SPOILERS AHEAD!

I have played the old Bullfrog Theme Hospital, I've played Two Point Hospital and now I have played Two Point Museum. And it is another big step in the right direction, mostly through more freedom when it comes to designing the museums compared to the hospitals. Still the game is far from perfect and highly limited by its design and what I can just describe as uninspired storytelling. I’ve managed to get all my museums to 4 or 5 stars by now, and naturally, I’d like to push them as far as possible. That said, I feel like the endgame is really lacking across almost every scenario. It just turns into an unneccessary grind.

Some scenarios ask you to nearly double your buzz rating from 4 to 5 stars, which ends up either meaning excessive hours of grinding - placing the same exhibits two, three, even four times - or awkwardly stuffing in completely unrelated themes just to hit the numbers. And to make matters worse, some museums are already causing performance issues on my PC at 4 stars, so reaching the goals for the fifth star feels almost impossible due to technical limitations, not gameplay.

Then there are goals that just feel... odd. For example, Wailon Lodge requires level 30 Enlightenment to unlock new plots for the fifth star - more than double the knowledge I’d accumulated up to that point. Sure, I could do that, but spending another 10+ hours just feeding every new exhibit into an analysis machine? Really? Passwater Cove has you repeatedly visiting the same locations, building massive tanks just to accommodate the same fish again and again, all in the name of hitting the breeding goal. Pebberley Heights introduces those oversized interactive artifacts in the late game, forcing a complete museum redesign to accommodate them, which, in my opinion, makes it the most frustrating scenario in the game.

Would I recommend that game? I'm not too sure. It is fun for some hours (around 40 for me) which is great, but it really lacks long term motivation, since quite fast you've seen it all. I guess I had hoped the final challenges in each location would feel like a proper grand finale - something fresh and creative. Instead, it often just feels like: “Okay, now do everything you’ve already done again - but for longer!” Honestly, the game feels like it reaches a natural conclusion more around the 4-star mark. That’s where most of the meaningful challenges happen - after that, it just becomes repetitive. I expected the final scenarios to explore more of the game’s potential, like experimenting with guest behavior, shifting conditions, or management challenges.

Why not introduce very impatient guests, or moody ones who need constant entertainment? What if extreme weather became part of the scenario? Scorching heat, bone-chilling cold, or crazy humidity? And this maybe even seasonal with a change every - 20 minutes or so? Imagine staff going on strike, sudden budget cuts, or a business partner disappearing with your funds. Maybe illnesses or curses spread among guests, or people storm off if they don’t get their favorite snack. An avalanche happens and you need to keep guests inside as long as possible or guests even get blind and need to move through the exhibition guided by loudspeakers and tours alone? At the moment all of these factors - temperature, hunger, mood - seem to be more of a side aspect not influencing the gameplay very much.

Giving it more impact would also give some of the items a lot more meaning. Right now, I don’t really need f.e. the robots, scent diffusers, or speakers - they just feel optional or tacked on. I think the game would’ve benefited if those items weren’t just requirements like “build two robots to reach this goal” or “you need two robots to unlock this location” but instead became essential tools, like if your regular staff went on strike or got sick, and robots were your only option to keep things running.

Obviously, if you are forced to spend hours in every scenario building basically everything the game has to offer, the sandbox mode is from limited interest. You've seen the same old dinosaur at least 15 times before and putting it in a sandbox museum on one of the maps you've already spend hours on is not that interesting. Maybe this will change if we get some kind of scenario editor, but without that, the game does offer a lot less than expected...

An overall fun experience. I definitely had some bugs and issues, but nothing that couldnt be either ignored or fixed with a restart. I can't tell if I liked this or campus better, but i liked both enough to spend over a hundred hours each perfecting them so it is a definite recommend from me.

I love this game. I've decided to finish the whole campaign before going wild in sandbox and I don't regret it one bit.