Management games are uniquely situated to appeal to specific fantasies, letting you live out dreams you’d otherwise never have the chance to, such as designing your own theme park or running a robust pizza restaurant. Amidst the management genre, Sega’s Two Point series has stood out for its wacky sense of humor and deeply complex and satisfying systems. Now Two Point Studios has unveiled its most inventive idea yet, Two Point Museum, and after a brief hands-on, I’m hopeful it could be the best entry yet.
I’m a massive history buff, so much so that I was almost a history major in college, instead of the journalism degree I eventually went with. With that in mind, I’ve always found there to be a surprising lack of museum management games, especially meaty ones with a big budget, presentation, and wealth of systems. Two Point Museum feels like that perfect match made in heaven, a fun management simulation that lets the series revel in its off-the-wall humor and absurdity.
The crux of Two Point Museum is just like the last two games, but if you’re unfamiliar, you’re essentially given free rein to create your own museum. You’ll need to construct the building, set up exhibits, hire staff, beautify everything, and make sure that your income is more than what you’re spending. The Two Point games aren’t the most complex management sims out there, but neatly straddle the line between approachability and complexity.
Two Point Museum is exactly the same way, but it introduces a fascinating new mechanic to its simulation — a full world map that lets you set out on expeditions to unearth new discoveries. One of your most important hires is the expert, who will keep your exhibits clean and repaired but can also be sent out on expeditions.
The usual gameplay loop of a Two Point game is earning money and meeting criteria to unlock your next big attraction or item, but in Two Point Museum, the world map system completely flips the script. According to Two Point Studios, this was intentional to move away from the three-start ranking system, as the studio found that once players achieved all-stars they’d simply move on from a level and never play it again.
Now with this new discovery system, there’s more emphasis on longevity, giving players the chance to craft their ideal museum for hours on end with more freedom, instead of working toward hyper-specific goals. But sending experts out on Expeditions can also lead to injuries, and them tracking mysterious goop into your museum, so you’ll need to hire janitors and let them take rests. You’ll also need workers to man gift shops or ticket stands, security to keep the peace and collect donations, and plenty more employees.
Two Point Museum is easy enough to grasp at first, especially because of that new loop — hire experts, conduct expeditions, place new exhibits, and expand your museum. But the complexity of the game comes in with how you can fine-tune everything around that. You need to strategically place decorations to boost the popularity of exhibits, you can outfit your walls will murals or hanging leaves, smartly place vending machines to make more money, and search for the employees that give you the best bang for your buck. The same engrossing gameplay loop of Two Point Hospital and Campus is alive and well here, but made even more compelling by that sense of discovery and advancement.
In our demo, we only had access to a Prehistoric museum, but apparently the full game will feature an array of different themes and styles. But even with this small snippet, there were some surprising shenanigans that happened in my demo.
One of my expeditions yielded a mythical frozen fridge that I proudly displayed at the front of my museum. Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken into account the fact that the display was, well, frozen. By forgetting to install air conditioners, my star display melted all over the floor, causing huge puddles, angry guests, and a load of extra work for my poor janitors. According to Two Point Studios, you can find other frozen exhibits, like a caveman, and if that happens to freeze said caveman will cause havoc in your building. Little bits of humor have been slipped into smaller aspects of the game too, like the announcement system running an ad for a supernatural TV show that’s on “Live TV, somewhere,” or hiring experts named Tex Deluxe and Harry Lovecraft.
I felt like I could have kept playing Two Point Museum for ten hours if I’d had the option. That ultra-satisfying loop from the past two games feels better than ever here, and it’s clear that Two Point Studios is having fun with the concept, really leaning toward bringing a museum to life. It’s hard to think of a better direction this series could have gone in, and if it all comes together, just like a good museum, it could be one for the history books.
