Hospital Havoc 2 Review

By Danyel Rios on August 15th, 2011
Our Rating:

:: SANATORIUM PANDEMONIUM
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Fast-paced, quirky, whacked out and fun; control freaks and chaos lovers alike will find something to love in this role playing trip to the ER.

Developer: Bitwise Design
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPod Touch

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Replay Value Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars

I started off as a pre-med student but then moved to anthropology when I learned would be more likely to encounter zombies while conducing an enthnography rather than an endoscopy. But if medical school was anything like Hospital Havoc 2, I would have totally stayed, mostly for the zombies.

Hospital Havoc 2 is exactly as the title says: complete insanity in a healthcare setting. In this outrageous role-playing adventure, the player experiences multiple levels as a health care professional, from medical school to residency, clinical practice, running a hospital and even medical research (ZOMBIES!). Once you complete medical school, you can participate in various challenges in the clinic practice mode or earn points, coins and muffins by completing different scenarios. Unlock new scenarios and levels as you go and use coins and muffins to buy furniture or to buy diagnostic tools, snacks, and nifty multitasking and speed add-ons.

Everything about this game is either full of hilarious irony or just plain facetious, which makes it even more fun. The graphics and animations are well done and quite humorous, even the cartoon on the loading screen never fails to give me a smile. There is even some subtle humor buried inside as well, like the muffins. Anyone who has ever worked in a hospital, gone through medical rotations or a residency knows the value of food, especially free food.

While Hospital Havoc 2 really is a great play it can be a little buggy. My iPod touch froze a couple times while loading and it feels like the touch sequence needed to admit a patient and the queuing tasks isn’t as sensitive as it should be. It would also be great to have a replay button on the completion screen at the end of a scenario. It is a hassle to have to go all the way back to the map, search for and then reselect the level.

I am also not a fan of using cash money to buy points or virtual achievements. Muffins are to be earned by hard labor during clinic hours or digging up graves. Buying points is essentially an excuse for lazy gaming. That is not to say I am not for buying expansion packs with new levels, as I totally would for Hospital Havoc 2, or even anti-cheats for that matter. However, even “up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start” takes some work.

Hospital Havoc 2 is a tongue-in-cheek role-playing adventure for the gaming crowd with some experience. The learning curve is smooth, especially after going through the medical school tutorial. With Open Feint, Game Center integration, letter boards and achievements, over 100 levels to attain and a multitude of doctor avatars, the possibilities are close to endless. There is a good chance that Hospital Havoc 2 may become addicting.