Holy cow. Two Point Museum is here, and we think it deserves the full ninjarefinery.com review experience.
Similar to our 3-part Monster Hunter Wilds review. We’re doing our deep-dive into Two Point Museum.
Here we’ll lay out our initial impression. Compare it to the others in the series, and consider the opening 10 or so hours we’ve spent curating our collections. Then we’ll dig deeper in our further thoughts piece and finally come to some conclusions in our final thoughts piece.
What can we say? We go hard when it comes to big, important games!
Ok, let’s get Two the Point…..
Those opening hours
A management sim like other games in the Two Point series, can be intimidating at first glance. Two Point Museum is no exception.
People to manage, money to make, customers to gain and make happy. All the while expanding your offering and keeping it maintained and safe.
Frankly, on paper Two Point Museum sounds like work and not fun.
But, Two Point Studios has clearly mastered it’s craft now. The onboarding is smooth. The complexity is arguably at an all-time high for the series, and yet, it’s more accessible than ever.
You’re quickly understanding the importance of exhibits, security, expeditions and managing everything all at once.
It’s genuinely impressive how well Two Point Museum brings you into the fray. You might feel stumped at what you need to do next, but never how to achieve it.
All change
Two Point Museum is an obviously different business to run than a Hospital or a College/University. But it comes with all the charm and whimsy you expect from Two Point Studios.
Funny, quirky and excellent music all remain.
After that, though, Two Point Museum is a different beast.
Having exhibits at a museum is obviously very important. But getting new ones, maintaining them, improving knowledge about them, and educating guests about them. That’s a lot, and it’s all new.
Sending teams out on expeditions to find new exits to display is a system all in itself. Your team might die, they might find the same thing several times, they might find only part of what you need.
Then it needs to be well presented so your customers will donate, and keep your museum open.
Two Point Museum plays more with the Theme Park style of money making, too. Gift shops, coffee shops, cafeterias, ticket prices. You can really sharpen your pencil and squeeze that profit out.
Variety
Two Point Museum does this core loop exceptionally well. But then everything mixes-up even further.
You have different types of museum and exhibit. Pre-historic, aquatic, science, botanical. Each required specialists and special conditions to display your wares.
Suddenly you’re worried your fish might eat each other, or perhaps your plants are too close to ice exhibits and not keeping the humidity and temperature they require.
Security becomes increasingly important as Ganges of criminals look to steal and vandalise. Two Point Museum introduces CCTV and security guards to keep it all safe.
Each element of the game feels finely-tuned to give you the accessibility you need to handle it all without fretting.
So far, so good
10 or so hours, two 2-star museums and a new third one underway. We’re still learning new things, taking on new types of exhibit and increasing our offerings all-around.
It’s been a breezy entry into the game, but we wonder where difficulty might ramp-up or more and more elements get added and become a bit too cumbersome.
So far, it’s been perfect, but time will tell. There’s going to be some things that likely don’t work for us, but you never know. It may just continue to be well paced and well balanced!
We’ll dig into the systems and the aesthetic next time. With no story per se, we can focus on accessibility and fun over everything.