I hadn’t predicted Two Point Museum. After Two Point Hospital, I’d have put my money on Two Point Theme Park or Two Point City or something. Certainly not Campus. And now museum? Still, could be stranger. We could be playing Two Point Art Gallery, where we just manage a bunch of smug people staring at paintings. At least ‘museum’ implies historical significance, and grumpy people in fedoras snapping whips at people. Or, in this case, getting eaten by giant plants or cursed by ghosts.
Chances are you know what to expect from Two Point Museum if you’re a fan of the franchise. Lots of very silly jokes, drizzled over a surprisingly detailed management sim. There’s a deliberate retro feeling to the series, which harks back to the hey-day of companies like Bullfrog. The choice of a museum, however, is a solid challenge to the series, forcing Two Point Studios to re-examine some of the key design notes. The end result is an undoubted success, though it does fall prey to some of the recurring issues with the series.
It Belongs In A…
I’m going to go out on a limb, reader, and assume you’ve been to a museum before. The general visit is usually straightforward. You wander from exhibit to exhibit, reading the little plaques and going ‘hmm’. Occasionally, you get excited because you’ve seen a button you can push. Two Point Museum captures this well. Except all the guests donate money after viewing an exhibit. This is a fantasy, after all. As a curator, it’s our job to keep the museum in the black, by displaying more and more extravagant exhibits.
This breaks down into two central components: finding exhibits and arranging the exhibitions. Before you can display exhibits, and start earning cash, you have to find them. This involves sending staff on expeditions into unknown lands. These usually have an element of risk, such as injury or illness, but successful expeditions will bring you back anything from dinosaur bones to the ghosts of fallen knights. Rewards are chance based, which I like. It prevents every museum from building up in the exact same way, as different types of exhibits have different requirements.
And so we move on to Two Point Museum‘s management system. It’s impressively layered. On the surface, you need to make sure your exhibits are in the right environment. Plants need warm, moist environments. Fish don’t do so well flopping around outside of an aquarium. Then you decorate the surroundings to increase ‘buzz’, and place info stands for ‘knowledge’, in the hopes of generating donations. Exhibits play off each other, and certain criteria dictate maximum buzz. Then you can arrange a tour, which maximises buzz if it covers exhibits of the same type. Sensible placement is paramount. It’s detailed, but the layers of complexity make it very accessible.
Funny Bones
On top of this is a cracking sense of humour. The little announcements always made me laugh, and Two Point Museum clearly has a love for physical humour. The staff and guests are great comic actors. They take elaborate selfies one minute, then drape themselves over a fossilised starfish the next. Though I think they held back a little on the exhibits themselves. There were a few giggles, but most are just basic bones, fish and ghosts. Still, there are funny threads running through the stories of each museum. The aquatic museum has you contacting mer-people, for instance. Each museum has its own theme, and little story, which evolves as you improve the museum and earn stars. It’s a great way to keep you anchored in a museum.
That said, the progression does suffer from a recurring problem in the series. A lot of the objectives for the star ratings are just a numbers game. Display a certain buzz, or have a certain amount of guests. That means a lot of the time, you need to just sit and wait. Even worse is when you’re low on funds, and waiting for a cash injection before you can do anything. The quest for the higher stars can get gruelling at times. The initial setting up of the museum is often more enjoyable than watching it play out. Expeditions do ameliorate that to a degree, but with a decent enough team, they’re just another timer.
There are a few quality of life issues in Two Point Museum too. I’d like some way to visually spot staff in the crowd, for instance. It’d be useful to be able to grab a nearby guard or janitor, but with a high guest footfall, they all blend in. Tour paths are strangely unpredictable, too. My tour guides keep wandering off to the other side of my museum, dragging the foot-sore guests with them. Still, a few issues are to be expected, as designing your museum is quite freeform. You can cut buildings to whatever shape you want, so perhaps some pathfinding problems are inevitable.
Two Point Museum – Comedic Curation
Minor issues aside though, Two Point Museum is a riot. An important point is that it doesn’t use its humour as an excuse to skimp on gameplay. It’s a satisfying simulation game, which also happens to be funny. It’s layered down to the finer details. I didn’t even mention the multitude of different guest types, for instance, who might favour certain exhibits, or knowledge over buzz. Coming back to a museum that was previously haemorrhaging money and turning things around with some smart management (and maybe a loan) is enormously satisfying.
The choice of a museum meant Two Point Studios couldn’t fall back on the set formula of stamping out the same rooms each level. It adds elements of choice to the curation, as well as unpredictability. It’s a solid change, well executed. Though I’m pretty sure museums are supposed to have big, unseen libraries of relics. Still, I have to wonder what’s next? Maybe it’s time for some introspection with Two Point Game Dev? Make sure to leave plenty of space for the Energy Drink Dispensary room.
