Two Point Museum: Zooseum Switch 2 Review

Two Point Museum: Zooseum Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2

Two Point Museum has been out on the Switch for just under six months now, and unlike the exhibits on display, my copy hasn’t had time to gather dust. I simply love the intricacies of bringing in new exhibits, wowing museum guests, and of course, maximising that revenue. Now, the board of the Two Point Tourism committee has thought it best to move into managing the animal kingdom with Two Point Museum: Zooseum, an ambitious expansion that adds the largest content pack to the game to date. What’s It Like? Put up some fences, prepare your staff for lots of Farflung Flu, and get ready to go wild as we review Two Point Museum: Zooseum on Nintendo Switch 2.

Now, if you don’t have your historian degree, let me get you up to speed on what Two Point Museum is all about. Two Point Museum continues the series’ signature management and building formula, established by Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus. This time, the game takes several steps forward with new mechanics that add extra layers of depth and strategy. Early on, you start small, placing a few exhibits, decorating the surrounding areas to boost buzz, and repeating that loop to attract visitors. As you progress to new locations, you’ll unlock mechanics that can enhance earlier levels, such as research projects that let you build new expedition tools. Certain staff types, unlocked later, can even open up additional expedition opportunities. Expeditions form the backbone of your museum’s expansion. You send a team of experts to different locations in search of new discoveries. Each expedition unfolds through a series of events, some positive and some disastrous, that can affect the mission’s outcome.

When it comes to the core gameplay loop, the primary objective remains the same: build up your Zooseum to bring in the maximum revenue possible. Just like the other museums, you start as a lowly zero-star destination, and you’ll need to send your staff on expeditions to find and bring back insects and reptiles for your indoor terrariums, along with larger animals for your new outdoor habitats, one of the headline features of this DLC. For terrariums, you need to ensure you’ve built the correct biome, manage capacity and cleanliness, and even oversee breeding, all while generating buzz. Outdoor habitats follow a similar pattern, requiring the right food type, decorations, and enough space for your animals to thrive. There’s plenty of management here, along with a healthy variety of biomes and decorative options to experiment with. Later on in the game, more mechanics open up, such as the Animal Spa, where you clean up your excess animals for rewilding them. With the points you earn from Rewilding you can buy different animals to join your solo animals using the new Animal Adoption centre.

It’s not just the animals you have to manage. Zooseum introduces a new staff type, Wildlife Experts, who need to be trained with specialised skills to properly care for your growing catalogue of creatures. Beyond their abilities, you’ll also need to play the role of HR, managing wages, happiness, and staff traits to get the best out of your team. Expeditions now send your staff to the Farflung Isles, with a range of missions designed to expand your exhibits. Some are locked behind prerequisites, such as needing specific equipment like a weedwhacker, or progressing to where you can build a large enough terrarium to house what you discover. It doesn’t stray too far from the established formula, and I actually think that’s one of the DLC’s strengths. It builds on what already works while layering in new systems.

Expeditions still come with the usual traps and tropes, alongside a new illness, Farflung Flu, which seemed to affect about ninety-seven per cent of my returning animals. Treating it requires a dedicated welfare room, and I found this to be one of the more frustrating additions. There’s no clear warning that animals are returning infected until they’re already placed in their habitats. That means manually selecting and dragging them over to the welfare centre, which slowed progress more than it probably should have. My only other bugbear is that baby animals are born fully grown, making it surprisingly difficult to tell which creatures are newborns at a glance.

It’s interesting to see the new animals and the way they’re presented using Two Point’s signature style and humour. I also love that the DLC weaves into the existing content, letting you cross over some museum goodies into your Zooseum and vice versa. Some expeditions will even give you debuffs, like soiling yourself, meaning you have to revisit older museum expeditions, such as Remedial Springs in the Bone Belt, to cure these little illnesses. Instead of just watching people like in my previous museums, it’s really fun to watch the animals interact with each other. You might see your spyglass giraffe swinging its neck around, or your dandy lion rolling about playfully like a typical house cat.

Two Point Museum: Zooseum continues the trend of being a wonderfully weird and colourful world full of caricatures of park rangers, support staff, and overly enthusiastic guests. It looks fantastic on the Switch 2 and retains all the charm of the main game. The UI is surprisingly intuitive, even without a mouse mode (which would be an amazing addition), and lets you focus on managing your Zooseum without getting in its way. The animals are humorous takes on real-world creatures, adding delight and personality to the game. Performance-wise, the game does suffer from a few inconsistencies. As your Zooseum expands, the framerate can start to hitch and falter, making animations feel choppy and scrolling a little rough around the edges. It’s not a deal breaker, although zoologists might be put off by these hiccups as their zoos grow larger.

For my curators looking into accessibility, there are a few options here to make your time with Two Point Museum more enjoyable. These include adjusting the UI size, removing flash effects, and reducing screen shake. Two Point Museum does not feature a mouse mode, despite being a game that would suit it perfectly. That said, the standard controller setup works very well. Navigating menus, placing exhibits, and managing staff is intuitive, and the game is easy to play with the Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller. For most players, controls will not get in the way of enjoying the game. However, some gamers who prefer point-and-click precision may find the lack of mouse support a significant drawback. As always, I recommend further research into finding out if Two Point Museum suits your needs.

For just under $15, Zooseum is incredible value and will extend your game time even further for a small price of admission. Between managing animals and staff, placing the perfect decorations, and treating that darn Farflung Flu, I found myself getting lost in the game all over again without needing to consult the Zooseum map. Two Point Museum: Zooseum is a fantastic addition to an already wonderful game and a perfect excuse to brush up on your Zoology degree.

So, What’s it Like? Two Point Museum Zooseum is like Two Point Museum crossed over with Let’s Build a Zoo.

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