I had convinced myself that the zenith of tycoon games was in the 1990s after years of mediocre business simulations, but Two Point Museum might have convinced me otherwise. This time, Two Point Studios has finally mastered the formula, while it is not a radical change from their prior series of oddball games, Hospital and Campus. I occasionally struggled to pull myself away from it because of its diverse and difficult management layer, awesome props and exhibitions to unlock, and a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor.
Comparing Two Point Museum to other recent games like Planet Coaster 2, I find it most impressive because it genuinely seems interested in testing your ability to run your business’s finances as you construct and furnish it. And one of the main reasons I enjoy these kinds of games is probably because I am a nerd. It is really hard to create a money printer that you can just ignore, but it is also not so harsh that I regularly found myself in serious situations from which I was unable to escape. In terms of balancing my balance sheets, the balance feels about… balanced.
You can accomplish this with the aid of numerous helpful tools. The interface as a whole appears to have been thoughtfully designed to cluster pertinent information together and facilitate rapid action on common issues. One such example is the Pay Review screen for your employees. Using a slider, I can rank all of the museum employees according to how happy or unhappy they are with their pay without even opening a separate menu. From that screen, you can then see their satisfaction shift virtually instantly. When so much effort has been made to arrange everything such that it makes my job easier, navigating all of these intricate issues is so simple.
The interface as a whole appears to have been smartly designed to combine pertinent information.
Everything I do, whether it is decorating the staff break room or putting up a new exhibit, is done in Two Point’s quirky, cartoonish, almost claymation-like style. I may be showing a floppy disk fossil or antiquities from a strange world with cheese-loving inhabitants, but the Museum embraces it all. To be honest, I have never been impressed by this gimmick in Two Point games before, and I still amn’t. However, it is at least recognizable and consistent. Additionally, public address announcements are frequently humorous. “Reminding bored guests that not everything needs to be a party, okay?”
However, Two Point benefits greatly by shifting its concentration from operating a hospital or school to a museum. I find myself zooming way down and paying close attention to how things would look at eye level when I am trying to dazzle my guests with intricate displays, a ton of small decorations, and floor designs that ensure they must leave through the gift shop. I had the opportunity to create a haunted home experience on one of my favorite maps, replete with cursed items and, finally, real ghosts who, if they do not receive their weekly treatment session, can emerge and wreak mayhem. In this case, “simulation” is used somewhat loosely, and Two Point is all too content to prioritize silliness above realism.
This is one of the many intriguing and topical issues that each of the various museums faces. In one, I was scouring the oceans for unique fish to complement my underwater paradise. In another, to unlock adjacency benefits for my displays, I had to become familiar with the enigmatic symbols of an extraterrestrial race. It is particularly cool because Two Point Aquarium, Two Point Planetarium, and Two Point Haunted Hotel are so different from one another that it is almost like you are getting more than one game in one. Long into my career, this kept things interesting and novel, particularly when my goals began pushing me to combine themes and skills from other fields.
Unlocking and embarking on journeys to locations ranging from fossil-littered valleys to the furthest reaches of outer space is necessary to obtain treasures to display and attract large groups of onlookers. To discover new strategies for reducing risk and increasing rewards, you must control the abilities and characteristics of various employees. At first glance, it appears straightforward, but there is a lot of nuance hidden here.
At first glance, it appears straightforward, but there is a lot of nuance hidden here.
All of it fits in perfectly with the various ways your employees can train and specialize in various tasks back home. An assistant who has a benefit that makes it easier for them to travel around the museum floor may also be able to stop an accident from happening that could result in harm or even “MIA”—functionally, death.
From shorter, easier, and less dangerous excursions that return far less amazing attractions to lengthy, lethal, and complex ones that may call for multiple highly skilled staff members and craftable equipment to complete, there is a fantastic progression. Choosing a Quick, Safe, or Detailed method adds more nuance and strategy. Moreover, a site’s survey level raises the likelihood of receiving higher-rarity copies of your exhibits, which makes returning to locations you have seen more appealing.
This also relates to the rewarding unlock mechanism, which makes your museum more instructive by enhancing your understanding of displays by breaking down duplicates of exhibits you already own. Additionally, while Kudosh, the achievement-based career money that returned from Two Point Hospital and Campus, can still be used to unlock generic museum decorations, examining items related to a particular theme is the only way to earn specialized decorations for a science or space museum. Even after more than 40 hours, I never felt like I was getting paid for my efforts because there was so much to uncover.
Dealing with crime was the only significant aspect of the Two Point Museum formula that I did not enjoy. Thieves and vandals will target your museum more frequently as it gains prestige and exhibits more expensive objects. They might spoil your day by stealing entire attractions that may have taken hours to level up and purchase. The majority of criminals are typically deterred by hiring extra security personnel and placing one at each entrance.
However, you are expected to finally install camera rooms that, in my opinion, have an inadequate coverage area. These rooms keep an eye on cameras that do not cover a lot of floor space and interfere with several other essential wall fixtures. Finding a room to fit them all in became annoying to me at one point. Those who would sacrifice necessary wall space for a little short-term security, as Ben Franklin famously stated, do not deserve either.
In the Sandbox mode, which offers a great deal of additional difficulty flexibility, you can at least disable crime. That is good for long-term use. If you want to manage a museum that is primarily supported by grants and contributions and do not even have to bother about charging admission, here is the place to go. Additionally, there are settings for that.
I am rocking and in the zone thanks to this laid-back, vibey soundtrack. Although it can differ from map to map, it is consistently calm, cheerful, and subdued.
Verdict
Two Point Studios has truly found its rhythm with its third version of the concept, as evidenced by Two Point Museum, a rewarding, complex, difficult, and incredibly fun tycoon game. Designing and operating a museum is fun and always fulfilling because of the wide range of exhibits to unlock and level up, the excitement of finding new expedition maps, and the abundance of ingenious and user-friendly administration tools. I have already put in over 40 hours, and I could easily double that amount without running out of things to do. Give the curator a call. They will want to look at this.
