Two Point Museum

I can really appreciate when a developer makes a point to prove their excellence in one specific area. Sure, versatility and being able to stretch into various categories and genres is impressive, but there's also a degree of brilliance with doing one core thing and doing it very, very well. Creative Assembly are a fantastic example of this and how they act as almost a gold standard studio in the strategy space, and if we're sticking with the Sega theme, there's also Two Point Studios, who within the past decade have proven that they are some of the consistently best at creating delightful simulation games. The Two Point series rarely disappoints, but after two familiar instalments you might be wondering if the third iteration on the formula is beginning to fall a bit flat. I can tell you with certainty that Two Point Museum is just as fun, refined, and easy-to-love as its predecessors and that Two Points Studios' spree of certified bangers continues without a hitch.

If you've played Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus before you will be very familiar with what Two Point Museum requires too. The idea is that you flock to various defined locations within Two Point County to help turn a dilapidated or failing museum into something grand and remarkable by serving up brilliant exhibits and a great entertainment package for visitors all around. You have to manage the hungering maw of satisfying your entertaining desires with that of balanced and consistently positive finances, all while presenting guests with the necessary amenities and facilities (be it food and drink services or toilets), and ensuring that you have the security to protect your precious exhibits and treasures. It's a game about balance and getting the best out of a limited space, and while it can be challenging at times, the overall whole - as is the case with all Two Point games - is made to be fun, intuitive, and low on stress, ultimately resulting in one of the easiest games to pick up and fall in love with that you can find today.

Two Point Studios designed a fantastic and streamlined simulation system with Two Point Hospital and since then the developer has just been improving and tweaking it. You get all the features and customisable elements that you could possibly desire, all presented in such a way that feels natural and handles with tactile precision. The mechanics of this game reflect the quality that shined through in past instalments, and it's all of such a refined standard that if I had to pick out a few areas that rubbed me the wrong way, it would be that some cosmetic visuals clip through others and that placing intricate elements on walls and in tight spaces can be a tad finicky. Otherwise, on mouse and keyboard at least, this game works and plays like an absolute charm.

And this is all while being hit with the traditional simulation suite of statistics and data. The main difference with a Two Point game is that this is often optional and presented as information that you can source if you want. If not, the basic feedback in your HUD provides more than enough data about how your museum is performing, showing that simulation can be very straightforward when it needs to be.

In terms of gameplay it's all very traditional Two Point, except the emphasis of rooms that provide a service has been shifted a bit. You can still construct rooms that offer services, be it a gift shop or an analysis lab, but the majority of the floor planning is less about how you can squeeze each style of room into a tight building space and more about how you can customise an open area to make it eye-catching and fun. In part, this comes from the museum exhibits that you can discover (which I'll get back to in a moment), but it's also about utilising decorations, seating arrangements, donation collection spots, alternative floor tiling, information boards, and other entertainment elements to provide an experience that visitors remember, positively review, and then ultimate splash out the cash on so you can continue iterating and improving. Compared to its predecessors, Two Point Museum often feels as though the gloves have come off and that the player is far more enabled and encouraged to do things their own way, with creativity and charm at the forefront.

But anyway, the exhibits. This is the other main change and it revolves around two main concepts. The first is finding exhibits. This includes tasking a team of staff to head to distant places to find treasures and goodies that you can display in your museum and baffle and bewilder fans. These exhibits do come in different rarities, but fear not, we're not talking about a loot system, it's more of a way to determine the quality of an exhibit, with pristine exhibits being more valuable than common ones, with this feature being a minor gameplay effector at best. The other part is how you display and care for your exhibits. Some will require lots of attention, perhaps even different humidities and climates that depend on where you discovered them, whereas others may need to be built by finding individual parts over several adventures. You might need to build an aquarium to display fish or gather resources to construct inventions, and then you also have to spruce them up with decorations and perks to increase their buzz and make them more entertaining for visitors. There are a lot of moving parts to get the best out of your exhibits, especially if we count protecting them from thieves who will actually steal them from your museum...

Two Point Museum offers several main levels to work through, each of which have their own theme and challenges to keep you on your toes. You have to get each of these areas to their maximum rating by completing a slate of tasks, and if you manage to do that, there are a bunch of challenge levels too that further play with the formula. For those that want a more creatively-free experience, sandbox returns to allow you to build the museum of your dreams without any restrictions.

I will say that some of the levels are less enjoyable than others, as the latter ones that shift away from the traditional format that you're increasingly taught as the campaign progresses didn't quite land with me in the same way that the earlier ones did. Also, Two Point has always had a knack for really leaning into the ridiculous, and while that can lead to some hilarious in-museum announcements and events, some of the really ridiculous parts of the game actually feel a tad too strange. The Wailon Lodge level for one, where you have to house ghosts and spectres as exhibits felt like it needed a little tweak in how it worked compared to some of the other mechanics you meet throughout the campaign, as it can become a bit frustrating when your supernatural exhibits keep escaping and terrorising your museum...

But all in all, Two Point Museum is another fine example of a simulation game done right. It's simple yet packed with complexities, fun yet challenging, silly but sensibly designed, and perhaps most importantly, intuitive and easy to pick-up and enjoy. The Two Point formula continues to stand out game-after-game, and while there will come a time, perhaps in the near future, where true innovation is required, at the moment this concept still works like a charm.