A lifetime ago, I fell in love with tycoon games. Though I didn’t have a background in management at the time, it was fun to create a sprawling capitalist empire (or what I thought one should look like). The genre has since passed into the annals of history, but its essence lives on in the Two Point series, now bolstered by the new Two Point Museum.

Inspired by the quirky Theme Hospital from 1997, Two Point Hospital, as the series started back then, brought back the feeling of becoming a business magnate but flavored with a healthy dose of irreverent humor. That first hospital-themed game proved so successful that the developers created a school-themed sequel, Two Point Campus. Now, the world of museums is getting a rub.

Two Point Museum is a management game for loot box lovers

With two successful games under its belt, the Two Point formula is undeniably a success. That said, going for the same old routine for a third outing is probably tempting fate. To spice things up, Two Point Studios is slightly altering its formula.

Though the game still wants you to keep your guests happy, the focus of Two Point Museum is the museum itself. In previous games, the objective was to cater to your guests’ needs. In Museum, you take on the role as the curator of a group of museums. You have to build themed five-star museums from the ground up. And it all boils down to the exhibits you collect.

Your museum is only as good as your exhibits. To get the best exhibits, you need to send staff on expeditions to five thematic areas: the prehistoric Bone Belt, the aquatic Two Point Sea, the otherworldly Netherworld, the scientific Bungle Burrows, and the planets of the Known Universe. Once completed, each expedition creates a gigantic crate that opens like a loot box.

Two Point Museum revels in this comparison. If you love the dopamine rush of opening loot boxes, the game provides more than enough satisfaction. It’s the perfect game for collectors. Though the game is positioned as a museum management game, it’s actually about collecting the best exhibits and displaying them for a virtual audience.

Five smaller games bundled into one

Now, it’s not just about loot boxes. Taking care of the exhibits depends on which of the five types they are. For example, marine life obtained from the Two Point Sea requires aquariums. Ghosts from the Netherworld need hotel-like poltergeist rooms. Meanwhile, you can get only blueprints from Bungle Burrows, so you have to build the exhibits yourself.

On the campaign trail, each theme is largely contained to their own museums. You’ll be putting on different caps depending on which museum you’re on. It’s like having five different management games bundled inside.

For the most part, transitioning between the different museums don’t require a lot of mental gymnastics. I can quickly pick up the science-themed museum after an extended stint in the Netherworld.

However, it does mean that favorites are inevitable. I found myself hunting for famous spirits more than any other exhibit. This will likely be different from person to person. Regardless, if you love these types of games, it’s impossible not to find fun in at least one museum type.

How do I manage this thing?

Despite the natural joy of opening loot boxes, Two Point Museum is, in essence, a management game. There are a lot of things to keep track of. Just from your exhibits, you have to manage the Buzz they generate and the Knowledge they convey. You have to think about your staff’s happiness, their abilities, and their salaries. You have to think about your guest’s hunger, thirst, energy, and enjoyment.

Through the gradual progression of the campaign, the game eases you into all the different mechanics of managing your own museum. Ideally, you should have enough mastery over everything by the end of the campaign. In practice, it’s a lot more complicated. There are a few times I was at a loss figuring out how to increase average Knowledge or staff satisfaction.

For the most part, the essence of management in this game is the same as it is with its contemporaries: watch the numbers go up. Though it might take some time to identify how to make those numbers go up, the joy of making your museum engine work is worth the occasional confusion.

Getting too big for its own good

Two Point’s graphics always lean towards the goofy, rather than the realistic. Even a less-than-stellar PC should have no problem playing the new Museum. Having less realistic graphics will mitigate the most common issue of management games, but only to an extent.

At first, a management game will always play smoothly. However, as you get better and better at creating a system, the software naturally slows down because of the load. You’ll have too many guests and too many exhibits. Though my PC could still play the game, it did suffer from the occasional stutter. All this is to say that you can probably expect some minor performance issues as you progress more into the game.

Outside of actual performance, you might also find it hard to manage a museum with so many moving parts. It gets harder to interact with the exact thing you want to interact with. With denser museums, you’ll need to hunt for pixels just to select the right thing.

Should you play Two Point Museum?  

Two Point Museum is easily one of the most approachable management games today. Plus, we’re living in a world obsessed with mystery boxes. The game is the perfect reflection of our current zeitgeist. But it’s not so much a commentary as it is a playful way to address what we love today.

If you love opening mystery boxes, creating wonderful systems, or just playing as a museum curator, Two Point Museum is the perfect game for you.