I found a haunted doll on a daring expedition. I know it’s haunted, because no matter which way I turn my mouse, its head follows me on a swivel. I should destroy it, but you know what? It makes a rather fetching centrepiece in my haunted museum.
These are the sorts of executive decisions you’ll need to make in Two Point Museum, the latest management sim from Two Point Studios – and they could just make or break your museum. While common sense would tell you to banish the haunted doll from existence, the unique establishment of Wailon Lodge demands a cavalcade of scares to haunt and horrify your museum guests. In fact, the more ghosts you pack in, the more successful you’ll be.
Discovering this particular museum in a recent preview was a revelation for what Two Point Museum aims to be. While its predecessors, Two Point Campus and Two Point Hospital, occasionally got a bit wacky, Two Point Museum leans in hard from the jump, inviting players to built their own strange and wonderful museums for weirdos, with aplomb.
Quite frankly, this approach delighted me. While Two Point Museum starts off with a more traditional approach, introducing the dinosaur and fossil-focussed Memento Mile, which most museum-goers will be familiar with, the very next step is either into the aforementioned haunted museum, or into an aquatic museum for fishes and fish people history.
Read: Two Point Museum preview – Indiana Jonesing for more
In Wailon Lodge, you score higher points for nabbing ghoulish artefacts in your expeditions (you can send your experts on travels to find artefacts, ghosts, fish, and other goodies) and for discovering ghosts to put on display. As much as your museum-goers are terrified by ghosts, they’re also incredibly fascinated by the macabre, so your museum will pop off if you’ve got a gloomy spectre or two moping by a Victorian fireplace. It’s a goth dream, really.
Not only will you decorate your very own ghost zoo in this game, you’ll also be able to set up spooky little exhibits of haunted antiquities, placing various signs and warnings around casings, to amp up those gothic vibes. I placed my pseudo-Annabelle doll behind various ropes, then littered her enclosure with books and spooky paintings. Another expedition yielded a creepy animatronic pirate (part of a larger set), and he got the same treatment, with careful consideration.
It’s not only the artefacts themselves that gain you prestige in your museum – it’s all about the vibe, as I covered in an earlier preview. To jazz up your museum, each artefact must be accompanied by knowledge-delivering posters and installations, as well as thematic decorations. For haunted items, you’ve got weird paintings, chandeliers, and old books.
For special artefacts found in ice, you’ve got ice cubes, ice towers, and refrigerators (necessary to keep your artefacts from melting). Of course, for dinosaurs, there’s fossil decals, bones, and other prehistoric items.
As in my preview, it was this twist I found most compelling. While the Two Point games chart similar courses, and therefore threaten to become repetitive and over-familiar, each changes up the formula just enough to keep it novel and exciting.
In this sequel, you get a blank artistic canvas to work from, and must use more of your imagination to create compelling, thematic exhibits that will attract an audience. Those less aesthetically-minded may struggle to create cohesive, good-looking museums, but therein lies the challenge.
You must balance all your needs to create a good museum – and that extends to decorating well, knowing when to go on expeditions for more artefacts, knowing how to train your staff (and in what skill), and figuring out how to get donations and cash without being exploitative.
Across the first three museums included in this latest Two Point Museum preview, I was delighted by these challenges every turn, and in how each museum presents entirely new challenges to overcome. Wailon Lodge introduced the aforementioned “ghost zoo” mechanic, which was a delightful and creepy challenge. In Passwater Cove, you actually get a mini fishing game, in that your expeditions revolve around catching fish and then displaying them in a museum, Animal Crossing-style.
That was the game Two Point Museum most evoked for me in its eclectic array of museums, and the subject matter of each individual location. With each new museum established, you’re charting a brand new course for preservation, tackling new artefacts and new flavours. Just like in Animal Crossing, that involves collecting all sorts of goodies via unique questing.
I can only imagine the rest of the game will continue this trend – and I can’t wait to see more of it, and to know what’s next in my great museum journey.
After taking the first steps, and then several more, Two Point Museum is quickly being solidified as one of my most anticipated games for 2025. I’ve played a lot of it now, but it’s not nearly enough. The game’s release date – 4 March 2025 – can’t come soon enough.
