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0 Two Point Studios has dropped another corker! This time you get to run your very own museum, in the aptly titled, Two Point Museum. It takes the well loved formula from Hospital and Campus and turns the fun factor up to 11.
Museums Rock!
Released at the start of March on Steam, Two Point Museum has got an incredible following. But what exactly makes this game the high scorer that it is? Well before I give it my own reward, let’s look at what makes this game tick.
Gameplay
Playing on the PC in my opinion is the best way to play this type of game. Being able to chill out in your chair and mostly just using your mouse to play through. Its relaxing, enjoyable, and yet in some instances a little bit stressful. Thankfully the latter doesn’t turn up all that often.
Two Point Museum allows you to take charge of a museum. You are the creator. No sorry, curator. You are the curator. Deciding where exhibits go, who to hire and fire, and where to send your Experts to find the next best artefact. It really is a balancing act. Thankfully, when you start the game there is a super detailed tutorial as well as constant objectives to keep you focused.
When you want something fresh and new for your museum you must send people on Expeditions. Opening up the map, you are given locations in abundance. Some, however, are locked, but they will always be clear on their unlock objectives. Choose which member of the team you are going to send wisely, some expeditions require certain experts. If you don’t have them, you best get hiring or training! Once you have picked your Experts, off they go! When they return, if they return, you are greeted with a great big crate that might contain one of the 200+ exhibits. Once opened it’s down to you to find the perfect spot for your pride and joy.
Staff
As with most businesses, whether you will succeed or fail depends on your staff. Getting the right balance is crucial. You have Experts who will not only look after your exhibits by cleaning them and preserving them, but they are also the main people who get sent out to find new goodies for your museum. Then you have the Janitors, who will keep your museum clean, making sure that everything is pristine for your guests.
Then you have your Assistants. These are the people that will man your ticket booths, coffee shops and gift shops. You can even dress them up when they work in the gift shop. I couldn’t resist giving one of mine the Sonic onesie to wear! Then finally you have the Security Officers, who keep the law in your museum. Not only do they keep the peace, but they also go around and empty the donation bins. All in all, getting the right staff is crucial.
Thankfully however, you can build a training centre where you can improve your current staff to take on new abilities. All just by clicking through a few menus and all of a sudden you have an Expert who can go a bit quicker, or even just think happy thoughts through their day. Training is crucial the further you get into Two Point Museum. Ensuring that your staff are the best they can be is vital to a happy and successful museum.
Design
The design of your museum is something that you will spend plentiful hours working on. Whether you want to just have a giant open-plan museum. Or if you want to be strategic and put all the staff elements in a separate section. You have tools at your disposal that will help you build your dream museum. You can put one-way doors in partitions to ensure that once people have moved deeper into the museum there is no way back. Obviously you just have to make sure there is another exit otherwise people might start to get a bit grumpy.
You should really make use of the partitions to create interesting-shaped rooms for each of the different styles of exhibit. You might want a big giant hall for all your Dinosaur bones, or you might want to create a nice cold ecosystem for the ice artefacts. The choice is both endless and entirely yours.
Locations
Throughout your Two Point Museum gameplay you will get to visit a number of different locations. Each location with its own museum type. You start off in the Prehistory museum at Memento Mile, eventually getting the choice between Passwater Cove and its Aquarium. Or Wailon Lodge and it’s spectral Supernatural offering. Eventually, you do open up a Science museum and a Space one too. All have their own selection of Exhibitions to head out to, but also their own items for placing in your museum.
Make sure that when you place these things they are in close proximity to exhibits. That way you increase the buzz around the artefacts, and in turn increase the potential payout via donations. Happy people are more likely to put their hands in their pockets after all.
When you move to another museum, you can return to one of your others at any time. To be fair the in-game objectives tell you to do just that. So good luck out there Curator, you might just need it.
Graphics & Audio
As with the rest of the Two Point Studios games, the graphics are very bright and colourful. The characters that you see are larger than life, and in some places are even Yeti’s.
The rendering of all the exhibits is fantastic, they are smooth and detailed, yet are cute enough for you to get up close and just enjoy how they look. If you stray too far from the museums the graphics do seem to drop slightly and are more boxy, but in all honesty, why are you straying?
Audio-wise, the in-game museum radio is fantastic. I could just sit and listen to it for a while until I noticed that I hadn’t sent anyone to an exhibition. You just have to enjoy Two Point Museum for what it is, it’s silly and majestic fun.
Longevity
If you are a completionist, you might see upwards of 50 hours on your gameplay timer. However, it doesn’t stop there. You can still carry on and enjoy running your museum. Being a great sandbox-style game you can just keep going and going. The world is your oyster.
Final Thoughts
So Two Point Museum launched with a lot of hype following it. Thankfully I can report that the hype was real. It is an insanely fun game, even with the Middle of the TC Mini Crew telling me where to put my Sonic claw machine! Speaking of which, the Sonic content was an excellent pre-order bonus for the game. I would love to see more of this explored. Both I and Middle were excited to see the buzz the statues produced amongst our visitors.
I challenge you to play this game without a smile on your face. You really can’t! It brings so much joy to watch your guests wander around the different museums, interacting in amazing ways. This award is really easy.
Two Point Museum receives the Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
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