Two Point Museum
Third time's the charm: a masterpiece worthy of being put in a museum.
In Two Point Museum, you get called in after the mysterious disappearance of the previous museum curator, to follow in their footsteps, take over the museum and save it from ruin.
Introduction
Two Point Museum is the third installment in the Two Point series after Hospital and Campus, which are essentially the same concepts but respectively a hospital and a university campus - what’s in a name?
I have played Hospital a little but never really got into it. I haven't played Campus at all but watched my husband play it. I liked the humour and graphics of both games, but the gameplay wasn't exactly my thing.
That all changed with Two Point Museum.
Decorations are now an important thing and I have been having immense fun!
Storyline
The game isn’t very story-driven, the overarching story exists to drive the gameplay progression. You get called in after the mysterious disappearance of the previous museum curator, with which you have absolutely nothing to do, to take over and run the museum with the goal of making a profit.
Throughout the story quests, there’s a hilarious podcast to listen to, as well as the slightly disturbing PA calls by your receptionist. The whole delivery of quest- and story-related information as well as filling up the quiet parts in between is done masterfully.
The Two Point series has a distinct sense of humour that is right up my alley, in a very “taking things quite literally” way, like clownfish having a clown nose or using a two-pronged fork to tune a tuna.
Gameplay
In its core, it is a management sim where you build and run your own museums, from curating exhibits to managing staff and keeping visitors entertained.
To expand your museum with new exhibits, you send your staff on expeditions, and they bring back new things to put in your museum (and hopefully don’t get injured or killed doing so) in an adorable crate. I’m genuinely in love with this crate.
Unlike Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus, this one puts a much bigger emphasis on decoration and creativity, which makes it SO much more my thing. Each exhibit has its own “needs” in regards to decorations or other exhibits it wants to be close to for extra points. We do everything for points.
Your staff gets their own part of the museum, with staff cafeterias for them to rest in, a room for them to study, a workshop to develop new things to put in the museum - definitely challenging to fit all of these plus all the museum exhibits and decorations into an organised, walkable museum with limited space.
Did I mention there are stickers? When you reach certain milestones, you get rewarded with a sticker. Who needs money, right? Stickers!
You start out with a prehistoric museum, which is your regular run-off-the-mill dinosaur skeletons and fossil exhibits. Once you get a 1 star curator score in that museum, you can pick either a maritime museum or a spooky museum. I picked the maritime one because, well, FISHIES!
This is where Two Point Museum really shines.
The experience in the maritime museum, despite very obviously still being the same game, is so vastly different. Expeditions now don’t bring back fossils but fish, and you have to build the usual facilities, in addition to gigantic aquaria to put your fish in. And they are gorgeous! I think that, like, half an hour of my game time was me just staring at the little fishies floating through. They find their friends and swim around in schools, gulp up the food flakes you drop in there and interact with the decoration you’ve placed. This could be a game on its own, honestly.
I haven’t played the spooky museum yet (if I’m honest, I’ll admit I’m going to start on that right after I finish writing this review) buuuut have seen my husband’s spooky exhibits and I am SO excited for them!
The fact that these three museums feel so different, like it’s an entirely separate game, makes this game endlessly replayable. Watch me build out a museum empire with ALL the fossils, dinosaur skeletons, extinct plants, frozen electronics, fishes, ghosts and anything else I can get my hands on.
Update: apparently it wasn’t three but FIVE museums, plus additional pop-up museum challenges. This game is AMAZING.
Atmosphere
I can’t explain in words how much I love the atmosphere of this game.
The entire Two Point series is quirky and hilarious, but also cosy, and chock full of cute furniture and punny objects. Two Point Museum is no different, and takes it even further with a lot of adorable decorations.
Tutorial
Tutorial-wise, you start out with the usual move the camera, zoom in and out, place an object - you know the drill. This basic tutorial seamlessly flows into the main quest. You learn new things throughout the whole game as you level up and unlock more things. Seamlessly integrated tutorials are the best!
Modding
The game hasn’t even officially released yet - it’s out in Advanced Access, but will fully release the 4th of March - and there are already dozens of mods on the Steam Workshop! Extra plants, recolours of existing furniture, Sonic-themed added content, there’s something for everyone. I am fairly certain I’ll end up making mods for this game, too.
TL;DR
I hate to admit it, but my husband has been telling me for weeks that once I try the game, I’d be hooked, and he was right. Bought it this morning, played for nine hours straight, can’t get enough of it! I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone who’s up for a chill management sim, bonus points if you have a soft spot for dinosaurs, fishies or ghosts!
