With Two Point simulation add-ons, the packs can sometimes feel like they add more to existing experiences. Extra majors, in the case of Two Point Campus. Hospitals and treatment plans in new locations in Two Point Hospital. Some early Two Point Museum DLC, like Fantasy Finds, sort of felt like it took this same approach, but I really appreciate how the new Zooseum pack changes the whole point of the game in critical ways to make it feel a little more like zoo management.
Basically, Two Point Museum Zooseum DLC turns a game about managing museums into something of a zoo management simulation instead. It isn’t like we’re managing a huge, traditional zoo. It’s not Zoo Tycoon or Let’s Build a Zoo. Rather, it feels more like a research-driven approach to it due to the nature of the employees and execution of the way wildlife exhibits are handled in the new museum. The adjustment made it feel like I was getting more hands-on with the management approach in a way I appreciated during Silverbottom Park.
At the start, the gameplay loop in Two Point Museum Zooseum isn’t too different. We need to hire Wildlife Experts who know how to handle, research, and care for animals. We send them off on Expeditions to get the creatures for our exhibits, which means them heading to Farflung Isles on investigations. Once we actually get the animals back is when things change. Because while there are Habitat Enclosures acting as displays for the critters coming back and being put on display, there’s also the Wildlife Welfare element.
So our goal isn’t just to explore each point of interest in Farflung Isles to find and display everything inside. We’re building up habitats indoors and outdoors, then caring for animals and breeding them so they can be released in the new map to increase Biodiversity Levels. We get Sanctuary Points from releasing animals, sending some cargo like Pollen Packets and Rewilding Resets, putting animals you do have in the Wildlife Welfare room to ensure they are in better condition when you do release them. It’s only if you keep advancing, reinvesting in animals, caring for them, and working to make their original home better that you’ll get chances to eventually adopt and display exhibits like the Cat-Faced Tree Bear or Blue Hedgehog.
What I also appreciated is how it changes the way the museum itself looks. I get so used to thinking inside the buildings in Two Point games. With Two Point Museum Zooseum, the DLC also expands the possible scope as well. Habitat Enclosures can be outdoors as well. Considering the concept, it does lend a little more authenticity to the whole “zoo” feel of things. Like yes, this isn’t Two Point Zoo yet, but is it sort of already explaining and hinting at how that could work?
Two Point Museum Zooseum really feels like a meaningful bit of DLC. Yes, the concept of running a space, hiring experts, and going to POIs on an expedition in a new map are there. But in some ways, it feels different than the main campaign and other add-ons. We aren’t going through a space and being one-and-done with spots. We’re revisiting and building up that area, In return, we’re improving our own odds of new and better things. There’s this idea of rehabilitation and maintaining an ecosystem that makes it all feel more involved.
Two Point Museum is available for the PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X, and PC, and the Zooseum DLC is out now.