Two Point Museum - Switch 2 Review

Spare a thought for the cartoon citizens of Two Point County, the setting for the Two Point franchise. They have already had their hospitals and college campuses taken over by gamers (via the two previous entries of the series) – not necessarily the first choices to variously cure or educate people – and now the gamers are coming for their museums. And so we have Two Point Museum, the latest management sim from UK-based Two Point Studios. So how does the series handle the jump to museum-curating? And perhaps more importantly, the jump to Switch 2?

The Good

The Two Point games (and their spiritual predecessor Theme Hospital) have a very clear formula to them – take a large, public institution, make a cartoony-but-detailed management sim around it, then lace it with a distinct sense of humour. Two Point Museum is no different, and it absolutely delivers on each part of that premise. 

Firstly, the presentation: visually, Two Point Museum keeps its light, cartoony style that both looks great on the Switch (docked or handheld) and perfectly matches the game's sense of humour. This in particular remains excellent – from the pun-filled exhibit names through to the faintly sarcastic tannoy announcer, the writing is wacky but on the dry side and raises many a chuckle. 

Secondly, the management gameplay: in your role as curator, you are not just responsible for placing the exhibits and decorations (though that’s a big part of it). You'll also be designing the building itself, managing the staff, analysing artefacts and even planning expeditions out into the world to find new exhibits. Each of these aspects comes with surprisingly deep gameplay systems, and you’ll need to pay attention to them all to succeed – keeping your staff happy, your museum safe, your guests edu-tained and still making money requires some delicate balancing. The ‘story mode’ comes with a generous and helpful guide to get you going and introduce you to the myriad concepts to keep on top of, as well as providing you with small challenges to keep focusing on as you grow, meaning there’s always something to work towards and keep you interested. 

Meanwhile, the sandbox mode lets you design, build and manage the museum of your hopes and dreams without the restrictions of money, or perhaps take on extra challenging circumstances (if somehow that’s more your speed). Couple this with a wide range of distinct maps and themes for your museums, including all the DLC like fantasy maps and tie-ins with other games, and you won’t run out of content in the Switch edition of Two Point Museum. Which is a good thing, because playing in handheld mode is ideal for bursts of curating action.

TL;DR

• Addictive management gameplay
• Delightful sense of humour and style
• Lots of content in the game

The Bad

The Switch 2 seems like an obvious fit for the Two Point franchise, and on paper it most definitely is. As a management sim, it is most naturally played with a mouse, but the Switch 2 is a console with mouse functionality, so it's a great match, right? Well, no. Mouse control isn’t an option. Neither is using the touchscreen, which would all provide a reasonable alternative to navigating the dense menus with a lot of button clicks and scrolling. Of course the button controls work fine, but there’s so much more with the Switch 2 to take advantage of. Consider it a missed opportunity.

What is a more direct problem is the performance levels of the game. As your museums get bigger and busier (which they will; it’s the idea of the game), then there is a noticeable slowdownand stuttering and an even more noticeable input lag. At its worst, there was a couple of seconds delay between pressing a button and the menu opening. It is annoying at best and actively gets in the way of playing at worst. It feels like something a patch or two would take care of, but those updates would be much appreciated!

TL;DR

• Lack of mouse or touchscreen controls is a misstep
• Performance issues when the game gets busy

Final Score: 7/10

Two Point Museum is a great game and probably the best of the Two Point series to date. Its variety, sense of humour and fine-tuned management sim gameplay would usually mean a higher score here, but the performance issues, particularly in handheld mode, mean it will need a patch or two before a wholehearted recommendation.

Thank you for checking out our Two Point Museum Switch 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
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