Two Point Hospital: Close Encounters, the extra-terrestrial DLC for Two Point Hospital, has been released on Steam, and what’s more, new players can give the base game a try for free through September 2.
Made by Two Point Studios, the aptly named Two Point Hospital is a callback to beloved sim games from the nineties such as Dungeon Keeper, Black & White and, of course, Theme Hospital. The team was founded by Mark Webley and Gary Carr, who worked at Bullfrog Productions together on Theme Hospital among a long list of other titles from that era, and have been involved in the games industry since the eighties.
The Close Encounters add-on introduces the town of Goldpan, where a mysterious object has crashed from the sky, raising suspicions of some otherworldly activity. As a medical genius and investigator into the strange and bizarre, players are tasked with bringing a new, top-of-the-line medical facility to Goldpan and looking into all the odd goings on about town. Three new locations, 34 new illnesses and some new gameplay features are included in the pack.
Fans of a certain age were ecstatic when Two Point Hospital was revealed back at the start of 2018. Though there’s an abundance of simulation and builder games, very few capture the strange humor and general affable nature of Theme Hospital and its peers. Those classics are still available, but time hasn’t been the kindest to their UI and they can be a bit difficult to play compared to sleaker, more modern productions.
Two Point Hospital solved all that, delivering something that was as charming as people remembered it, and played to a contemporary standard for new generations to dive in.
If you’d like to check in and give it a go, you have until September 2 to do so for free on Steam.