Hearts Medicine, for Delicious Emily lovers

Over a year ago I wrote about a great mobile game-series, that wasn’t just very good time management gaming, but it also had an enthralling story at the same time. Something you rarely find in time management games, most of the time they have you rush from level to level without any kind of thought about a storyline. Delicious Emily followed restaurant owner Emily, whos love life and the way she ran her restaurant had me glued to the screen of my iPad for several instalments. Here’s what I wrote back then.

The developers behind Emily, creator Blue Giraffe together with publisher GameHouse, have made a new game: Hearts Medicine; Time to Heal. (nice extra for me, by the way, that the game is created by a Dutch company) This time we don’t follow Emily, but Allison Heart, an aspiring surgeon. What had me confused at first is that there’s a allusion to earlier adventures in the intro, but I couldn’t find any on my iPad’s AppStore. A little research showed that there a first Hearts Medicine game available on PC and in the App Store on my MacBook. Confusing, but I’ll just tell you about the one for mobile here.

Your game starts in an ambulance, that is racing on a dark road to reach the hospital in the city in time. Two doctors inside are working like crazy to try and save their patient’s life, but it all seems to be for nothing when the ambulance driver loses control and the car falls down a cliff. And then we go back in time.

Allison is a new intern at the hospital and eager to start her first day in surgery. Only to find that something has gone awry and the grumpy surgeon already has another intern. So, she ends up in the Ward, trying to work her way through department after department to ultimately reach surgery.

If you’ve played Emily before, you’ll know what to do: try to find the best routine for Allison to follow and do everything that has to be done in record time. Sometimes it’s a good idea to have band-aids or cotton swabs on your tray, ready for the next patient. Sometimes it’s a matter of taking the most efficient route to get things done. The various levels add some challenges too, like checking Earl’s blood pressure (grumpy old guy who even wears a beret in his hospital bed). Or accepting packages, while other doctors take advantage of our Allison by having everything they need delivered to the ward.

This time you don’t have to find the little mouse, it’s Oliver the guinea pig this time. And the patients don’t pay you less money when you aren’t quick enough, they literally loose heart. Gathering enough stars during your levels will give you an extra level challenges. And what’s fun is that on your first extra challenge you meet Emily again, who somehow ended up running the hospital canteen. The challenge are a way to earn diamonds, and with diamonds you can add new item and even a new wing to the hospital.

Completing the regular levels you get some coins too, to spend on new medical furniture. A chair with lumbar support that will make your patients less impatient. Or a fancier hospital bed, that has the same effect. Making your way through the levels you unlock new treatments too, mini games that will require new ways to play. And make it ever more difficult to gain three stars of course.

You get five levels for free, but after that, if you like the game they will ask you to pay. 90 levels cost EUR 9,99, which isn’t too much for such a huge game. It’s tied into the Game Center where you can earn trophies in a rather nice way. All I have earned so far is Earl, as you can see.

If you liked Delicious Emily, I bet you can’t wait to experience the hospital world too. Time to get as efficient as possible again!