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After the past few years of hit-and-miss business sims I had convinced myself that the real heyday of tycoon games was back in the 90s, but Two Point Museum may have finally changed my mind. It's not a huge, revolutionary departure from Two Point Studios' recent run of quirky games, Hospital and Campus, but this time they've finally perfected the recipe. With its varied and challenging management layer, tons of cool props and exhibits to unlock, and a refreshingly dry sense of humor, I sometimes had a hard time dragging myself away from it.The thing that impresses me most about Two Point Museum compared to other recent games like Planet Coaster 2 is that it actually seems interested in challenging you to manage the finances of your operation as youre building and decorating it. And maybe Im a nerd, but that's at least half the reason I like these kinds of games. It's actually difficult to build a money printer that you can simply walk away from, but also not so punishing that I frequently got myself into big trouble that I couldn't wiggle my way out of. The balance, when it comes to juggling my balance sheets, feels just about balanced.Two Point Museum Review ScreenshotsThere are lots of useful tools to help you pull this off. The whole interface seems cleverly built to group relevant information together, and makes it really easy to quickly take action on common problems. The Pay Review screen for your staff is a great example. I can sort everyone in the museum by how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with their salary, then adjust it with a slider without having to even open up another menu. Then you get to watch their satisfaction change almost immediately, all from that screen. It's so effortless to navigate all of these complex considerations when so much thought has been put into how to organize it all in a way that makes my job more convenient.The whole interface seems cleverly built to group relevant information together.Whether I'm setting up a new exhibit or decorating the employee break room, everything is done in Two Point's whimsical, cartoony, almost claymation-like style. I might be displaying a fossil of a floppy disk or artifacts from a planet inhabited by cheese-loving aliens, but Museum leans into it all. Admittedly, I've never been particularly charmed by this schtick in previous Two Point games, and I'm still not. But at least it's distinct and consistent. And the PA announcements are often actually quite funny. "Bored guests are reminded that not everything has to be a party, okay?"Changing the focus from running a school or hospital to a museum does Two Point a lot of favors, though. When my goal is to impress my guests using elaborate displays, lots of little decorations, and floor plans that make sure they have to exit through the gift shop, I find myself zooming way down and paying a lot of attention to how everything might look at eye-level. On one of my favorite maps, I got to design a haunted house experience complete with cursed artifacts and, eventually, actual ghosts who can break out and cause mayhem if they don't get their weekly therapy appointment. So yeah, simulation is used a bit loosely here, and Two Point is all too happy to embrace goofiness over reality. It works!Each of the different museums has its own thematic and interesting challenges like this. In one, I was searching the seas for exotic fish to add to my wall-to-wall underwater wonderland. In another, I had to learn the mysterious symbology of an alien race to activate adjacency bonuses for my exhibits. Whats especially cool about that is the differences between each of these are so great that it's almost like you're getting multiple games in one: Two Point Aquarium, Two Point Planetarium, and Two Point Haunted Hotel. This kept things fresh and exciting well into my career especially when my objectives started encouraging me to mix themes and disciplines from more than one area.Acquiring artifacts to show off and bring in crowds of gawkers involves unlocking and undertaking expeditions to everywhere from fossil-littered canyons to the far reaches of outer space. You have to manage the skills and traits of different staff members to unlock new ways of minimizing danger and maximizing rewards. It seems simple at first, but there's a lot of depth buried here. It seems simple at first, but there's a lot of depth buried here.And all of that harmonizes so well with the ways your staff can train and specialize at different tasks back home. An assistant who has a perk that allows them to move around quicker on the museum floor might also be able to remove a random event from an expedition that could cause injury or even "MIA" functionally, death.There's a great progression from simpler, quicker, and lower-risk outings that bring back much less impressive attractions to long, deadly, and elaborate ones that can require several high-skill staff members and craftable items to tackle. The option to go for a Quick, Safe, or Detailed approach adds more strategy and nuance; increasing the survey level of a site also increases the chances of getting higher-rarity versions of your exhibits, and that presents a compelling reason to come back to places you've already been.This further ties into the satisfying unlock system, in which breaking down copies of exhibits you already have will increase your knowledge level for that exhibit and make your museum more educational. And while general museum decorations are still unlocked with Kudosh, the achievement-based career currency making a return from Two Point Hospital and Campus, specifically themed decorations for a science or space museum only come from studying artifacts from that theme. There's so much to unlock that I never felt like I hit a point where I wasn't being rewarded for my time, even after more than 40 hours.Len's Top Tycoon Games10 of the best tycoon and business sim games to play in 2025.See AllThe only major part of the Two Point Museum formula I didn't love was dealing with crime. As your museum becomes more prestigious and displays higher-value items, it will increasingly be targeted by thieves and vandals who can really ruin your day, up to and including stealing entire attractions that may have taken hours to acquire and level up. Hiring more security guards and having one permanently posted up at each entrance is usually enough to deter most evildoers. But you're supposed to eventually set up camera rooms that I felt have too small of a coverage range, which monitor cameras that don't protect very much floor space and conflict with a lot of other necessary wall items. It gets to the point where I found it frustrating to find space to cram them in. As Ben Franklin once said, those who would give up essential wall space to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither.You can at least turn crime off in the Sandbox mode, which features a lot of other difficulty customization as well. That's really nice for long-term play. This is where you go if you want to run a museum that relies mostly on donations and grant money, and not even have to worry about charging an entry fee. There are settings for that as well.This is all set to a chill, vibe-y soundtrack that keeps me in the zone and jamming. It can vary from one map to the next, but it's always low-key, soothing, and upbeat.
