How will someone react when they walk into a museum? You hope it’s with awe and excitement when they see the exhibits on offer. Seeing someone gain new knowledge or broaden their horizons is one of the greatest joys you can experience. However, nurturing the minds of museum visitors isn’t cheap and you must constantly strive for greater heights. Creating the world’s best museums isn’t easy but you’ll learn several things along the way.

Two Point Museum brings its usual charm to the museum experience, working with various themes to keep you entertained. The ability to mix and match exhibits from each theme brings your creativity to life. Supporting your museums is an expensive and time-consuming endeavour, requiring lots of patience and funds. It will be a nerve-wracking experience in the beginning, but the payoff comes when your masterfully designed museums come together.

Your mission is to turn five themed museums into attractions that everyone wants to visit. In our preview, Checkpoint covered the Prehistory, Supernatural, and Marine Life museums. The full game adds two more museums based on Science and Space respectively. Each theme has unique traits that make their exhibits stand out. For example, the Prehistoric museum has fossils that take time to assemble but reach the best quality when every piece is in place.

These traits not only add to the unique qualities of each museum but also create opportunities for combinations. For example, Prehistoric and Botany exhibits work well together. Science exhibits and Ancient Technology are a great pairing. You can even include multiple themes and some objectives in the campaign to encourage that. There is no wrong answer when it comes to building your ideal museum. Doing what you feel is best is one of Two Point Museum’s strongest aspects.

While having the freedom to design your museum however you want is intimidating, there are few wrong answers. You can have only certain exhibits or use multiple copies of the same exhibit, it all works. Unless you do something like skip out on decoration or forget to put in bathrooms, you can’t fail. Adapting to your visitors’ whims while creating the museum of your dreams is possible but it does take time.

Two Point Museum can end up as a game of chance in unlikely ways. During an interview with the development team, the randomness of obtaining exhibits was brought up. Expeditions are your main source of finding exhibits and obtaining the best quality ones is expensive. While it’s not important early on, you eventually need multiple copies of exhibits. This is for analysis which boosts knowledge gained from an exhibit or for obtaining high-quality copies.

The developers have made it easier for you to get every exhibit from your first expedition. However, the game actively discourages you from resting on your laurels. Late-game challenges demand having the best quality exhibits or they are nearly insurmountable. This means making multiple expeditions just to get what you want. On the one hand, this is a good method of training your staff. On the other hand, this drains your finances and forces you to make tough decisions.

Early-game expeditions aren’t expensive but your museum’s variety hits a wall if you don’t explore more areas. Coupled with rising staff costs as you expand your museum, this forces you to take risks. You need better exhibits to earn more money but can’t reliably obtain them without spending lots of money. Waiting for money to save up isn’t viable because your monthly grant, a vital income source, requires expeditions.

This can turn your attempt at a five-star museum into a waiting game. Using loans is a short-term solution but can hurt your finances in the long term. Not every expedition produces exhibits that can be sold for profit, forcing you to “grind” certain ones. This isn’t helped by staff wanting consistent pay raises for their work. You need experienced staff for late-game expeditions, meaning you can’t simply replace staff without hurting your progress.

This information can’t be viewed a second time, which means a glossary/reference manual would have been useful. One example is the Space museum, where figuring out the shape combinations has little to no guidance. If you don’t remember what to do or what is necessary, your museum progress might stall. Thankfully, it’s nothing that some experimentation and practice can’t fix.

Two Point Museum is a fantastic museum simulator that delivers on the experience. You will have fun putting a museum together and ensuring it’s the best it can be. Letting your imagination drive your creations is great and seeing your dream turn a profit is encouraging. But getting there is difficult and the game makes you work for it. However, if you are willing to keep at it, you won’t find a more humorous and entertaining museum simulator.