Two Point Studios has mastered its core management formula. Across three games now – Two Point Hospital, Two Point Campus, Two Point Museum – it has perfected the art of giving players a task, and allowing them to complete it in rewarding fashion. And while the bones of each Two Point game are similar, each still does plenty to differentiate itself, and give it an identity wholly distinct from its predecessors.
While there were doubts that Two Point Museum could do as Two Point Campus did – reinvent the formula for an entirely new management experience – it’s delightful to see this game does exactly that, packing novelty into every facet, for a game that feels fresh and new, regardless of its pedigree.
In Two Point Museum, you are the curator of a variety of themed museums, although they’re not all strictly museums in the tradition sense. Two Point Studios plays with a wonderfully loose formula, so what you’re really doing is establishing museums, haunted mansions, aquariums, and space stations, with these wrapped around a unique gameplay loop: finding artefacts on expeditions, and bring them back to your museums for display.
I spoke about this in my early preview, but what’s most important in Two Point Museum isn’t necessarily packing in the exhibits. It’s more about the vibe and feel of your displays, with emphasis placed on how you decorate and style your museums. Vibes guide your hand, as each exhibit must have a “buzz” rating buoyed by good decorations, research, and other factors, to ensure museum guests are getting the most out of their experience.
In this twist, Two Point Museum reveals a richness to its layers – one that enhances its management gameplay loop, and encourages you think carefully, and build your museums slowly, rather than burn through cash all at once.
A museum of hastily excavated artefacts won’t really get you anywhere. But if you focus your travels on one location, making multiple expeditions, potentially unearthing the same or similar artefacts multiple times, you’ll be able to ensure your research rating is high, and that your exhibits are genuinely giving back to your visitors, in a way that will encourage donations. There’s an element of sacrifice in this quest for knowledge, as you will occasionally need to break down an artefact for research. What this means is a need for greater investment, and patience.
In the game’s main campaign, which will see you charting a course from pre-history to the future, this need to invest means Two Point Museum has a surprisingly slower pace, compared to its predecessors. You’ll need to take a much slower approach to building expertise, for one thing, with each phase of your museum’s growth determined by multi-stage quests.
Where before, star ratings were earned in more linear fashion, there’s now a requirement to build up your museums with a formal strategy, ensuring you can advance by following a hotline of tips. You must establish a museum tour – but you also need a certain buzz rating. Sometimes, you might need 80% of your exhibits to have a particular buzz, and if you can’t quite fulfil that requirement yet, you may need to sell an exhibit.
This layer of strategy enhances the burden of choice, forcing you to question your exhibit placements. Should a ghost that needs a particular fireplace for buzz be shot back into the nethersphere to keep your museum’s rating high? Should you display your giant feet fossils together, for maximum buzz-worthy footage? Should you be concerned if your exotic giant plant is eating your museum guests, and transforming them into clowns? What a world Two Point Museum depicts.
Beyond a slower pace, Two Point Museum also benefits from a lean into narrative and absurdity. Where its predecessors were slightly more traditional in approach, it does feel like this game is determined to weave more storytelling out of its gameplay systems, with little voiceovers and guiding characters revealing more about the history of your museum spaces – telling literal ghost stories, and revealing more about each expedition location.
Read: Two Point Museum preview – Indiana Jonesing for more
While a minor touch, this adds in a really welcome sense of progression, giving you milestone achievements in your quest to reach the upper echelons of the museum curator space. It also means that when you send your experts on expeditions, you feel like you’re uncovering more of a world, delving deeper and further with every successful trip.
Likewise, as you conquer each museum’s goals, you’ll be able to journey to newer museums, discovering even more special artefacts and collectibles, then tick them off in your little artefact and challenge book. The more challenges you complete, the more parts of the game you’ll unlock. And each new museum you stumble upon is then a chance to flex your creative muscles, and develop a welcoming space for everyone.
Two Point Museum is, by design, very different from the other Two Point games. With an entirely new exploration-based narrative loop, combined with new decorative and design mechanics, it feels like a colourful and dynamic new twist on familiar mechanics, with plenty of opportunities to experiment.
Whether in sandbox or campaign modes, Two Point Museum lets you dream up your perfect museum, and gives you the tools to realise your creative vision. While it does occasionally force you to pump the breaks on your ambitions, with a focus on careful placement and research over easy wins, this pacing makes the entire game a more thoughtful, deep experience. Take your time, smell the roses and dinosaur bones, and Two Point Museum will open your eyes to the possibilities of your imagination.
Four-and-a-half stars: ★★★★½
Two Point Museum
Platform(s): Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Developer: Two Point Studios
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 4 March 2025
A PC code for Two Point Museum was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
