Two Point Museum (Switch 2) Review

I’ve just unlocked another museum — and oh look at the time, it’s 1 a.m. Time can quickly get away from you with these simulation games, and now that Two Point Museum is on the Switch 2, it can really get away from you wherever you are. I love a good simulation game, and I’m glad we’ve already got Two Point Museum here, taking advantage of the extra power of the new console.

A museum doesn’t immediately strike me as something I’d want to run compared to a hospital or a university, but the charm the Two Point series brings to the genre hooks you in and keeps you playing well into the wee hours.

For those new to the series, the Two Point games are heavily inspired by the old Bullfrog title Theme Hospital, which makes sense given that some of the original team are working on this game. Two Point Museum puts you in command of a budding curator as you work your way through a variety of museum types, unlocking more as you go.

The beginning of the game is very tutorial-heavy, but for good reason — there are a lot of systems to keep track of. The good news is that the game slowly introduces these as you play. You progress by completing missions and filling your museum with all sorts of interesting exhibits. It’s not just about getting new exhibits and displaying them; you’ll also need to keep your staff happy and trained, the floors clean, the shelves stocked, and an eye out for thieves. The building component is fun too, as you decide how best to lay out your museum to maximise knowledge absorption, fun, and, of course, money.

The first museum is a natural history-style museum, the second an aquatic one, and the third is a haunted hotel where you house the departed and try to keep them happy in their afterlife — otherwise, they’ll get out and scare the guests. It’s that sort of game. They get progressively zanier after that too. Two Point Museum really leans into its cheeky humour and doesn’t take itself seriously at all. It’s undeniably British in this regard. 

If all that sounds a little stressful, or perhaps you’ve played it elsewhere and just want to dive into the nuts and bolts, the sandbox mode is unlocked right from the start. You can pick from three modes — Creative, Career, and Hardcore — and either enjoy a cozy game where you simply design and build a fun place to hang out, or take a business-minded approach and dive into the graphs, charts, and economics of it all. I will say that, unlike some older management games, I never found myself failing or falling behind too much. Not to say the game is easy, but it gives you everything you need to know, which made it more fun for me.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room — and if they fix or patch this, you can just ignore this whole section. There are no mouse controls in Two Point Museum on the Switch. On one hand, you might get annoyed at this, because it feels like a “quick win” is missing — at least in the perception of the game. Obviously, the console versions elsewhere don’t have mouse controls either, so some work is still involved. On the other hand, it’s a console version of a management game — what did you expect?

The problem is that the interface can be a bit complicated on console. I’m still getting used to which button does what and what’s actually active on the screen. I often find myself backing all the way out, then drilling down through a menu, hoping I pressed the right button this time. It’s easy to miss things, especially when you’re deep in the interface and the usual button prompt for a notification isn’t there. Do mouse controls fix this? They could, but we’ll have to wait and see. I really didn’t want to talk about it for two paragraphs, because the game is still fine, and fun without mouse controls – but here we are. 

Two Point Museum on the Switch 2 also looks quite good, especially when you go back to something like Two Point Hospital on the Switch and notice the shine, sheen, and reduced lighting compared to what we have here — it’s a big difference. Museums feel detailed and have a great atmosphere as exhibits light up the rooms.

That being said, the game seems to slow down the longer you play and the bigger your museum gets. Dragging around a room and trying to pinpoint small items can be tricky when the game jitters during these actions (and could be easier with mouse… no I’m not going to go back there). The game is also capped at a 30fps framerate. On the plus side, it features some scaling options so you can adjust things to your liking in both handheld and docked modes. Depending on your eyes, this might be enough, although for me, on docked, some text is still too hard to read from a distance. 

Not available during the review period, but in the Switch 2 version of the game is the Digiverse — an expedition location that features crossover content from other games like Dredge and Vampire Survivors. It brings exhibits based on these games into your museum. The fourth wall is very much broken in Two Point Museum.

I had my doubts about the whole museum thing, but the never-ending charm of the Two Point world carries you through it all. There are so many things to unlock, systems to manage, and options to tinker with — perfect for anyone thinking about getting into the genre. There are no mouse controls, which is a bummer because the UI can be a little clunky, but you’ll get used to it over the many hours you’ll spend with this game. It could even be 1 a.m., like it was for me. 

Rating: 4/5