Two Point Hospital probes aliens in the Close Encounters DLC

(Image credit: Sega)

Silly medical management sim Two Point Hospital continues to expand in weird and wonderful ways. Yesterday, its third major chunk of DLC, Close Encounters, landed in stores with an meteoric crash. As the name suggests, it introduces all manner of extraterrestrial weirdness to the already bizarre game, with three high-tech new hospitals to run, new patients to treat from way out of town, and thirty-four new illnesses to cure.

As usual, Two Point Studios' pun game is on point. You'll have to treat aliens and astronauts alike for cases of Science Friction, Aller-Gs and Lack Of Humanity. Eleven of the illnesses have external symptoms for extra sight gag fun, and there's three new curative machines to build to hammer the misshapen patients back into shape.

That's all well and good for existing players, but newcomers have a few extra options too. There's a free weekend running until next Monday for the main game, and they've halved the price on a bundle with the main game and the previous two expansions (mountain and tropical-themed, respectively), which is nice.

It's well worth taking a look, too. Fraser Brown found its brand of Theme Hospital-inspired nonsense to be highly infectious when he reviewed it last year, and between patches, expansions and likely future support (thanks to Sega snapping up the studio) it's only likely to get better.

Two Point Hospital is free to try on Steam until Monday, September 2nd, and half price if it tickles your fancy. The Close Encounters DLC is also on Steam for £6.29/$8.09 after the 10% launch discount.

The product of a wasted youth, wasted prime and getting into wasted middle age, Dominic Tarason is a freelance writer, occasional indie PR guy and professional techno-hermit seen in many strange corners of the internet and seldom in reality. Based deep in the Welsh hinterlands where no food delivery dares to go, videogames provide a gritty, realistic escape from the idyllic views and fresh country air. If you're looking for something new and potentially very weird to play, feel free to poke him on Bluesky. He's almost sociable, most of the time.