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When you think of the classic cartoon-like management sims of yesteryear such as Bullfrog’s amazing Theme Park and Theme Hospital, it takes you back to a time when gaming felt a little purer. No loot boxes, no skins to purchase, and just the occasional chuckle as the hours passed by.
Since those days of things like Theme Park on the Amiga, many have tried (and many have failed) to recreate that magical feeling of doing something so ridiculous but making it feel like you are making legit business decisions. In all the decades that have followed, I can only really recall the Two Point series having captured the essence in anywhere close to the same way – the fact that the studio has alumni from Bullfrog in its ranks probably helps here.
This brings us to Two Point Museum – the third game from Two Point Studios and Sega, set in the fictional (probably didn’t need to confirm this but) Two Point County.
The quickly expanding county now boasts not only a hospital and a university campus but now a dilapidated old museum, desperately in need of your magic touch. Say hello to Two Point Museum everybody.
It’s been almost three years since Two Point Campus and seven since the original Two Point Hospital. Both of the earlier titles have been good success stories, and I am encouraged greatly by the fact that Two Point Studios doesn’t just bang these out every 12 months. There is actually a real labor of love here which is why we aren’t awash with the likes of Two Point Car Park, Two Point Gym, Two Point Prison, and a host of half-baked spin-offs of the theme.
These are games that are left to cook for long enough until they are just right when they pop out of the game’s oven, and we all benefit from that.
The game
If you have played and loved either of the previous titles you will be immediately at home here because, while everything is different it is reassuringly the same. The mechanics mostly stick to the formula but the introduction of Expeditions gives you something extra to think about while trying to ensure you have enough janitors to pick up the litter the scruffy patrons will just drop everywhere, regardless of how many bins you place down.
The premise this time obviously enough is around Museum design, and sheltered by that umbrella we have a number of different specialities such as Prehistory, Science, and Space among a few others.
Each of these is absurd in the eccentric style of the previous games and you are rarely far from a chuckle, especially if you pay attention to the Radio chatter that is constant in the background and never gets boring.
Museum announcements can also raise a smile and there are clever cultural nods to the times here that most games just would not bother with. For example, if you have a lot of children visiting there is no point in just banging up loads of informational signs and posters because the kids simply will not read them. The only way to get the little brats’ attention is with interactive displays and iPads. Art mirrors life.
If you have never played before the premise is simple enough, but as the levels of the Campaign progress, ramp us in serious difficulty in places. Objectives are given to you, generally to get your museum to a high enough star rating to unlock the next. To do so you need to curate a museum that gets good reviews from from your guests, who will, if they are happy, drop money into those donation boxes that are always scattered around such places.
I did laugh at a museum tannoy announcement in the background that said, “Please remember making a donation is entirely voluntary, even though you wouldn’t think it was”. I think we have all had that feeling.
Beyond the campaign which features five unique museum locations, each with increasing levels of challenge across the county there are also three pop-up museums and a huge Sandbox mode that allows you to build the mage museum of your dreams with none of the financial restraints of the campaign.
With over 200 exhibits to unlock and uncover along with more decorative items than ever before, Two Point Museum easily becomes the most visually appealing game in the series to date.
Expeditions
A new mechanic to the genre is that of Expeditions. Outside your museum is a helipad and you can send your staff off on expeditions of varying lengths and perils to try and locate new artifacts to display in your museum, which will in turn create more Buzz about the venue, bring in more guests, make more money and so on.
At the start, these expeditions are simple with very little risk and require anybody off the street to go pretty much. Later on though you will need staff members trained in things such as Survival Skills (you can set up a Training Room to enhance your staff). Staff gain XP from things such as going on expeditions and XP unlocks extra slots that can be trained. It’s a finely balanced trick to keep everything going efficiently.
The expeditions themselves aren’t anything exciting playing out, which is perhaps the one major shame of the game, we could have had a Two Point Lara Croft here. Your team departs in the chopper and their progress is shown via a graphic on the right of the screen but that’s it. When they return you hopefully get a big crate to unbox that will contain a new exhibit. Some finds have parts missing – dinosaur skeletons are rarely found whole, so you will need to send repeat trips to the same location in the hope of finding more.
With everything else going on closer to home, keeping track of your expeditions is key to building out your premises.
Occasionally something will crop up and you are given a Dilemma from the expedition with a couple of choices, get it wrong and everything is kaput, but taking the odd risk can be beneficial too,
Graphics and sound
Two Point Museum really shines here. It looks modern and the cartoon style really does look better than it has before. Audio is again, truly excellent. The thought that goes into the scripting is exceptional throughout and, I would imagine, one of the reasons we have to wait so long between Two Point episodes.
Conclusion 8/10
Two Point Museum is a joy if you loved either of the first two games in the series. It is the same, but yet different. With each game that comes out the polishing gets better and better. Despite the cartoony eccentricity, you need a focused mind to excel at TPM. In later levels, there is a lot to manage at the same time. Are your frozen exhibits cold enough? How do you get that queue down at the ticket desk? Why is there always so much litter? On top of that, keeping your experts trained in rotation so you can constantly be going on trips to the far corners of the world map needs an extra level of management to be constantly keeping an eye on.
At times, if you don’t plan things out well a glance at your museum can look overbearing and crowded as guests and staff buzz around. You can pause at any time but it would be great to have a filter where you could just turn off people while paused so you could concentrate on what is needed where. It kind of exists, for example, you can get indicators of where you might have heat issues and the like, but maybe going forward, this area is one that could be added to.
Two Point and Sega also are good enough to price their game sensibly with it costing just £24.99/$29.99 for the base game and an extra £10/$10 for the Deluxe Edition with a little more stuff. Remember when Skull and Bones cost you $70?
Two Point Musem is also Steam Deck Verified as an extra bonus for handheld users.
Overall the whole package is just a delight. It’s gaming as it should be. The genre might not be for everyone but if you have the slightest interest in this sort of thing, you would be missing out not to play the finest example of this kind of game in years.
