Two Point Museum Arty Facts Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
If you’ve been following What’s It Like? since our original review of Two Point Museum on Nintendo Switch 2, you’ll probably know two bits of lore about me. First, I absolutely loved the game. Second, before deciding to become a journalist, I wanted to be either a museum curator or James Bond. Until First Light arrives on Switch 2, I’m more than happy to live out my best curator life, and thankfully, Two Point Studios’ latest DLC expansion, Arty Facts, gives me the perfect excuse to lean into my creative side. What’s it like? Set up your easel, put on your apron, and whatever you do, don’t put your coffee next to the cup you rinse your paintbrushes in, as we review Two Point Museum Arty Facts on Nintendo Switch 2.
Arty Facts takes budding curators to the new locale of Undee Docks, where you’ll transform a dilapidated warehouse into a creative space for expression, discovery and, of course, making money. This time, you’ll be creating your own works of art in art studios, a new room designed for creative souls where paintings, sculptures and still lifes can all be commissioned to fill your galleries and bring in donations. These new mechanics revolve around emotion. Most artists begin with access to only one or two emotions, but sending them on expeditions exposes them to new experiences, expanding their creative repertoire and unlocking more possibilities for future commissions. Creating art requires building an Art Studio and works similarly to planning an expedition. When commissioning a new piece, you’ll choose the medium along with whether the work should be shallow, standard or deep and meaningful, and those decisions directly impact the final result.
In true Two Point fashion, things don’t always go to plan, as projects can go spectacularly wrong, leaving you to either salvage the artwork or accept the debuffs that come with failure. The emotion system also extends to how you design your museum. Exhibits and decorations can influence visitors by making them feel joy, sorrow or even emotionally numb to the prices in your gift shop, giving your profits a welcome boost. At first, I simply filled my museum with whatever I could and hoped the money would follow. Like many artists before me, the monetary struggle was real. It wasn’t until I started paying attention to how emotions impacted the surroundings and carefully planned what I displayed and where, that my museum really began to turn a profit. Once it did, my museum became an absolute cash cow, earning millions of dollars in profit by the time I finished.
Expeditions also return, allowing you to uncover famous works of art alongside crafting materials like clay and bronze for sculptures. The new interactive exhibits are packed with personality. One giant book lets visitors cover themselves in paint before throwing themselves against the pages to create a unique masterpiece, while another has guests spinning on a giant wheel to explore the duality of emotion. It’s all presented with the same quirky humour and charm that make Two Point Museum so enjoyable. Beyond the new features, you’ll still need to juggle the everyday challenges of running a successful museum. Artists, assistants, janitors and security guards all play an important role in keeping the galleries operating smoothly, although things rarely stay under control for long. Art thieves will target your prized collections, while artists returning from expeditions can contract illnesses like Culture Shock, leaving them looking like they’ve stepped straight out of The Scream by Edvard Munch and frightening guests away. Much like the base game, the fun comes from balancing staff and visitor happiness, keeping the books in the black, and always aiming to create the next headline attraction to keep people walking through the doors.
Now, if this is your first time returning to Two Point Museum since Zooseum, quite a bit has changed. Visually, the game remains as charming as ever, packed with the quirky humour and exaggerated personalities the series is known for. It’s bright, colourful and, fittingly for an expansion centred around art, feels like a piece of artwork itself. Every museum is a joyful explosion of creativity and colour. The biggest addition is support for Nintendo Switch 2’s mouse mode, which could be a game-changer for many budding curators. I’ve now clocked close to 50 hours using the standard controls, so I was probably too set in my ways to fully embrace it. Even so, my time with mouse mode was largely positive. My only real criticism is that I would have preferred to scroll using the left Joy-Con rather than relying on the click-and-drag panning that’s currently implemented. Performance has also seen a noticeable improvement. One of my biggest bug bears of the original Switch 2 release was the frequent stuttering and pauses that became more common once your museums expanded into multiple buildings with hundreds of guests. To test this, I revisited several of my other museums alongside my time with Arty Facts, and the difference is immediately noticeable. Quick saves and auto saves can still cause the occasional hitch, but overall performance has improved considerably, making it much easier to manage larger and more complex museums.
At just under $16 AUD, Arty Facts offers plenty of reasons to revisit Two Point Museum. It includes 27 new exhibits, new café and gift shop items that can also be used in your existing museums, a wide range of art-themed decorations, and the new Art Studio, which introduces the emotion system and opens up creative ways to stock your exhibits. Arty Facts had me hooked to my Nintendo Switch 2 from start to finish. It’s colourful, creative and full of the same charm that made me love Two Point Museum in the first place, and if Two Point Studios keeps producing expansions of this quality, I’ll happily keep opening the museum doors every time they do.
So, What’s it Like? Ary Facts is like Two Point Museum, with a splash of creative paint.
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