Two Point Campus Review – Back to School

Two Point Hospital, while a fantastic management sim in its own right, was enhanced a lot thanks to its sense of humour. The game was successful enough to get quite a few updates, including some insane DLC, and now, we have the studio taking on a similar concept, albeit with a brand-new setting. Enter Two Point Campus—a management sim where you have to build and maintain a university campus.

Depending on who you ask, it’s either awesome, or a bit of a shame that Two Point Campus doesn’t really stray too far from its predecessor’s formula. Despite taking place in a vastly different setting, Two Point Campus essentially shares the same DNA as Two Point Hospital, and in many ways, you can see that the developers have evolved and become more confident in the formula with the new game.

When considering the bare minimum that Two Point Campus has to do—offer up a compelling management game where, rather than feeling tedious, juggling priorities and putting out proverbial fires all over the place feels actually fun—the game manages it quite well.

"Despite taking place in a vastly different setting, Two Point Campus essentially shares the same DNA as Two Point Hospital, and in many ways, you can see that the developers have evolved and become more confident in the formula with the new game."

Two Point Campus has to be commended for its on-boarding experience for those new to the genre. Its tutorial does a phenomenal job of teaching you the ins and outs of running your own college, be it the basic stuff like how you go about hiring staff and building rooms for the various classes your university offers, up to more complex concepts like figuring out how to keep your students and staff happy, and how to schedule regular events to make use of the various buffs they offer.

All of this might sound like maybe Two Point Campus might lack a bit of depth, and while that might be true when compared to something like Dwarf Fortress, but make no mistake, Two Point Campus definitely has a fair amount of depth to it, especially in later levels where you have to start figuring out how to effectively manage your floorspace to offer courses on multiple subjects, rather than simply focusing on one or two classes.

It is worth noting that the personnel management aspect doesn’t quite go as deep as something you might see in a colony sim like Rimworld. That’s one aspect where Two Point Campus keeps things relatively simple. Hire a person to do a job, maybe train them to be able to do multiple jobs or do their original job even better, and fire them if they’re just not well-suited to your college. You don’t really get to dive into options like having rooms prioritize specific staff members, or even being able to set priorities for your staff members. The closest you can really get is the ability to pick them up and put them in another room.

There is also something to be said about just how much of an emphasis Two Point Campus places on aesthetics—something it shares with Two Point Hospital. You’re going to have to make your classrooms, staff rooms, dormitories, and even bathrooms look pretty. While this may not come up early on in your university’s life, it definitely becomes an important aspect to keep an eye on, especially as your university grows in size.

"There is also something to be said about just how much of an emphasis Two Point Campus places on aesthetics—something it shares with Two Point Hospital. You’re going to have to make your classrooms, staff rooms, dormitories, and even bathrooms look pretty. While this may not come up early on in your university’s life, it definitely becomes an important aspect to keep an eye on, especially as your university grows in size."

In fact, leveling up your rooms largely revolves around putting more things in them, and this includes something to spruce up the aesthetics, be it a poster on the wall of the dorm room, or a potted plant in the private tuition room. Aesthetics end up mattering quite a bit in Two Point Campus; students and professors don’t really want to hang out in ugly places, after all.

The big new feature of Two Point Campus—the ability to build outdoors rather than being confined to the insides of buildings—becomes rather easy to avoid in the main campaign. How it works is that at some point in your university’s life, you’re going to run out of room and want to expand by buying up a neighboring plot. Doing so allows you to either build your own new building in your new plot, or let the game do it for you. Sadly, Two Point Campus doesn’t do much to highlight the new build-it-yourself option the first time you see the screen, and it was only after spending several more hours in the game did I realize that this was an option.

Honestly, more than anything else, the writing of Two Point Campus sets it apart from just about anything else in the genre, apart from Two Point Hospital and classics like Sim Hospital, of course. Rather than teaching real subjects in your university, you’re going to be taking on students interested in learning how to pursue careers as clowns, secret agents, and wizards. Even the clubs you can set up for your students are insane, such as a speed-walker’s club.

In terms of visuals, Two Point Campus is essentially a nicer, sharper looking Two Point Hospital. Not much has changed in its art style, but rather, more of the silly details that Two Point Hospital prided itself on are visible in Two Point Campus. One of my favourite things to do is to just pick a staff member or student in one of my universities and follow them around, watching how they interact with this absurd excuse for an educational institute I’ve ended up building, and all the insanity that might arise when, for example, I kick off a party for the students in their lounge room.

"One of my favourite things to do is to just pick a staff member or student in one of my universities and follow them around, watching how they interact with this absurd excuse for an educational institute I’ve ended up building, and all the insanity that might arise when, for example, I kick off a party for the students in their lounge room."

Two Point Campus is a wonderful game, and while it may not go too deep into its simulation aspects, this helps it quite a bit in actually maintaining a level of accessibility that few other games in the genre can manage. This fact, along with the fact that Two Point Campus basically oozes charm and good humor from every angle possible, makes it a fantastic game to introduce new players to the genre. Its great tutorial helps a lot here too, slowly teaching players new mechanics, subjects, and aspects of college administration.

The biggest drawback of Two Point Campus is the fact that it doesn’t really do much new when compared to Two Point Hospital. In most aspects, this is a great thing, but, to put it another way, there isn’t really much new it’s bringing to the table. This ultimately means that those who already play Two Point Hospital might feel hard-pressed to leave it and its absurd amount of content behind for a new game. If you’re already a fan of Two Point Hospital, you better really like the new college setting, or it would be better off if you just waited for some DLC to drop before taking the plunge.

Two Point Campus is nonetheless a great game that stands on its own feet, and while it may not be doing much new, at least it isn’t overshadowed by its predecessor. If you’re looking for a charming way to basically see all your free time disappear, Two Point Campus is an easy game to recommend, even if you don’t have much in the way of experience with the management sim genre. It’s clever, it’s fun, and most importantly, it doesn’t get too complicated in all the wrong ways.

This game was reviewed on PC.