PC Game - Theme Hospital - Played Once - MINT CONDITION on eBay (end time 11-Nov-09 17:23:48 GMT)


Bidding has ended on this item. Item:PC Game - Theme Hospital - Played Once - MINT CONDITION

Item specifics - Video Games

Platform:	PC	Condition:	Used
Genre:	Strategy	Format:	PAL (UK Standard)
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This PC game was bought a few years ago and has hardly been played. It was bought brand new and stored carefully. Below is a review of this game.

Condition:
Game Case - 10/10 (There is no instruction manual)
Disc - 10/10

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The Boring Bit
I prefer paypal, but also accept postal order, cheque or cash sent through post (recorded delivery, as I AM NOT responsible if the cash gets lost in the post) or cash on collection if you are local to me. Please do not bid if you do not want the item, I know this sounds obvious but some people still bid and don't pay. If this happens, I will try to contact the winning bidder by email and if there is no contact within a week I WILL start ebay non paying bidder procedures. I know this sounds harsh, but I have had a lot of time wasters recently!

Review from Gamespot:

Theme Hospital is a sequel, of sorts, to Theme Park. It's a 'god game' in which you must build, manage and maintain a successful city hospital. Now, everybody I've mentioned Theme Hospital to seems to say the same thing: 'Eh? Theme Hospital? Can't see how that's going to work...' There seems to be a consensus of doubt about the game's appeal: after all, its chosen territory conjures up images of endless white corridors, impassive administrators, emaciated patients eking out their last days with only a drip for company, bedpans, blankets and starched white bedsheets. Not exactly a barrel of laughs. Did you ever play Theme Park? That had such an air of fun about it. Where's the fun in a bloody hospital simulation, for crying out loud?

Well shut up. You don't know what you're on about. Not only is Theme Hospital far far 'wackier' than Theme Park, it also pisses over it from a great height in terms of game-play. If you're harbouring any doubts as to whether hospital management can actually be enjoyable, you can dispel them now. Playfulness and tension go hand in hand in Theme Hospital. In this world, both the diseases you'll encounter and the equipment you'll cure them with are surreal and cartoon-like. The colours are bright and snappy, the scenery teems with life. Watching the on-screen hustle and bustle is peculiarly relaxing... except you can't relax for a moment, since you've got a hundred and one decisions to make, all at the same time. Never before have matters of life and death seemed so jolly, and yet simultaneously stressful. Which is why the most accurate description I can come up with is that the experience of playing it is actually rather similar to the experience of hearing a hall full of people cheerily jigging about to the strains of the Casualty theme tune, while nervously harbouring the suspicion that you're about to be thrashed senseless at the same time. Y'see?

Boot up the game and, following the slick intro sequence, you'll find yourself face to face with an empty shell of a hospital. Everything needs to be built from scratch and slotted into place - and I'm talking everything - from the most expensive piece of cutting-edge medical equipment to the lowliest pot-plant. You get to plan the layout of every single room yourself - and you wouldn't believe how neat the interface that allows you to do this is. As with Theme Park, it's not unlike using a simple paint package. Choose the facility you want to build from the pop-up menu and your cursor is replaced with a little trowel. Click on the floor and a kind of 'instant blueprint' appears. You can drag this out to whatever size you want, place the door wherever you see fit, even pop windows into the walls if you think it needs them. The next stage is deciding which pieces of furniture to use and where to place them, in an orgy of interior decoration that would have the slobbiest, least house-proud philistines on the planet umming and ahhing over the positioning of each tiny chair as if it were a matter of global significance. Now, none of this may sound that interesting in print, yet in practice it's so intrinsically satisfying to muck around with that you'll find yourself creating new rooms and pissing around with the layout of existing ones (you can go back and re-edit everything if you want) just for the sake of it.

Of course, there's more to efficient room design than being able to decide which corner you'd like to place a pot plant in. As with everything in this game, there are about sixteen zillion other factors to consider. Is the room sufficiently large and well-lit enough to prevent the occupants from feeling claustrophobic and depressed? Is it small enough to leave space for new facilities to be built alongside, or will you need to buy a new plot of land? Have you put radiators and fire extinguishers in place? Is the room easy for patients to find? Do you want to purchase extra equipment and furniture for the room in order to increase efficiency? And so on, and so on, and so on. Once again, none of this may sound very enthralling in black and white, but when you're playing it yourself it's all peculiarly compelling.

As you may have gathered by now, Theme Hospital is a game of details. Endless details. So far, I've only mentioned the room design, but that's really the most basic part of the game. There are just so many things to do, so many things to keep your brain occupied. Hiring and firing staff, researching drugs, making sure your caretakers are cleaning up all the piss and vomit, dealing with emergencies and epidemics... I can't even begin to explain how many different elements there are. And since it lets you tinker around with everything, you just can't help getting helplessly immersed within 20 minutes. I defy you not to end up playing it for far, far too long each time you boot it up.

If you're in the slightest bit nosey (and who isn't?), then welcome to heaven. Here's a game in which you can click on a complete stranger and discover their entire medical history. You can watch them getting undressed and being examined. You can tell what mood they're in and whether they need to go to the toilet or not. It makes you feel a bit like an interfering old lady - the sort you overhear at bus stops gossiping about the lady at number 26 who apparently likes 'doing it the greek way' - but it ain't half compelling.

Now, if sales figures are anything to go by, each and every one of you already owns three copies of Theme Park. Therefore, you'll be familiar with that game's main failing: it climaxes too soon. It starts off like an over-enthusiastic teenager, desperately trying to impress you with its looks and its user-friend-liness, hammering away at your pleasure receptors as fast as it can until all of a sudden you realise that it's fired off all its surprises in one go, and there's nothing left to keep you occupied. It always gives you the option of going back for more (by starting a new park), but deep down you know it's just going to be more of the same. Interest wanes, you withdraw, and before long you've begun to salaciously eye up the other, perkier games on the market.

Theme Hospital, on the other hand, is a considerably more assured and sophisticated lover. It has far more interesting tricks up its sleeve, and is mature enough not to play them too early. In the early stages it soothes and arouses you with relaxing, involving gameplay and quirky little touches. As you grow in confidence together, it pulls off altogether bolder strokes, continually maintaining your interest with increasingly inventive moves. Then the pace begins to quicken and you lose yourself completely. Entirely at its mercy, the best you can do is try to keep up, as it plunges challenge after challenge after challenge deep into your brain, with relentless zeal, working towards a climax. Just as you've reached the peak, when all the demands of a particular level have been satisfied, and you're sitting back, serenely watching the 'congratulations' screen with a slow-burning cigarette in your hand, it rolls over and starts doing it again, presenting you with another blank hospital, and a whole new range of tasks to complete. And you know that it's going to be just as much fun as it was last time, only even more intense. Frankly, by the time you reach the final levels, it's grabbing the back of your head with both hands, balancing on its elbows, and repeatedly ramming its fearsome girth into you like some kind of demented jackhammer, while you clutch the headboard and wail with pleasure.

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Postage and packaging

Item location: Chichester, United Kingdom

Dispatches to: Worldwide

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Postage and packaging	To	Service	Estimated delivery*
Free P&P	United Kingdom	Seller's Standard Rate	Varies Seller dispatches within 1 day after receiving cleared payment.
Free Local Pickup	United Kingdom	Collect in person	Collect in person You can contact your seller to arrange to pay for and pick up your item.

*The estimated delivery time is based on the seller's dispatch time, the postal service selected, and when the seller receives cleared payment. Sellers are not responsible for shipping service transit times. Transit times may vary, particularly during peak periods.

Domestic dispatch time

Will usually dispatch within 1 working day of receiving cleared payment.

Return policy

Item needs to returned within one week for full refund, minus postage costs.

Payment details

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Postal Order or Banker's Draft	Accepted
Personal cheque	Accepted

Seller's payment instructions

If you are not happy with the item, you may return it in its original condition within one week for a full refund.