The word 'Tycoon' has been attached to so many games now that it's like branding: you always know what you're going to get. Nearly always set in a sizable institution or large company (hotels, railways, pizza parlours, airports, zoos, theme parks, etc.), the gameplay revolves around growing an empire, making money, expanding buildings and personnel, gaining skills and throwing in a little dash of humour.

By these criteria, Hospital Tycoon is absolutely typical of the genre, as you have to increase profits by curing more patients and this involves initiating research into lesser-known diseases, multiplying diagnosis and treatment rooms, improving the décor and tidiness and training up and hiring more staff.

The fun in this kind of game is usually linked to the longevity and versatility of the gameplay and the degree of difficulty thrown up by the targets and challenges of each level. Unfortunately most of this game looks like it was designed by NHS management (as popularly perceived, anyway), i.e. with money in mind rather than concern for the patient.

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For a start, the structure is deliberately episodic but there are just three settings of four 'episodes' each. You can either play in Sandbox mode (where you have free reign to build up your hospital as you wish) or in Story mode where the storyline is written like a comic soap opera. Again, your control over the characters is limited to four behavioural types (malice, social, fun and love) and the targets you're set for each level revolve around easily achievable goals such as buying equipment, researching new diseases and treating more patients.

Unlike other Tycoon games, though, the changes you make to your hospital structure and staff are not carried on into the next level, so there's no sense of building up your empire. Visually it all looks like The Sims 2, complete with 'gibberish' voices and menus full of furniture and equipment to place in your new rooms. Yet the range is very limited - even rooms come in pre-cut sizes - and the humour, too, mostly consists of funny names for medical conditions like Monkey Nuts, Lightbulbia and Explosive Sneezing.

The main problem Codemasters is up against is the knowledge that this was all done so much better when Bullfrog released Theme Hospital in 1997. The graphics weren't as polished as here but the depth of gameplay was vast, the challenges were tricky but fun, all your hospital modifications remained in place from level to level and the comedy was truly funny.

Theme Hospital is still selling but this cut-down clone with Sim implants lies gasping on the operating table and even emergency CPR is not going to revive it.

A disappointing attempt to rehash and reinvent Theme Hospital, by grafting in modern graphics and Sims-style gameplay, fails to raise a heartbeat due to drastic cuts and limited vision.