Two Point Campus review

Two Point Campus is a new management sim where you get to build a university, and if you have played other games from Two Point Studios then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect. The game has a great sense of humour, plus an attractive art style, which all adds up to a decent gaming experience.

Two Point Campus follows on from Two Point Hospital, which had players developing health care facilities. Here in Two Point Campus, it’s a similar approach, only replacing health care with education. The main campaign for the game runs players through the basics, given there are a wealth of mechanics and systems to go through. It does a good job of taking you through things slowly and simply, layering on complexity level after level so you are not overwhelmed. The campus’ starts small with buildings for lecture halls, halls of residence, private study rooms, libraries and more. Lecturers need to be hired, plus support staff like Caretakers to look after the garbage removal and to make sure the place is nice and tidy. As students start to come in they have their own requests too, for example, entertainment and equipment.

The pacing of the game is good, although keeping the bank balance in check is tricky. If you build too many buildings and hire too many staff, then you are going to drain the money very quickly, forcing you to take out a loan from the bank. Adding more students to the campus certainly helps, which can be done by adding marketing rooms, although don’t take your eyes off your current students as they need looking after getting them towards graduation.

As well to facilities for education the students have to be entertained too, which means investing in clubs and the student union to host live music gigs. Lecture halls can double up as cinemas, which can provide entertainment when students aren’t being taught. The systems work together well and once you get a few setups and they overlap, it’s your job to monitor the multiple spinning plates. Developing buildings, looking after students, and making sure the place is clean, tidy, and full of entertainment, it works together well, without being too overwhelming.

The personality and sense of humour really come across in Two Point Campus, whether that’s from the names of the characters or the announcements over the loudspeaker systems. The animations of the students going about their routine, whether it’s in class or outside class is really fun to watch. Sometimes they will be going about their day as normal, sometimes they will be dressed up in silly costumes. Sometimes they get sick and all have pumpkins for heads.

Two Point Campus also has a good friendship and romance system, which is new when compared to Two Point Hospital. This makes sense as you don’t really need a romance system in healthcare. You can place various items around the campus to help foster good relationships; benches, water fountains, love benches and love trumpets. The relationships that occur don’t really impact your gameplay but it all adds up to happier students. If you enjoy watching your students and your creations then adding a little love into the mix only makes it more entertaining.

Each area of your newly built university campus has its own unique features. There are new ways to generate money or unplanned events that inevitably throw a spanner into the works and offer random fresh challenges for you to deal with through the management sim. For example, if your archaeology students find something in a dig that can be sold for some additional money. If it gets too hot then all the students start sweating and everyone starts to smell, lowering everyone’s happiness and making the university a less bearable place to be.

Two Point Campus offers up more depth than its predecessor in part related to the Kudosh system, where you can earn this from completing student requests. Kudosh can then be spent to unlock various decorations for placing around the campus to spruce things up a little. Items like interior decoration; bookcases, statues and candles can make the place look much nicer. You can get lost in the management side of things, much like Animal Crossing, decorating and redecorating until you have your perfect look. You are limited by the amount of Kudosh you can earn, so don’t spend it all at once at it’s relatively slow to earn.

Overall, Two Point Campus is a decent management sim with a good amount of depth. It’s a vast improvement over Two Point Hospital, and you can really get into the storylines created by the students and staff at your campus. It’s also available on Xbox Game Pass, so if you are interested and have that service, then give it a try.

Developer: Two Point Studios
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, PC (reviewed on PC Game Pass)
Release Date: 9th August