Two Point Museum: Arty-Facts DLC - Switch 2 Review

The fine people of Two Point County are really getting spoiled recently – since you started your curating journey in Two Point Museum, you’ve developed all sorts of museums, aquariums and even some zoos. But you know what this place is missing? That’s right, an art gallery. So dust off your curating hat, as it's time for the latest Two Point Museum DLC: Arty-Facts!

The Good

As with other DLCs for Two Point Museum, the basic gameplay for the expansion is the same – build and decorate your museum, hire staff, attract guests, gather new exhibits, make money and build reputation. This is all pretty standard for the Two Point series, but it is worth noting that the basic gameplay loops and core principles remain as enjoyable as ever.

Arty-Facts does bring some new mechanics to the table as well, though. The most interesting one is the addition of the ‘emotion’ attribute. Each artwork you display has associated emotions that are inspired in those who view it. These emotions in turn have direct impacts on your visitors – make your visitors feel joy as they gaze upon the Miniature Lisa and they’ll donate more to the museum; make them angry and they’ll become numb to high prices at your gift shop. It's a mechanic that allows you to optimise your layout and tours in new ways and is fun to experiment with.  

You also have a new way to develop exhibits – your in-house art experts can be commissioned to create original pieces, and you can specify the type of work you’re looking for, its quality, emotion and so on. Your artists can be trained in new emotions or art styles by sending them on expeditions as before. All of this artwork, decorations and theming is quintessentially Two Point, with the humour and style remaining on top form, whether it’s seeing a crowd captivated by a live mime performance or discovering the unique artworks riffing on real-life masterpieces.

TL;DR

• Theming, writing and humour as good as ever 
• Interesting new mechanics

The Bad

For the third time in as many Two Point Museum reviews, I am obliged to note that the game suffers from some very long loading times and some lag as your museums get bigger. This proved to be the case in handheld or docked mode, and remains a shame, as the whole idea is to increase the size and busy-ness of your museum!

While the emotion and original artwork points are interesting, they did have only minor impacts on the game overall – it is certainly possible to run a successful gallery without interacting with them on any meaningful level. This isn’t necessarily a problem in itself (it’s a DLC after all), but when compared to how many new elements Zooseum added and how unique they were and – crucially – for the same price, Arty-Facts feels like it gives less value for money.

TL;DR

• New gameplay elements not as impactful as other DLCs
• Still lag issues with busy museums!

Final Score: 6/10

If you are choosing between the Arty-Facts and the Zooseum DLCs, then the zoo is the way to go for bang for your buck. But fans of Two Point Museum will enjoy the new locations and exhibits and appreciate the new mechanics. And the fans are, of course, who this is for. They remain well served by Arty-Facts, even if it’s not a full-fledged masterpiece.

Thank you for checking out our Two Point Museum: Arty-Facts DLC Switch 2 review, thank you to Sega (via Five Star Games) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• Nintendo Maniacs
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