Growing up in the 1990s, I had fun playing games like Theme Hospital and Theme Park, so when Two Point Studios were founded and began to create games in that style, I took notice. Their first two games were good, but seems they were not done as they were back for more and they gave me the option to embrace my inner historian and go hands on.

From the outset, if you were to look at Two Point Museum and compare it to their other games, there wouldn’t be much of a difference, just swap out medical supplies for mummified remains and you are set. However, like any major archaeological site, if you spend a little more time digging beneath the surface, you will find a lot more than you thought possible. So much like the other games by the studio, you are hired as the new curator of the museum, the previous one did a runner and your first goal, put items back on display as there have been reports of rampant thievery. This is where the game differs a fair bit from the others, while in Hospital people would come in for treatment when they were ill, here you will need to source things to add to the museum, in order to draw folks in. You will still have to manage the people that work there, the customers that come in to see your stuff and everything in between, but that extra layer keeps things more engaging.

The exhibits that you display will have various stats assigned to them, like how rare they are, how much they might inspire people and even their value. If you want to inspire people, then you need to put similar items together, so throwing down a giant foot next to a glowing rock won’t help you. Placing items down is not all you need to consider, because if you have been to any museum, every exhibit has a little sign near it that explains what it is. Those signs usually contain the fancy name, the normal name and then the details and the same happens here, but of course the details here are a little more whimsical. Placing the sign down also provides more insight, which is helpful for those seeking to learn, but it isn’t just helpful items for the public you can put down. One of the items you can place down is the donation box, because every dollar raised helps fund more expeditions, which in turn results in more exhibits and therefore more money.

What I liked about all the above, is that everything has a radius of impact, if you put a donation box right next to an exhibit, it will get cash as people stop by it, but you can actually place one donation box near a good number of exhibits, meaning you don’t have to have so many about the place. The same impact is done with the signs, a single sign can work for multiple exhibits and even the decorations that you place down, those also have a radius that you need to work with. Speaking of decorations, not only can you put things like posters and signs up, but you can also put rocks and plants around an exhibit, meaning you can really set a scene. Now all of this means nothing if you are not making money and for that you need guests and once you start selling your tickets, people will come flocking in. Ok, well maybe not flocking in, but they will come and walk through your museum, but they will also need to leave at some point. As they leave, you can opt to direct them through the gift shop, because what museum would be complete without one. You will want to avoid doing what I did though and build a decent sized shop, because if it is too small, people won’t be able to get in and then they will just leave without buying anything, which is just not allowed.

What is allowed are expeditions and this was the part of the game that I was most curious about, as neither of the previous games had anything like this. In order to have an expedition take place, you need someone willing to go, usually in the form of one of your hires, though you can’t send a janitor. There are a number of factors that go into your success, the people you send, the locations they are going to and even the luck involved and you will want to ensure you get your team ready for the best chance of success. The first thing you will need to do is fill out the slots on your expedition team, now sometimes these are going to be single person teams, other times they might have 3 or 4 people needed. Once you have assigned your team, you can see how they are going to fare on the journey, the more experienced someone is the more it impacts your success, so if you are sending a level 2 prehistoric expert out versus a level 6, then you will see them be injured or just unlucky. Thankfully you can modify the teams resources, give them some medical supplies, to ensure they come back without injury or provide a better tent and so on. Once they do return you will have a shiny new exhibit for your museum and depending on how well they did, hopefully without injury.

If you do have someone return with a bad case of mucky feat, you are going to have to take care of them, now thankfully you won’t have to send them to Two Point Hospital, but they will need care. Your staff room can fix up most injuries, but be warned that if you only have a single expert, you won’t be able to send them off onto another expedition until they have been healed up. Assuming they come back without injury, give them a moment to rest up and then send them back out again, because your explorable area will only expand as you keep heading out, so if you want new and interesting exhibits, then you need to keep going out. Which of course means that you then place down any new exhibit, decorate and inform as needed and then rinse and repeat.

What I liked about Two Point Museum is that it is not only taking the basic formula that we saw in the previous titles, but it is tweaking a lot and the result is it feel fresh, unlike that bee encased in amber. Will it still feel that way after 20 or 30 hours, honestly, it is hard to say. What I can say though is that with the hours I put into the preview, I was very happy with it, as I started to get a real groove going on with my museum. I had a nice layout for people to follow, a decent number of cheesy gubbins machines and a gift shop that had more space that stock. As someone who grew up on these sorts of games I am very happy that there is someone still making them and while tickets for your own museum won’t be on sale for a while, you will want to get yours as soon as you can.

For those who want to prove themselves at museum curation, Two Point Museum is expected to release on March 5 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Those who want can buy the Explorer Edition and get access to the game 5 days early.