Two Point Museum review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

Given how much I loved both Two Point Campus and Two Point Hospital, you can probably imagine how excited I was to play Two Point Museum. Given Two Point Studio’s impeccable track record, I figured their take on a museum would be as close as you could get to a sure thing.

And yet, somehow, it’s not.

I mean, it’s certainly not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. Much like the developer’s previous efforts, Two Point Museum takes the building sim genre and adds a bunch of humour and whimsy. Where else but in a Two Point game, after all, would you be put in charge of a haunted museum, and have to hire experts who can calm down angry ghosts?

And, to the game’s credit, it gives you plenty to do here. You have five locations (plus a sandbox mode), and you’re constantly being given new tasks to carry out and new conditions to fulfill. You can easily sink a dozen hours or more into Two Point Museum, and that’s just from the main story mode – add in the sandbox, and you can easily add dozens and dozens of hours more.

My problem with it all is that, at a certain point very early on, it all starts feeling very grindy. Rather than trying to create museums just for the fun of it and happening to unlock your new locations along the way, the neverending flow of new tasks feels more like a list of chores to carry out. Where before the game constantly lightened the mood with funny radio stations, here you have a PA announcer reminding you to move things along and hire the right mixture of people.

What’s more, at the same time as you’re always being pushed to build, buy, and decorate, you also need to keep a very close eye on your finances. Admittedly, that’s a key part of any management sim, but it feels like it’s a heavier focus this time out than in previous Two Point games, and I don’t think it’s a change for the better.

I will admit, though, that the constant push for improving your staff and your building led to one of the Two Point series’ best innovations: rather than unlocking new features through research, in Two Point Hospital you have to send your experts out into the field to find new items to display. While some of the field outings are fairly simple, part of the reason the game is always pushing you to hire more staff is so that you can train them up and meet the criteria for unlocking more dig locations. Even if you can’t see the field expeditions, it’s still always fun to send your experts and their teams out into the field and watch them bring back crazy artefacts.

But I don’t think it’s enough to help Two Point Museum the overarching grindy feeling that permeates the game. This entry in the Two Point series definitely represents a slight turn towards being (slightly) more serious and (slightly) more demanding – and while that may not be the worst thing in the world, it’s definitely not what I look to the series for, personally.

SEGA provided us with a Two Point Museum PC code for review purposes.

Two Point Museum: Explorer Edition - PlayStation 5

Price: $33.99

11 used & new available from $32.86

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