When I heard that Two Point Studios – the team behind the outstanding Two Point Hospital – were giving university life the same treatment for their next title, I was more than a little interested in playingTwo Point Campus.
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On top of that, they say that your university days are some of the best days of your life. Running up eye-watering student debts and remembering fewer nights out than is medically good for you. Well, that’s what they say but I never made it to university having chosen to leave college and actually make money.
Foundation Level
Two Point Campus takes the foundation set in their Hospital sim and builds on it. At its core, the game is a management simulator. One where you are tasked with the running and up-keep of a university campus.
And with the studio’s unique brand of humour returning in spades, there’s more than a few laugh out loud moments to be found along the way.
Juggling Act
Gameplay is similar to Two Point Hospital in a lot of ways as you’ll be juggling your budget, happiness levels of your studies and also trying to grow and expand your campus, given its limited footprint.
Making the best of your space is core to achieving your goals in Two Point Campus. You’ll be asked to build student dorms to lecture halls and everything in-between. Though getting to the winning solution will drive the more obsessive among us wild, sub-par space management will ruin the flow of your master plan.
At least, early on. If you stick with it, things start to ease up a little. Eventually space won’t be at such a premium with plots opening up, adding a lot more freedom.
Educational Campaign
Each campus you’ll be given in the campaign mode does offer you its own challenges and scenarios, with some being more fun than others if we are being honest. But, to be fair, Two Point Campus succeeds in keeping things feeling fresh.
Though if you want to jump into the action right away – the sandbox mode is for you. You can build your dream campus on any of the twelve differently themed plots. Shout out to the spy school and Hogwarts-inspired plots especially.
Levelling up your campus lets you adding more staff and courses. In turn, this sees your options grow in terms of what you can do. It’s generally worth spending a little time growing your institution before moving on.
Presentation School
The UI is just about adequate. It can be a bit tricky to navigate if you are trying to drill down into real stats. For instance, why students are failing a certain course or why the staff are unhappy in one area. But for the most part its holds things together well.
Visually, it is very Two Point Hospital. Chunky, cartoony and packed with charm. Yet furnished with a really surprising level of detail when you zoom in on your students going about their day-to-day lives.
The audio does a fine job. Music is upbeat and uplifting at the same time and there are outstanding sound effects thrown in for good measure.
By Degrees
Two Point Campus could do with a few more design options. Elements like internal decorations or the ability to have curved or sloped walls are missed. These elements may be added down the line if the Two Point Hospital model is anything to go by.
Ultimately, Two Point Campus is another fun and charming take on a dull subject. Two Point Studios have aced the test in creating an addictive and entertaining follow-up to their medical opus.
Review code provided by PR