quirky behaviour of the characters, the management of the staff covers pretty much all the bases of a management game. You get to do all the of standard stuff like hiring, training, adjusting their salary and setting who works in which rooms and the like. Nothing too revolutionary or too in-depth, but it works pretty well overall. Note that if you decide to leave things to the AI and keep all the work options on, do not be surprised to see your doctors loitering around more often.

Depending on how well you run your hospital, you might be able to complete certain challenges. These challenges pop up from time to time and give you the chance to earn money and even unlock certain items.

Jumbo Edition

Before I get into all the DLC, do note that sandbox mode, which is sort of like a staple for games like this, is only unlocked after completing Flottering, which is Chapter 3 of the campaign. While it does not take too long to get there, players who are keen to just dive straight into playing around in their dream hospital will not be too pleased.

The paid expansions bundled together in the Jumbo Edition of the game are:

• Bigfoot
• Pebberley Island
• Retro Items Pack
• Exhibition Items Pack
• Close Encounters
• Off The Grid

The items packs are just a bunch of themed items to make your hospital look even more exciting. As for the paid expansions, each of them introduce new locations, tonnes of new illnesses, new music and their own unique gameplay mechanics. Overall, the expansions feel varied and unique and provide a fair bit of content to explore.

Unfortunately, it seems that console players will always be behind PC players in terms of content. The Jumbo Edition is still missing Culture Shock and A Stitch in Time expansion packs.

Controls

As mentioned at the start, I played Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition’s PS4 version on the PS5. Playing the game on a controller does not really feel intuitive to me. Navigating through the menus can get a bit tedious.

For example, the X button has to be held down in order to drag the planned area of a room. It is also possible to tap X rapidly to draw out the room, but regardless of which I option I went with, it feels cumbersome to control. Personally, I prefer to play games like this on PC, so maybe this is just a preference issue of mine.

Moving the camera around is fine, but I also feel that the camera is a bit too close to the hospital. The game also locks you into three different camera positions, but I would personally prefer being able to zoom in and out at my own accord. Not a game breaker, but still a bit annoying.

Closing Thoughts

As my review draws to a close, I feel that the Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition managed to capture the essence of the game’s PC version. I still feel that playing the game on PC is a better experience, but the Jumbo Edition is still a decent console game.

While it still retains most of the pros and cons of the PC version, the awkward controls and camera positions do take away from the experience slightly. I would recommend the game to management sim players eager to try out a new experience on console. However, if you are not really into these kinds of games, then the game might not be for you.

Review copy provided by SEGA. Two Point Hospital Jumbo Edition PS4 version is reviewed on a PS5.

Join Us!