There seems to be a trend where, when a game with a certain theme pops up, alternatives pop up pretty quickly. Don’t get me wrong, I am accusing no-one of copy cat behaviour or the like. Just noticing there are a few medical tycoons around. Obviously I can’t write about any of them without gushing a bit about Theme Hospital. The mother of all medical tycoon games. I played it a lot, like really a lot, when it came out. Back in 1997 I was 13 years old and my prime knowledge of tycoon games came from Transport Tycoon Deluxe on PC and Harvest Moon on SNES (Yes, Harvest Moon in my eyes is a tycoon game. More on my definition of what exactly is a tycoon game here)
Theme Hospital was never a game that took itself seriously. The game had all kinds of nonsense illnesses and the cures for those weren’t exactly what the doctor prescribes usually. Neither were they very safe. The game has reared his head in my to-play-again list every few years. I was very happy when the game showed up on GOG.com so I could play it on my modern machine. I also tried but not yet really got into the CorsixTH project, aiming to do to the game what OpenTTD has done to Transport Tycoon.
As far as I am aware, besides the rather dreadful Hospital Tycoon (Codemasters, 2007), there has not been a successor. Obviously, Bullfrog is no longer in existence and its intellectual property is now part of Electronic Arts. So whatever sequel there might be, will be spiritual in nature. At the moment, not 1, not 2 but 3 games that are all about running a hospital are in the works (or just released) and we will take a short look at all 3 here.
Two Point Hospital.
A lot of old hands that once worked at Bullfrog are now part of Two Point Studios. The first game to come out of that studio is Two Point Hospital. This is truly a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital. The game starts with the same constraints of pre-built buildings in which you have to place rooms to diagnose, treat and hopefully cure patients. 
The illnesses involved range from a few normal ones (upset stomach, broken bone) to rather exotic diseases like lightheadedness (patients head is replaced by a lightbulb) and Mock Star (patient believes to be a rock star).
You, the player, are in charge of hiring and training staff, placing rooms as efficiently as you can and making sure that you turn a profit in the end. The game is not the most challenging management game I have played and suffers at times from being a bit to repetitive. It is however lovingly made and fun to play. Expect a full review here soon, as the game has been out since the 30th of August.
Hospitalize
This game has been in early access for nearly two years now. It is being developed by Illeris AS and at the moment is a bit of a mixed experience. In Hospitalize you build your hospital from the ground up, meaning that you design a building and fill it with offices, treatment rooms, waiting areas etc. The building part is fleshed out very well but the weird angle makes for some mistakes in placement or deletion of elements. 
Sadly, the game does contain quite a few bugs at the moment. I have had several restarts recently, because things like zoning of rooms were not working, making it impossible for me to open my hospital. I have gotten passed that one now and am actually quite enjoying the building of my little clinic into a larger facility, stepping in to influence diagnosis at times.
Hospitalize features a cute art style and very responsive developers. I have faith in their commitment and will keep following the game’s progress.
Project Hospital
With a very clean and realistic look, this is probably the most involved of the three medical tycoons. I didn’t get into the Beta so I have not yet played the game. From what I have seen from several YouTubers, the game is very deep, as in Hospitalize, you can be the doctor yourself and diagnose or treat a patient. 
Obviously, madness and dead patients lie in that direction, but maybe those of you with actual medical know-how can make this work. All illnesses in this game are real and you will quickly find yourself in need of an ever growing number of diagnostic equipment to keep up with the illnesses that walk into your clinic. I like that the game allows you to build a multi-story hospital and I already have a lot of notes for things to try as soon as I can get my hands on a playable version of this. The game is aiming for a release at the end of October and has just finished a closed beta.
