Two Point Museum Nintendo Switch 2 Review

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fast Facts

Two Point Museum is a fantastically funny, moreish, and entertaining simulator in which you take charge of building a museum and filling it full of a variety of exhibits gathered from going on expeditions.

You start off in your first museum which has a prehistoric theme, you will hire your first Expert, Assistant, Janitor & Security Guard. 

Experts go on expeditions to gather new exhibits as well as looking after existing ones. Assistants staff the ticket stand, gift shop, coffee stands etc. Janitors take care of keeping your museum clean, keeping equipment repaired and making new items in the workshop. Security Guards empty donation stands and monitor the general security of your museum, ensuring nothing is stolen by thieves. 

What do we do with our time?

The core gameplay loop revolves around sending an expert on an expedition to gather and exhibit. Placing that exhibit in your museum. You then decorate that exhibit and make sure that it is within reach of an info stand, this ensures that it has a good amount of “buzz” and gives the customers “knowledge”. The better buzz and knowledge the more you earn from donations and the better reviews your museum gets. You use the money earned to pay staff and hire more to go on more expeditions and start the process all over again. 

Whilst simple to start off with Two Point Museum has several tricks up its sleeve to enhance this loop, for example some expeditions need multiple members of staff and can take a long time, which may leave you under staffed for other parts of your museum. Some exhibits require different environments, such as fish in an aquarium or tropical plants needing somewhere hot & humid, both of these requirements need extra machinery to function, which can go wrong/set on fire etc. There is always something to keep on top of and look after whilst managing your museum, you’re never left wanting for something to do or work towards. 

Features like these were present in previous Two Point games, however Museum is slightly less stress inducing than the previous entries, especially Two Point Hospital. If you found that game too much but enjoyed the overall concept then this might be the perfect game to jump back into the series. 

Laugh time and again

Two Point Museum is a game which really doesn’t take itself seriously, the tannoy announcements are full of quirky charm and there are several gameplay elements which are designed just to put a smile on your face. For example, when a member of staff has finished a training session, they simply bin the book they’ve been reading. A tannoy announcement I particularly liked was “Prehistory expert to reception, we have a bone to pick”. You can tell that the developers had a lot of fun, thinking about how you could have a lot of fun when they made this game.

Complexity without overloading

Once you’ve gotten so far in your first museum, you’ll earn your first star level, at this point you are invited to start a museum in a different zone, this being the marine environment. In this area you will primarily set up marine exhibits such as fish and tropical fish. Fish have to be displayed in aquariums which need a water filter and possibly a water heater, adding a layer of complexity without being too complex that it is daunting. Later on you’ll move to an old haunted hotel and turn that into a museum, where you will have to deal with ghosts and ‘Polterguest’ rooms. New concepts and requirements are introduced at a good pace allowing you to adjust without becoming overwhelmed.

There are a total of six different museums to explore and the story will have you going back and forth between them to increase the star level as you go. By doing this you can take what you’ve learnt in one museum and apply it to others. You can also mix and match the exhibits in the same museum (provided you’ve got the different experts to gather them), there is no restriction on this.

The game gives you a great deal of freedom, you can install one way doors, staff doors, interior walls, walkways and tours. All of these options let you completely design the museum of your dreams and keep your lucky customers trapped in your museum for eternity (if you’re that way inclined)

Explorer Edition

The explorer edition available at launch offers a heap of cosmetic skins, themes and items, a decent amount of ‘Kudosh’ (used to unlock items, can be earned with relative ease) and some quality of life items to help out on expeditions. If you are a lover of the series I would say go for this, however it certainly isn’t needed to enjoy this wonderful game.

Conclusion

Two Point Studios have a winning formula and have once again delivered with this latest entry designed around building museums. The game is full of charm and character, it will make you smile and laugh and you find yourself playing for hours on end with its very addictive gameplay loop. As any simulator game would, it throws curveballs and challenges at you, however you are always guided through these and given enough tools to find a solution that works for you. It doesn’t restrict your creative bones at all, instead lets you fill out your museum however and with whatever you like. Two Point Museum is a fantastic game and I cannot wait to see what the studio comes up with next.

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

Available to purchase on the Nintendo eShop