Two Point Museum

Two Point Museum... a hidden gem I'm really glad I picked up. I'll be honest: after my experience with Two Point Campus, I wasn't exactly eager to play Two Point Museum. I'm really glad I changed my mind. As you'd expect, the game is full of the classic Two Point charm, plenty of quirky humor, ridiculous radio announcements, and a fun, lighthearted art style. But what really hooked me were the new gameplay mechanics. Unlike most management games, you don't simply buy new exhibits; you have to go out and find them first. You'll send archaeologists and other specialists on expeditions, hoping they'll come back with fossils, artifacts, and other treasures worthy of putting on display. At first, it all seems pretty simple. Then the game opens up. Prehistoric fossils are only the beginning. Before long you'll be discovering botanical exhibits, deep-sea creatures, machinery, and plenty of other collections that I haven't even scratched the surface of yet. There's a surprising amount of depth here, and unlocking new exhibits never stopped being exciting. One thing I really enjoyed is how much the game encourages you to think about your visitors. After all, who wants to stare at a pile of old bones without any context? Information boards, decorations, guided tours run by your staff, and carefully planned exhibit layouts all improve the guest experience. I found myself constantly redesigning my museum, not because I had to, but because I genuinely wanted to make every exhibit look just a little bit better. Of course, valuable exhibits attract unwanted attention. Thieves will happily walk off with your priceless artifacts if you don't invest in security. It's a mechanic I genuinely enjoyed because it gives you yet another thing to think about while managing your museum. Leave your exhibits unprotected, and they'll disappear before you even notice. Overall, Two Point Museum has been a fantastic surprise. It looks great, offers a huge variety of exhibits to discover, introduces plenty of fresh mechanics, and gives you lots of unique museums to build and customize. I can already tell I'll be sinking plenty more hours into redesigning my museums every time I discover another awesome exhibit. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all? The game runs buttery smooth. Even with well over 600 visitors wandering around my museum, I never had any performance issues. If you enjoyed Two Point Hospital, or if Two Point Campus left you wanting more, I'd absolutely recommend giving Two Point Museum a shot.

It's good, yet another improvement over the previous Two Point games I'd say. It does come with similar amounts of grinding needed, and some of the DLC are even worse in this regard. Maybe if you were able to speed the game up further it would make some of this a little less tedious, because there is a lot of waiting for expeditions. I've seen most of what is available here and I won't bother grinding for the last few achievements, so after ~100 hours I feel done. Good value for money. Works flawlessly on Linux.

A very fun and creative game. I could see myself spending much more time in this... once I get the time.