Two Point Museum, a game in which you do exactly what you would imagine, has just received its first DLC. Your museum has already got bones, fish, space devices, normal devices, and ghosts, so this new expansion adds the obvious area the base game was missing: some fantasy nonsense.
You heard that correctly; in the Fantasy Finds DLC, your experts will be jetting off to a fantasy land, and dragging back all manner of giant weapons, dwarfish devises and – best of all – some sort of stone statue that spawns chickens. Then they’ll be heading back, and managing your museum, which mostly consists of peeling guests off the surface of your exhibits.
On the surface, this DLC sounds pretty simple. There’s one new expedition map, one new expert type, a bunch of new exhibits, and a juggled handful of new workshop projects, expedition gear and guest types. But rather than offering you a new museum to house your fantasy exhibits, this DLC is designed to sit within the base game, accessible from (almost) any point during the other campaigns or in sandbox mode.
It seems to simply provide extra options to fill the museums you’ve already built, but that’s because you haven’t gone under that surface yet. Despite appearances, this is some chunky extra content, with a few twists and turns to throw a spanner into the works of even the most smoothly-run museum – all delivered with enough of the Two Point Studios signature sense of humour that you’ll be having fun the whole time you’re crashing and burning. Like my experts, that time they got attacked by a dragon.
Fly, You Fools!
The main part of the DLC you’ll probably have already gathered is the new map. Similar to the other campaigns, this allows your experts to head out to a medieval-adjacent fantasy land which is a sibling to a thousand D&D campaigns and collect just the type of fantasy exhibits you would expect to see – enchanted objects, weapons, loot, statues, and so on.
With it comes a new type of expert capable of sallying forth to lands unknown, battling dragons, and dusting your exhibits. So far, so good, pretty typical stuff for this museum management sim, but it’s here that the game reveals its penchant for keeping you on your toes – while the basics are the same, it adds a few new differences to keep things interesting.
To start off with, your fantasy experts come in a range of flavours, each of which have their own ‘stats’ and specialty according to those stats – wizards, barbarians, rogues, and bards.
Yes, that’s right. When picking out your fantasy experts, you’ll be building an RPG party, and will need to ensure their stats match the tasks and hazards they’ll be facing. That – and the cute fantasy outfits – alone was enough to make me curious about this DLC (and to make me think that the developers are nerds), but what really impressed me was something they changed about the map itself.
In classic RPG fashion, your actions and your choices on certain expeditions can effect the rest of the map – choose the wrong option, and the town that provided you with a new exhibit yesterday is now nothing but a heap of cinders. The game reassures you that the exhibits found in any location removed this way can be found elsewhere (so my fellow perfectionists will never be locked out of completing their collections), but the fact that this is an option at all is a fun little twist on the established formula; it makes the DLC feel fresh and perfectly builds on the witty fantasy adventure vibe it’s going for. It’s also introduced to you slowly, so the new elements always feel exciting, not overwhelming.
Harking back to the different campaigns of the base game, some ‘genres’ of exhibit also have unique effects that you’ll need to contend with – as seen with the astral anomalies from the space campaign, dwarven devices can be placed close to each other to activate and create new, powerful effects.
There are some new exhibit mechanics you need to master with as well, including magical equipment which you can lend to your experts to enhance (or reduce) certain stats. Many of the exhibits also have additional effects on guest mood and stats – genies that grant their wishes, chickens that they’re happy to see, normal things like that.
There’s also plenty of new fantasy décor, and as a final little inclusion, the DLC also sneaks in not one, not two, but three new guest types – all fantasy races, with their own preferences and ideal visits. There’s also just a bunch of little cosmetic things, all of which have the polish painted on thick.
The Best Part About Fantasy Games (The Cool Outfits)
The thing about Two Point Studios is that they never do anything by half measures, and that includes this DLC – it’s that mix of quality and quantity that made playing this new content such a pleasure. There were so many moments that made it clear that the developers love fantasy – especially of the tabletop variety – and that affection really makes every part of this new content shine.
The new exhibits have been lovingly designed, with oodles of fun little animations, and even if the fantasy world they hail from seems pretty generic they’re anything but. Tea from the teapot genie, anyone? How about a set of statues featuring goblins riding cats? Is it just me, or is that statue holding a Cheesy Gubbin? There’s plenty of references for my fellow nerds (new drinking game – take a shot every time there’s a Lord of the Rings reference), but also plenty of original ideas.
A whimsical sense of humour will have you – well, maybe not bursting out laughing, but probably rolling your eyes whenever an expedition gains you an item with a punny name and silly description.
There’s also a good amount of customisability and new cosmetic options, both for the new content and existing features. Many of the new pieces of fantasy-themed décor that pairs with your new exhibits feature multiple options, so you can really go all out making each section of your museum look different – and change your fantasy experts’ clothes to match too.
Those who really want to make a museum that looks actually nice (rather than plonking everything down haphazardly like I do) will also be pleased by the fantasy-themed ticket desks, cafeteria amenities, donation stands, and wall and flooring options. No fantasy-themed toilets though, which is a real shame but probably for the best.
At first, I was a little sad that this DLC was just a new map without a new museum location or a full-fledged fantasy campaign, and I still think it would have been nice to have a more fantastical setting for all my new exhibits.
But in all honesty, the amount of content – with a comparable number of exhibits to the base campaigns – its polish, and the way it’s delivered works perfectly without it. There’s enough new stuff for you to really sink your teeth into, and it’s different enough from the preceding content to feel fresh, not so different it feels jarring.
Now, if you consider the worldbuilding of these games, it all makes for some very silly implications – especially in regards to the in-universe Meat Wizard franchise and the magic students in Two Point Campus – but this game is about 90% silly implications so that’s fine by me.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve – somehow – already had enough of Two Point Museum’s base content, or just saw the D20 in the marketing material and knew it was called that, the Fantasy Finds DLC is for you. It’s Two Point Studios as their usual witty, silly, and well-polished self – and who wouldn’t want a little more of that?
And if you haven’t played Two Point Museum and somehow got to the end of this review, congrats! Now go play the base game and get back to me.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: New exhibits, visual design, fresh approach
Lowlights: No new setting, no full campaign, need to play base game for a time to access DLC content
Developer: Two Point Studios
Publisher: SEGA
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, Linux, MacOS
Available: Now
Review conducted on PC via Steam with a release code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image provided by SEGA.
