In most video games, the focus of the gameplay is carving through as many enemies as possible. But what about video games that are about healing others vs. hurting them? That's where medical games come in.

In most of the games of this genre, the main goal is similar: to treat and cure as many patients as possible. The injuries range from sprained ankles to something much more devastating. Some games even throw in other goals like building and running a successful hospital.

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All of the games on this list are sure to make anyone feel like they're an actual doctor. Here are the 14 best medical video games, ranked.

Updated by Sharnelle Earle on September 12, 2021: Medical games are as intriguing and entertaining to people in the field as it is to regular folk. It has the same effect as watching medical shows like House M.D and Grey's Anatomy. Entertainment of that nature relates to all of us since it's about human anatomy, and who doesn't wonder what's inside? Surgeon Simulator took the world by storm, and with Surgeon Simulator 2 having just come out, everyone is excited. The difference with the second game is that now you have more space to work with and the game is co-op. However, the second game currently has mixed reviews due to its focus on world-building and multiplayer instead of the surgeries themselves.

18 Autopsy Simulator (PC)

autopsy sim heart transplant report
  • Horror
  • TBA

This is a To Be Announced game on Steam. It's more than just a goofy surgery game. Autopsy Simulator is meant to be a psychological horror game wrapped into a medical simulation. This is perfect for those who actually fear gore or death and want some genuine scares and atmosphere from a game. Because you're performing an autopsy, you're deducing the cause of death instead of fixing someone's collapsed lung. If you like detective work and horror, this might be one for you.

17 Valley General Hospital: NiVR (PC)

valley general hospital holding medical history report
  • Realistic
  • VR

Valley General Hospital is strictly a VR experience. It's not an entertaining game but was actually created to accurately represent the medical field and its practices. Valley General, the developers, aim to make a VR simulation accurate enough to be used in real-life training and prep. If you've always been curious about being a doctor or nurse and own VR, it's worth playing around in Valley General Hospital and learning a thing or two about what really goes on.

16 Medic: Pacific War (PC)

medic pacific war wrapping left leg
  • Action
  • TBA

There are a lot of war FPS games similar to Call of Duty. This is Call of Duty, but if you were the field medic. You're not shooting bullets through enemies and saving countries, you're protecting and saving your comrades in battle. Medic: Pacific War is a World War 2 simulator where choices matter. Who you choose to save and how can decide the fate of the war. And of course, you have to try not to get yourself killed. The game plans to release in 2021.

15 Kellogs Gut Bacteria Reef (PC)

kellogs gut bacteria reef
  • VR
  • Free

Kellogs Gut Bacteria Reef is a free-to-play VR experience. Kellogs is a huge food company most known for cereal and cereal bars. They took it upon themselves to work with a developer to create an interactive and easy-to-digest learning experience about gut health. If you're a parent of preteens and the like, allowing them to play this through VR can help with school projects or overall fun in general. Much like Osmosis Jones, you shrink down to size and enter the human body to get to the bottom of things. And hey, it's free.

14 Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon (Super Nintendo)

Rex Ronan experimental surgeon nintendo cover and shooting
  • Educational
  • 90s

This game originally came out in 1994 for the SNES console. The game's age doesn't detract from the intriguing nature of its purpose: to educate people about the dangers of smoking. Though it's commonplace now for video games to be used in education, this was a fairly new concept in the mid-90s.

The game doesn't lack character either despite its educational intentions. Rex Ronan, the experimental surgeon, shrinks down and goes into a patient's body. This patient just so happens to be a cancer patient who smoked every day since he was 15. Rex must remove dangerous things like nicotine and precancerous cells.

But here's the shocking twist: the patient worked for the tobacco company and they don't want him blabbing about the cancer! They send secret micromachines into his body to fight off Rex. Truly the game is an absolute ride worthy of Mr. Toad.

13 Amateur Surgeon (PC, Mobile)

amateur surgeon
  • Illogical
  • Puzzles

Okay, so nothing that goes on in Amateur Surgeon would be considered ethical by any doctor (or anyone else), in the real world. But it's a video game so things like logic, ethics, and sanitation don't really matter.

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Starting off as a mobile game by Adult Swim, the Amateur Surgeon series has spanned several different games, with Amateur Surgeon 4 as its most recent. It's a puzzle game where players have to figure out what ailments their patients are suffering from and then use different tools made from everyday household items to cure them.

12 Two Point Hospital (Switch, PC, Xbox One, PS4)

two point hospital guy with no head talking to shrink
  • Management sim
  • Humor

Two Point Hospital is another medical game that takes a more humorous approach to running a hospital. In a style that's reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit, players can build their own hospitals to make it the best (both in looks and functionality) one in all of Two Point County.

Players also have to treat the patients that walk through their doors. The residents of Two Point County are often plagued by bizarre illnesses and it's up to the player to build the right rooms and staff the right doctors to find the cure.

Though sometimes challenging, the sandbox mode can be the most fun.

11 LifeSigns: Surgical Unit (Nintendo DS)

lifesigns surgical unit ds cover and kid on gurney
  • Adventure

LifeSigns: Surgical Unit is an adventure game that came to North America in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. It's a direct follow-up to a game that was only released in Japan and features many of the same characters.

Players take on the role of Tendo, a second-year intern, as he transfers to a new hospital, Seimei Medical University Hospital. Players control Tendo as he explores the hospital and interacts with the rest of the staff and patients. Once players diagnose what ailment the patient is suffering, they can perform surgery on them.

10 Viscera Cleanup Detail (PC)

viscera cleanup detail bloody warehouse
  • Gory
  • Horror

Some anime fans may be familiar with the two series called Planetes where people clean up space debris like space janitors. Well, this is the same thing, but for human organs instead. The main difference is that this has more sci-fi elements like "Save Us" written in blood all over the walls.

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Players must perform basic tasks like removing amputated limbs and scrubbing off caked-on bodily fluids. But they also have to deactivate anti-gravity machines and circumvent bizarre organic mouths in the floor surrounded by lava.

It may not be a strictly medical game, but the co-op function makes for some great (if gory) fun.

9 Hospital Tycoon (PC)

hospital tycoon npcs talking
  • Management sim
  • Humor

Hospital Tycoon is another game where players are in control of how a hospital is managed. Released in 2007, the game has a bit of a The Sims vibe to it in terms of appearance.

Players are in control of a rapidly expanding hospital and are tasked with taking proper care of every patient that walks through the doors, making sure they get the right medical treatments for their ailments. Doctors and nurses need to be taken care of too, as each doctor and nurse are ranked by how well-liked they are by patients.

8 Big Pharma (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One)

big pharma management overview
  • Management sim
  • Strategic

"Big Pharma" is not a phrase usually used about video games (or with positive connotations). But this video game, released in 2015, puts players in the hotseat of an industry that takes in more than $80 billion dollars each year. The player can leverage their research to help the world or make the big bucks.

Like some builder games, the gameplay involves creating facilities from empty warehouses. From there, the player can access different technologies to narrow their focus regarding which diseases they want to cure.

The UI is intuitive and slick at merging a building sim with logistics puzzles. It's a great fit for gamers who want less medicine in their hospitals and more dollar signs.

7 Emergency Room 3 (PC, Nintendo DS)

emergency room 3
  • Realistic

The Emergency Room series has been around since 1995, starting off as a medical simulator on the PC. Emergency Room: Real Life Rescues is the only game in the series on the Nintendo DS. Players control a paramedic as they take on different medical emergencies for Habor City Hospital.

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Each case is based on real-life procedures and situations giving a bit of an authentic feel to it. And players don't take each case on alone, as the game AI offers assistance helping players out if they find themselves in a pinch.

6 Heart's Medicine - Time to Heal (PC, Mobile)

hearts medicine time to heal multiple patients
  • Management sim
  • Drama

This 2D game has everything: medical drama, personal drama, and an adorkable female protagonist just trying to find a nice guy to cuddle with while watching The Crown on Netflix. Jokes aside, the game actually has very compelling mechanics for the aspiring doctor at Little Creek hospital.

The player must perform various surgeries, apply sutures, and navigate the trappings of daily life. Even at full retail cost, it is only $13 and has a great follow-up game named Heart's Medicine - Hospital Heat.

Those who want an easy-going experience should definitely pick this one up.

5 Project Hospital (PC)

project hospital patient report
  • Management sim
  • Realistic

Project Hospital started out as a mystery SEGA project that got revealed in 2018. It allows players full control of their game as they get to be the doctor, the hospital manager, and the architect!

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Players can build their very own hospital from the ground up, building it any style they want with tons of different objects and colors to choose from. They can also use pre-made models to skip building and jump right in.

Manage the hospital by hiring the right staff and keep them happy and working at peak performance. Players can also treat patients as well, guiding their doctors through difficult cases.

4 Plague Inc. (Mobile)

plague inc yolo destroyed humanity
  • Strategy

While most medical games focus on what players can do to save people, Plague Inc. focuses on what they can do to kill them. The original Plague Inc. had players create a pathogen that would infect the world and eventually destroy all of humankind. And Plague Inc: Evolved keeps true to that intention, with more disease types, scenarios, and ways to evolve player's plagues to make them as lethal as possible.

Plague Inc: Evolved has even more features including a competitive multiplayer, a co-op mode, and a content creator for making custom scenarios, worlds, and plague types. Moreover, the DLC "The Cure" will let players save humanity from a deadly virus instead.

3 Bio Inc: Redemption (PC, Mobile)

bio inc redemption
  • Realistic
  • Strategy

In Bio Inc: Redemption, players take the life of a person in their hands and can choose whether to save them or slay them. Players of Plague Inc. will probably enjoy creating deadly scenarios for their patients using medical conditions and diseases or enjoy taking a break from their darker tendencies to diagnose, treat, and cure what ails their patients.

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There are 18 unique cases for players to test their skills and tools. There's also the option to choose the gender of patients, a multiplayer to battle against other people, and more!

2 Surgeon Simulator (PC, Mobile, PS4, Switch)

surgeon sim bomb inside chest
  • Humor
  • Difficult

Everyone knows that a steady hand is key to become a good surgeon, and Surgeon Simulator really shows... that most of us would make terrible surgeons. But it's fun! Players take on the role of Nigel Burke as he performs different surgical procedures in different scenarios, like inside of a moving ambulance — or even in space!

So far, the game comes with 3 DLC features and was recently released for the Switch as Surgeon Simulator CPR. CPR stands for "Cooperative Play Ready" which allows two players to use the Joy-Con to control one of Nigel's arms.

1 Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii)

trauma center dialogue
  • Drama

Trauma Center: New Blood is the second main game in the Trauma Center series. It follows two protagonists, Markus and Valerie as they fight against a man-mad virus called Stigma. The series is developed by Atlus (hence the Persona-like art style) and is a visual novel and surgery simulation game.

Coming out on the Wii, players use the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk to select different operating tools and perform different actions like using the scale or stitching up wounds. Each operation is timed and mistakes drain the health meter of the patient.

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