OK, so I decided to start a new thread on this game since I've preordered the Explorer's Edition which releases in a couple of days. I'm including some content I posted over in the Randomness thread to keep it all together.
A couple of reviews for Two Point Museum, due out in a week, which I assume will not be an Early Access but Full Release.
Two Point Museum is more of the same we’ve come to expect from Two Point Studios, but its imaginative approach to heritage ensures plenty of museum magic. Boasting a broad thematic range, endless exploration, and more decorative options than you can shake a dinosaur’s femur at, you’ll end up being the one getting excavated after sinking countless hours of your life into this addictive management sim.
Two Point Museum is the coolest, cosiest, and most evolved iteration of the formula to date, even if its more obtuse aspects prevented me from becoming a pro curator.
Update to the above post, there is an Explorer Edition of Two Point Museum available for extra bucks. And it arrives five days early, so maybe I'll be dipping my toes in after all
And, in case it hasn't been posted before:
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
The game unlocked for me earlier today and I've put in just under three hours. There is an initial campaign which walked the player through some of the material in the game, of which there is a lot. I've only just unlocked a second museum and I'm learning about something new every few minutes.
Initial impressions are good. The game is very polished and so far no bugs or glitches. The gameplay starts off at the first museum where you, as the new curator, have to make it successful. There are a few existing exhibits and rooms and the game holds your hand and guides you through the steps you need to take to expand the museum.
The main gameplay loop is that you send out expeditions by helicopter with the right experts to retrieve artifacts and unlock new areas to explore. You don't play out these expeditions, instead you select the people and equipment for them and send it off. Sometime later it returns with a crate with something new to display in the museum.
It some ways the game is similar to a RollerCoaster Tycoon or Planet Coaster. You not only set up exhibits to draw in the folks, but then you have to decorate the exhibits to generate "buzz" and make them more appealing. And you set up bathrooms and gift shops, staff and training rooms and other places to make the customers happy, keep your staff happy too and by training you make the staff more effective. Also you'll build a workshop where a trained janitor can make tools to take on expeditions and also make interactive exhibits to keep the kids happy.
I've unlocked the first two museums, one is a pre-history museum focusing on fossils and other artifacts. The next is a marine museum that contains both plain exhibits and also aquariums which are populated by creatures you bring back from your expeditions.
One of the draws for Two Point Museum is that you can switch between museums and work on them alternatively, apparently you are never "done" with a museum. I'll see how that works.
And finally, something I haven't touched yet, besides the campaign there's also a sandbox mode.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
I'm AFK for the next week so I'll post my latest set of impressions. I've put in 13.7 hours, still on the campaign. I've unlocked my fourth museum but haven't done anything with it yet. I've also done two "pop-up" museums, more on that later.
The museums have a lot of elements in common, such as staff, rooms like training, cafeteria, etc. Also the way you increase buzz and knowledge are the same methods. However, there is a nice variety in the focus of each of the museums. The first, which was pre-history, had many exhibits like you would think of in a regular museum. The second was a marine museum so besides the basic exhibits also had aquariums which required you to do expeditions to bring back marine life to put in them. The third museum is a weird space object museum which, as it turns out, requires you to figure out how to position your exhibits to solve various puzzles. There's a lot more to it but I'll leave it there so as to not give away any spoilers.
The pop-up museums are a different animal. Each is a full museum that lacks some critical aspect that you as the player have to provide. The first had no security and after an initial grace period started seeing waves of burglars you had to defeat. The next pop-up had all the normal features, but needed you to promote the museum through marketing and placing decorations and other items to generate "buzz". Each pop-up has a countdown timer and gives bronze, silver or gold awards for performance. It's pretty easy to get at least a bronze. Winning the pop-up along with getting "stars" at certain museums unlocks new museums.
After almost fourteen hours I have to say that I'm really enjoying the game, more than I thought I would at first. It is very polished and bug and glitch free. It does seem to start off a bit slowly but the on-boarding is excellent, you always feel like you know what you need to be doing. I'm really happy with my purchase.
The standard edition of the game releases tomorrow. Anyone have questions or comments?
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
I was really hoping it would have released 12am ET so I could play tonight. I even told my wife I'm going to go play at 10pm, only to find out it's not releasing until 9am tomorrow
I didn't play Campus but this has captured me about 100% more than Hospital. I love that theming is actually important and becomes more difficult as the game goes on. I also love that it incentives returning to previous museums. I just made it to a 2 star rating and already the number of plates you need to keep spinning is quite impressive.
