Two Point Museum – Zooseum DLC PC Review
Summary: The Zooseum DLC is more Two Point Museum, albeit now with cute animals, and that is no bad thing.
4
Pawsome!
I’m a fan of the Two Point series, and Two Point Museum especially so, and as such, I’ll take any opportunity to get more of it. Enter the Zooseum, the first DLC for Two Point Museum that, as the name suggests, turns your museums into a zoo, of sorts.
I say of sorts, because this is essentially the same experience as the base Two Point Museum game, rather than overhauling the game substantially. Two Point Zoo, this is not (I’d wager that’s coming eventually, though.)
To give a quick refresher for anyone who didn’t see our review of the base game, Two Point Museum is the third title in the Two Point series that started with Two Point Hospital. Essentially, these games are light management sims that act as spiritual successors to Bullfrog’s mid-90s classics, Theme Park and Theme Hospital, featuring a light tone and an emphasis on tongue-in-cheek humour.
So, what does this DLC add to the base experience?
Primarily, Zooseum adds a new location and museum to manage in Silverbottom Park, along with a host of new exhibits and venues to plan expeditions to. Diving a little bit more into the mechanics, there have been a few things added here to make the most out of the animal-themed gameplay.
New staff members have been added, wildlife experts, a necessity that drives the objectives in the DLC. These new experts are responsible for taking care of the exhibits, effectively becoming zookeepers, as well as leading expeditions to find new specimens to display. Some new rooms have been added, the main one being habitats, large enclosures that can be customised to a variety of different biomes, and the Wildlife Welfare station. This functions as a vet, curing animals of any ailments they come with or develop over the course of things. Along with this, there’s a ton of new decorations and other items to deck out your museum.
When it comes to the expeditions themselves, a whole new island is available, with multiple different locations, each with a multitude of new creatures to acquire. There are over 40 new exhibits in total, ranging from amphibians and reptiles to exotic jungle birds and desert dwellers who make the scorching sands their home.
Each of the many creatures has its own preferences for environment, food, and neighbours. Managing these requirements isn’t especially difficult or time-consuming, but it can make a substantial difference to how effective they are as exhibits.
Beyond that, the core experience is the same as the base game and the rest of the series. Managing your budget and staff is where most of the time is spent, be that hiring and firing, training, or crafting expeditions.
Graphically, it’s about what you’d expect by now. Being a management game, it’s largely viewed from 100ft in the air, but the game does allow you to get in close and look at pretty much everything if you want to, though, and when doing this, everything looks decent enough. It’s all very stylised and relatively low-poly. Bold shapes and colours with recognisable outlines, like its predecessors, hold up well, even on lower settings.
Not that performance was ever an issue, these games are both well optimised and relatively light to begin with.
Audio is up to Two Points’ usual high standard, with the radio station that plays throughout being a highlight. There’s a thick element of satire running through the whole thing, which I’ve always enjoyed.
Final Thoughts?
I commented in my review of the base game that Two Point Museum was a relatively chill experience when compared to the previous titles in the franchise, and this is still true while playing this.
There isn’t much that can be said about Zooseum that can’t be said about the base game, so if you enjoyed that, you’ll likely enjoy this, only now with cute animals. The first star of the Zooseum campaign is free to all owners of the base game, so there’s no reason not to check it out!
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