Two Point Museum Review (PS5) – Exhibiting Perfection

Two Point Studios are back with Two Point Museum, and in my jellies, I hope they release as many games as James Bond films. The anticipation for Two Point Museum has been high, although I was initially shocked and intrigued at the idea of overhauling museums! Spoiler alert: I actually find museums horrendously boring. I anticipated that I likely would enjoy this, being from the Two Point family, but it would not sit higher than its previous legacy of Hospital or Campus. Well… let’s see how it did, shall we?

If you’re familiar with Hospital and Campus you will have absolutely no problem diving back into the gameplay and mechanics of Museum. If you’re new, don’t panic. If anything, this is much more suited to those who may have never experienced a Two Point (of Theme Hospital/Park – if you’re old like me) game. 

The pacing is the most accessible chapter of the series for even seasoned players who may need a refresh, and all the controls are buttery smooth on the PlayStation. It can be really difficult to navigate a management game with so many different elements, hiring/firing staff, sorting finances, moving furniture, designing rooms, and seeing all the particular details of each element you’ve clicked on.

Two Point has succeeded in making something that is actually quite complex, whilst feeling effortless to manage. Rossko would also kill me here, if I did not mention the feature that allows you to ‘nudge’ certain items into place so you can put them in your perfectly chosen spot. This is also the same for things like flooring and wallpapering, it will allow you to cut and snip as well as change direction so you can move in any direction you please without being bogged down by snapping into place. 

Buzzing To Be Here

For Two Point Museum, the goal is relatively simple: to build a standout museum. In Hospital, you need to build a standout efficient hospital, with state of the art equipment for all ailments, in Campus you needed to build the best university for the highest of academic achievers and win the cheeseball champion of course; and for Museum, you need to build an exemplary museum and make sure your guests are excited by what’s on offer and walk away with the highest possible knowledge they can on your artefacts. 

The gameplay can be broken down into multiple components. You will have your museum, which you build as you please, and then you have two overarching elements of gameplay you need to keep an eye on: Buzz and Knowledge.

Buzz is how well decorated your artefacts and museum are, but also how excited it gets a guest when they see it. This will depend on its condition, where it’s placed and how its surroundings are decorated. Some conditions will increase and decrease buzz. For example, maybe your caveman needs to be placed next to a fun rocky decoration to increase guest buzz by 5 points. The more buzz, the more likely your guests are to stay and walk away with a cracking experience. 

Raiding Tombs and the Deep Blue Sea

Knowledge is the amount a guest can learn about an artefact you have in the museum. To increase knowledge you’ll need to go on expeditions (yes, actually outside expeditions) and have staff analyse artefacts. Two Point has expanded its gameplay to include travelling to many different ‘worlds’ and locations depending on what you want your museum to have. The different ‘worlds’ follow the trajectory of the different themed museums you can eventually start to build, from your typical prehistoric dinosaur theme to a spooky supernatural theme.

Staff members will need to meet certain requirements or bring certain materials that they’ll need to make themselves prior to departure. Once expediting, you may run into dilemmas to solve, as some staff could go MIA or become injured, but the best outcome is bringing back a better-quality artefact to display. This is so much fun and a perfect example of when a series knows exactly how to keep the balance and formula of their much-loved predecessors, but expand and invite new elements to the gameplay that keep you on that addictive gameplay loop. 

One thing worth mentioning is the new take Museum has on its progression throughout the game. Typically, the previous entries have had players take on a very linear approach to the game, starting you off in one hospital or campus and growing that to its potential until starting anew. This newer chapter, will start you off in one museum, and invite you to swap lanes to another different-themed museum to learn more things, whilst being able to then adapt your previous knowledge to the newer museum type. 

Admission Capacity: Unlimited

I actually really liked this approach, and I half expected it to stop eventually, thinking that it more denoted a long tutorial. However, the game invites you to continue to do this throughout Two Point Museum’s runtime. Previous players may prefer the linear approach, but for me, it keeps things fresh.  Also, with 30 hours of gameplay in, I am still having pop-ups for new things I can discover and learn to manage that add a different flair to the existing gameplay.

It has me hook, line and sinker with the amount you can do. The new elements I’m still continuing to unlock enforce that addicting loop I just mentioned. The different artefacts you can bring in, decorations to choose from and the variety of museum themes – which will adjust how you may play that museum – are an absolute stand out. I said earlier I wasn’t too sure if this would be a favourite for me because of my instant dislike towards museums (no hate here, just not ma-thing). However, for this game to turn something that I find possibly the most boring thing to do on the planet, into a game I can not stop thinking about playing; is a feat. 

The immersion is unmatched, I know this isn’t our first management sim, and lately, the gaming world is flooding with them. There are so many different ones out there, Planet Zoo, Cities: Skylines, etc. Two Point has always found this niche between light-hearted gameplay and deeper yet accessible mechanics.

No Dust on this Display

Two Point Museum keeps its cartoonish, colourful and vibrant aesthetic that it has always had, consistent with its signature look. The detail, on the other hand, is the best the series has seen. When I stopped to take stock of my museum, I noticed the smallest of details within the sea of guests flooding the corridors. If you take the time to look closely, nearly every guest (and every type of guest) will react differently to each artefact or theme you have in your museum. From taking selfies with the artefacts to guests pretending to be a fish in the sea, it’s a delight to witness. 

Another highlight is our beloved tannoy voice, a presence in every chapter of a Two Point Studios game, and this one does not disappoint. Hearing the infamous sarcastic, quippy remarks that come out of the tannoy is always a highlight for me when playing Two Point games. I always wonder how much fun devs must have writing for them and it’s clear they had a blast choosing how she was going to dig at the guests, staff and even you the creator. The jokes are fresh and nothing feels recycled. 

On reflection, I do have to say I also found Two Point Museum far less punishing and RNG-riddled than the others. There were times in both Hospital and Campus when it felt like the roll of the dice simply never went in my favour and I would spend hours on the same hospital, or campus trying to get the very last mission that would be between me and a 3-star achievement.

There’s this natural progression that happens with Museum where everything slots into place quite naturally. There are also challenge-based levels, which up the ante in a specific way, without spoiling the progression of your much-loved museum. For example, there are certain museums you’ll need to focus on one area, such as security.

You’ll have to make sure your artefacts don’t get stolen, or you have enough cameras within the museum, but you only have so much money to play with. It keeps the element of challenge for those who liked that part of the Two Point series, but it doesn’t feel like it’s taken away from the main game completely. You will still have to work to achieve a 5-star museum experience. If you’re not up for the campaign and simply just want to make the world’s biggest and best museum. You can do this too with Sandbox mode!

A Five-Star Exhibit

I’ve got to say, the next chapter being a Museum based management game was one I would have never would have guessed. I think the community and long-term fans of the OG’s from the Bulldog era are awaiting a potential Two Point Theme Park given that came before Theme Hospital. I do however, love this new guessing game of what Two Point may now next come up with. 

What can I say, it totally works. This angle is unique and feels dynamic. There’s clearly a lot of heart and soul that has gone into Two Point Museum, with this entry being their most creative edition yet. There is so much that makes it mechanically distinct from the other counterparts of Hospital and Campus. Everything has been thought about to a T, and this is a beautiful example of how a franchise can surprise, innovate and surpass fan expectations.

There is a reason that Two Point Museum – to even my own surprise – gets a 10. It’s not that it is just fun, engaging and dangerously addictive even after dozens of hours. It’s that it does all of this while refining, evolving and honouring everything that fans of the series loved from the beginning. The humour still lands, the charm has never worn thin, and every system clicks together with seamless polish. It almost makes you forget you’re playing a management sim at all. Blink and you’ll lose an evening. Really, the crux of it is, that no one is doing management sims better than Two Point at right. Two Point Museum is the genre’s gold standard, perfectly curated, and should hung proudly in the great hall (or museum) of greatness. 

Two Point Museum is out now for PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox and PC via Steam.

Developers: Two Point Studios
Publisher: SEGA

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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