Two Level Museum is about to be the very best Two Level but, boasting customisation choices galore and a few very wacky reveals

Two Level, by now, is little doubt a grasp at what it does; turning on a regular basis environments into charming simulation video games which can be packed to the brim with chaotic occasions and zany, British humour. We’ve witnessed a hospital, a university campus, and now, gamers are quickly being invited to step inside Two Level Museum.

However how did the workforce choose tasking gamers with museum curation? When government producer Jo Koehler, design director Ben Huskins, and design lead Luke Finlay-Maxwell have been requested about what led the workforce to Two Level Museum, and what different settings have been instructed, it seems that the likes of “Two Level Fuel Station” and “Two Level Lodge” have been initially floated round.

“The factor concerning the Two Level video games is we will take one thing on a regular basis and twist it, and put our odd sense of humour into it,” Huskins tells VG247. “With Museum, as quickly as we stumbled throughout it in our planning, everybody bought actually excited,” Koehler provides, “particularly from a design perspective, and having the ability to drill into journey and discovery.” And thus, Two Level Museum turned a actuality.

There’s one factor for sure with Two Level, and it is that every instalment within the collection builds upon its previous, offering gamers with an expertise that’s wholly improved. I felt the identical manner after I first performed Two Level Campus; now Two Level Museum is evoking those self same emotions of discovery that Koehler speaks of — and delight to be a fan, even — yet again.

When you’re not acquainted with Two Level, you’re introduced with a setting — on this occasion, a museum — that has a theme, the place you are tasked with sending your workers out on expeditions and getting the museum in pristine situation in your company. Then, you’ll be able to rub your fingers collectively and wait as your excitable company hand over their money. That is offered you’ve kitted your museum out with sufficient decor and data boards that your company are feeling a ‘Buzz’ and buying ‘Data’; these are the 2 values which can be ever-important to your company’ expertise of your museum, and thus, how a lot money you make. If it is harking back to the outdated “Theme” video games from Bulldog, that is no shock: a whole lot of Two Level Studios’ workers have expertise with the outdated British studio.

Because of this the Two Level video games do not provide a brand new gameplay loop by any means, however the collection executes it with such type and appeal that each one of its video games — Two Level Museum included — are more and more exhausting to place down. It’s a kind of video games the place “10 extra minutes” rapidly turns into an hour, if not longer. It’s not Balatro ranges of harmful, but it surely’s nonetheless a menace to any and your whole spare time.

Our first museum throughout my eight-hour preview was Memento Mile, which specialised in Prehistory — you recognize, dinosaurs and fossils and all that good things — earlier than later taking myself off to Wailon Lodge (a museum specialising within the supernatural) and Passwater Cove (a marine-life museum).

The latter, Passwater Cove, allowed for an attention-grabbing mixture of workers members and reveals, mixing the marine animals your Marine Life specialists gather with historical, underwater discoveries that solely Prehistory specialists can unearth. How precisely do you purchase these new reveals and artifacts, although?

That is the place Two Level Museum invitations a brand new gameplay mechanic into the mixer; expeditions. These are key to any profitable museum and would be the driving drive behind discovering — and displaying — new reveals and levelling up your workers’s expertise. Expeditions let you whisk away a few of your specialists to varied areas on the Two Level world map, the place after a time frame, they’ll hopefully return with a brand new exhibit — or new addition to an present exhibit — so that you can showcase to your company.

I say hopefully, as a result of there’s each likelihood these expeditions can go mistaken. Similar to in actual life. Your specialists can change into misplaced at sea, or change into sufferer to sandstorms, to call a few lower than fascinating outcomes. “The entire choices you make whenever you’re planning an expedition are dependent in your workers and the way you’ve skilled them, or cargo gadgets that you’ve, after which there’s the implications of an expedition proper, if they arrive again injured, or cursed, or no matter it occurs to be,” Huskins shares.

That stated, the most secure and most diligent of specialists may discover themselves in luck. A ghost information encountered whereas curating Wailon Lodge may shave a number of days off their journey, or an encounter with a wishing properly may grant them much more expertise to brag about. This provides one other layer to Two Level’s already riveting gameplay, with you needing to determine how your specialists could take care of sure situations; your reply may be the distinction between an professional’s damaged nostril or their secure return!

That, and the disclosing of recent reveals each time your specialists return from an expedition offers me the identical kick as pulling an S-tier character in gacha sport. Happily, Two Level Museum has the additional benefit of not being a gacha sport, so I can unveil new reveals time and time once more with out worrying about my real-life checking account.

That stated, it would be best to keep watch over your in-game checking account. Gamers can nonetheless take out loans the place wanted, but when you end up bankrupt, you’ll want to organize to bid farewell to your workers and your reveals. Alternatively, now you can tackle sponsorships that your company gained’t essentially be grateful for, however they’ll assist mop up your money owed.

Expeditions and sponsorships aren’t the one new options that gamers can stay up for. These with a eager eye for adorning might be overjoyed to listen to that much more customisation choices have been added to Two Level Museum. Each merchandise you place — excluding reveals — now has a color picker, one thing that Koehler was extremely excited to have added, so there’s no want for these ticket kiosks to stay hospital blue, or in your benches to be a shade of mahogany you do not look after. There’s additionally the flexibility to construct partition partitions and fences, so you’ll be able to part off your museum with out having to construct new rooms, and you may even customise each single tile of flooring or wallpaper to your coronary heart’s content material. Let’s not overlook an abundance of decor to adorn your museums with, in addition to an all-new lighting system to essentially set the temper and tone of your prized reveals.

There’s extra in retailer for Two Level Museum as we strategy launch, too, with Huskins sharing that, “what you’ve seen, these are your important museums that you just get actually hooked up to, however we even have pop-up exhibition areas which can be a palette cleanser, a change of tempo.” These act as enjoyable little facet targets the place gamers can experiment with totally different methods, giving gamers a hard-earned break and one thing solely new to stay up for whereas they work on curating their important museums.

All in all, it’s already secure to say that Two Level Museum is well going to be the very best in collection for Two Level. The developer continues to go from energy to energy and construct on its previous endeavours, suggestions from followers, and extra, and it’s all formed as much as be a good time to date. One that’s extremely exhausting to place down.

Two Level Museum was previewed on PC with a construct offered by the writer.