“I’m running a museum, Mr. Pots, not a charity” I muttered to the somewhat bloated staff page of my somewhat thriving first museum. We’d had a bit of a rush recently due to a freshly landed exhibit and the resulting foot traffic caused a rise in janitorial duties. At the time of hiring Mr. Pots (affable fellow, really), I was distracted by the slow turnover from the gift shop so I threw in for a third janitor to stem the tide of scuffed floors and mussed toilets. A shortsighted choice- our janitorial output was now too efficient and there was, as they say, far too much leaning and not enough cleaning. So, with the kind of cold precision that any of my former retail managers would have been proud of, I sat Mr. Pots down and told him his services were no longer required. Productivity restored and monthly balances getting a nice bump. It felt good.
Two Point Studios knows how to turn me into a cartoonish managerial nightmare. After correctly clocking the need in the sim management space for approachable, lower-stakes titles, Two Point’s unique approach to the genre has encompassed the running of a university with Two Point Campus and the daily operations of your own Scrubs (or Grey’s Anatomy? 911? What’s a modern touchstone for medial dramas?), Two Point Hospital. Business is booming in the Two Point and those learned students and healthy(ish) townsfolk need a place to gather and gawk at the wonders of the world. Where better than a Two Point Museum?
The basic principles of Two Point’s design philosophy still apply in Two Point Museum– you’re given control over a newly established business and tasked with generating income and interest via an escalating series of systems and situations. As the managing curator of a collection of museums, the latest outing sees you driving for Knowledge and Buzz among the general populace who flood through your doors daily, both meters, in turn, driving donations and interest you can use to fund more extravagant exhibits and fancier trappings. If you’ve played a Two Point, much of this loop will feel familiar and comforting, the basic rise and fall of supply and demand.
Two Point Museum starts to play with the boundaries of the Two Point formula though, evidently a studio with a stride now picking a direction in which to move. The needs of a museum after all are pretty unique; the usual assortment of janitorial duties and customer service operations still stand as core pillars of your proficiency as a business (if nobody mans the desk, patrons will begin to queue and get grumpy etc) but the lifeblood of a museum is…well, bones. Or rare specimens suspended in amber. Or haunted artifacts from a lost culture. No matter which of the multiple themed museums you’re running (the preview build also gave us a quick look at a maritime and vaguely spooky one), you’ll need to run Expeditions to “acquire” new exhibits from far off lands, shifting the gameplay outside of the fall walls of Two Point’s finest establishments for the first time.
Running an Expedition essentially extrapolates the basic hiring and training practices of any baseline Two Point business into more fleshed-out staff excursions. Up to a small handful of your team can be assigned to any given adventure into the unknown; pick a location from a global map, assign staff with the corresponding skills, establish the parameters for the expedition (you can spend a little more for a slower, safer trip or cut corners and demand results quickly), and watch as your crew clambers aboard the company’s military-grade helicopter and sets forth.
From here, a few different things can happen. Best case scenario sees your team return with a fancy new (old) thing to proudly display amid the usual assortment of decorative and informative items (placing a sign nearer an exhibit generates better Knowledge and Buzz), and your adventurous workers unwind in the staff lounge. That new set of bones is also packaged in what could only be described as a Loot Box, a massive package that is unwrapped and opened with a discrete fanfare animation, knowingly. But this being Two Point, things can go comically rather awry. Staff can return with injuries and conditions that need to be treated, for example, or could even vanish entirely under mysterious circumstances. These little flourishes keep Expeditions interesting and work beautifully in tandem with the existing Two Point staff satisfaction and training systems.
And as Expeditions expand the world around Two Point, so too does your museum require you to consider space and how it’s used. While loading up the walls and floors with fake plants for the simple sake of Vibes and Aesthetics is still a treat (legit don’t think there was a single free panel of wall in my museum I hadn’t covered in drop vines), Two Point Museum asks you to be a little more involved in how a functional space would actually need to operate. Things like walkable pathing through exhibits and the aforementioned correctly placed information and donation stands all play a role in the overall success of the space. It’s just the right amount of extra consideration and sits comfortably alongside the Two Point games’ rewarding customisation options.
Speaking of, Two Point Museum still hums with the same sense of humour and levity that defined its sister titles. My favourite radio DJ from Two Point Hospital has been replaced with a stately and dry-witted announcer who is just as likely to remind people not to touch the exhibits as she is to inform them that if they’re bored, perhaps they’re just a bit shit. Character animations and art direction likewise fall neatly in line with the broader series and remain a highlight as you zoom in on any given corner of your museum and watch a worker clean tar off their boots or a customer ooh and ahh at the bundle of bones and plants you so proudly angled just right.
So while Two Point Studios may be inadvertently turning me into my worst self, they’re also continuing to offer up one of gaming’s most approachable and engaging comfort foods. Although we’ll have to wait for the full release to see how far Expeditions go in shifting the Two Point formula, what’s on offer in Two Point Museum is already pointing toward a series that knows how and what to show off. Consider us buzzed.
