Two Point Campus - Review

Two Point Studios had a surprise hit on their hands back in 2018 when they released their first game ‘Two Point Hospital’, a game which featured cute and charming graphics, whacky comical overtones and a whole lot of micro management. The formula worked and it all added up to a bunch of fun seeing how well or even how disastrous a hospital could end up if you were put in charge of it. Two Point studios looks to build on the success of their previous title with the release of ‘Two Point Campus’ which puts you in charge of running an educational institution, will it pass with flying colours or flunk the test?

Apart from the theming Two Point Campus doesn’t stray far from the formula used for Two Point Hospital, if you are a fan of other management sims such as The Sims or Animal Crossing then it is safe to say that this game will be one that you have most likely been waiting for to arrive. The game follows the same formula that made its predecessor such a success and leaves you largely in charge of how you want to manage your facility but also holds your hand by suggesting goals that you need to achieve in order to improve the lives of your students or the rating of your facility as a whole. Completing goals will earn you kudos points which acts as a currency in the game which allows you to unlock all manner of whacky vending machines, fast food stands and video game machines, it’s not all about fun though as sometimes students will raise demands for special facilities that will require kudos to unlock so there is an ever present challenger to maintain enough kudos to keep both the academic and leisure needs of students fulfilled, if you don’t then students may start to transfer to a different educational facility which won’t look good on the end of year balance sheet or reflect well on the prestige of your educational facility.

As you progress through the game and complete challenges you get the opportunity to unlock a vast array of new things such as new courses and facilities for students, new items to place around campus and even the ability to buy up more land around your campus to further expand and place new facilities. Once you have fulfilled enough goals you can even start a new institution on a completely different part of the map, or eventually even open a sandbox mode where you are free to plan out your campus as you see fit. There are always new goals being thrown at you which lead to new unlockable items, and this is a key part of the gameplay loop that makes sure that you always feel rewarded if you make the right decisions.

The pacing of the game also helps to ensure you get comfortable with its myriad of menus before dropping you in the deep end, for the first few years of running your campus your students demands will be minimal but after a few years their demands will ramp up and they will ask for all manner of things from gothic bookshelves through to garden loveseats and vegan smoothie stands. Each years progress is topped off with an awards show that will show you how you are doing financially and how many students have graduated and dropped out of your institution, it’s a nice touch and I often looked forward to watching the end of year presentation as sometimes there are so many tasks to perform throughout the actual school year that it is easy to lose track of how you are progressing.

From the graphics through to the soundtrack, Two Point Campus is utterly charming. The game generates random students and teachers (you can edit their names if you so desire) based on random personality factors so you can look forward to your usual university stereotypes wandering around campus, the gothic loner, the punk edgy bois and the nerdy science lovers, zooming in on students and teachers will also reveal their inner wants and needs and this all helps you feel connected to not just your facility but also the people who inhabit it.

The soundtrack itself is a mix of different musical genres that acts as a campus radio station, complete with comical skits and advertisements, even the person charged with manning (or in this case womaning, is that even a word?) the campus PA system had me chuckling at times with announcements such as “Students are reminded they do not have to ask to go to the toilet” and “University gives you a bright future and clouds it with debt” all of this just adds to the games already high levels of charm.

Players of Two Point Hospital will feel right at home here, in fact it might be a home that is almost too familiar for them even though Campus is much more than just Hospital with a new coat of paint. I can almost guarantee anyone with even a mild interest in management sims will not be able to help but be drawn in by this game, it has a great combination of almost perfect pacing, an addictive gameplay loop and an irresistibly charming atmosphere. It is almost impossible to get bored whilst playing as you feel constantly rewarded for the effort you put in as long as you are paying attention to the campus and your students wants and needs. Now if you will excuse me I am off to start a new campus, my old one got overran by a bunch of emos who decided they weren’t going to go back to class until I had installed enough gothic bookshelves to satiate their definition of how the interior of a college dorm should look like.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Sega

The Pros

+Satisfying and addictive gameplay loop

+Cute and utterly charming atmosphere

+It’s easy to get attached to not only your campus but also the students who inhabit it

The Cons

-Expanding existing facilities can be confusing and seem unnecessarily complicated

-If you have put a lot of hours into Two Point Hospital then campus may seem a bit ‘samey’ after a few hours play