The Two Point games have really been hitting the spot for me these past few years. They are these silly little management sims, starting back in 2018 with Two Point Hospital, moving to college management with Two Point Campus, and now displaying a bevy of different informative exhibits in Two Point Museum. The whole series is inundated with light humour, deceptively deep gameplay, and these weird little Wallace and Gromit-looking goobers, making for an extremely endearing experience from head to toe.
At their heart, Two Point games are economic simulations, but nothing as intricate as an Anno or as expansive as Civilization. Think more along the lines of your Tycoon style of games. Players are generally tasked with the day-to-day operation of a museum. This includes things like acquiring and displaying exhibits, keeping staff members happy, and trying to trick a busload of children from a local school into thinking that education is fun and exciting. It’s an enjoyable puzzle all around, though it can be a little finicky and tedious at times.
When I think back on my favourite vacations, they always involved trips to some kind of museum, but all vastly different ones. I’ve marvelled at wanton displays of science in a modern space museum, wandered through twisting, forgotten corridors in a claustrophobic voodoo museum, and cavorted through lush botanical gardens, camera firmly in hand. A lot of things can be considered a museum, and Two Point Museum understands that.
“A lot of things can be considered a museum, and Two Point Museum understands that.”
In campaign mode, players will start with what a lot of folk think of in terms of a museum, a big building and some dusty old fossils. Soon, though, those old fossils will be joined by piles of bones, disappointing options for food and drink, and the all-important gift shop. After achieving a few more objectives (setting up tours, convincing the public to make charitable donations, etc.), the world opens up, and players are invited to start a wholly different museum, either dedicated to the spooky supernatural or fantastical fish!
The campaign in Two Point Museum really does a nice job of drip-feeding players the tutorial, though it may be a bit slow for many folks. Players quickly learn the basics; send employees out on dangerous expeditions to find new exhibits, then display them in your museum for the masses to enjoy. Each exhibit has some randomized qualities that dictate how they should be displayed and their level of quality.
For example, you may find an epic-level dinosaur bone that gets a bonus for being displayed near other bones. Exhibits also benefit from being surrounded by decorations, which can lead to some nice customization for your museum, but may just devolve into throwing whatever guff you can fit near your various doodads just to get the bonus. I have created some truly nightmarish yet educational situations in Two Point Museum during my career.
“I have created some truly nightmarish yet educational situations in Two Point Museum during my career.”
The randomized nature of these exhibits is interesting but can be a bit frustrating. Pulling a high-level haunted object out of a box is great, but less so when it’s the same one you’ve already displayed several times. Moreover, each of these different types of exhibits has different needs, and I did run into an instance where I could not achieve a randomized bonus for a specific item because it conflicted with that exhibit’s needs.
That said, issues like that were generally few and far between. What may frustrate some players is how slow that tutorial can be. Truly, I had switched from my initial museum to another museum, then back to the first before my security guards had anything to do other than empty out the donation bins.
Luckily, for players who just want to get on with things, there is a sandbox mode, though it doesn’t offer the same helpful tutorialization as the campaign. Jumping into a sandbox, players can start a museum of any type and be immediately cursed by the prospect of having their coveted gewgaws stolen right out from underneath them!
Two Point Museum is another great economic sim in the same vein as other games in the franchise. It’s pretty light but still boasts some intricate and interesting systems. The humour is enjoyable, and it is only a little bit finicky here and there.
