Chris InglisTwo Point Campus is a university management simulator developed by Two Point Studios and published by Sega. Set for release on August 9, 2022, the game will launch on PC & Mac, PlayStation 4|5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch. I loved the original 90’s games Theme Park and Theme Hospital, so when Two Point Hospital came along in 2018, I was in my element. Now we switch away from the hospital setting and must build a university campus while ensuring our students have the time of their lives.
The academic year begins with a summer break, giving you enough time to get everything looking great before your students move in. I enlisted the help of my wife, who is a teacher, to play through this preview build of the game. I thought with her being a teacher, she would design the perfect setting to balance teacher needs with the students. However interestingly enough her focus was more on building rooms to accommodate different courses and keeping the students happy. Offering a broader range of topics will attract more students, and therefore more income to build more weird and wonderful things.
Two Point Campus is simple enough to get started with someone that pops up and helps throughout the learning process, but a lot of the learning is trial by error. We started with Scientography in the science lab, which is as exciting as it sounds for our student minions. Being student-focused, we needed basic facilities like vending machines, a coffee kiosk (most important), dorms, toilets and bathrooms, seats outside in the garden near the fountain – all the things a good uni needs.
My wife hasn’t played too many city builder simulation games but picked up the game’s mechanics easily enough. You can put a make-up clown table in the student dormitory to keep their feelings high or add arcade gaming tables to the rec room because, you know we love gaming! The coffee shop and smoothie bar reminded my wife of her uni days. “Oh, there was a LOT of coffee drunk at uni.” It’s not all about the university itself either as you can design gardens and pathways outside the building as well.
You can interact with each student to see their happiness, what they are studying, how they are feeling and their traits. You can also see their grades and if they are passing or failing their subject. We had a few students fail because we didn’t meet their needs, so it gave us prompts of what else we could add. You can view their mood and see their hunger, hygiene, see which clubs they are into, and their personality type. There’s even statistics like assignments failed, how much debt they’re into, and other things.
The soundtrack provides a cool musical backdrop to the game, as well as funny and quirky DJ’s that got a chuckle or two out of us. “Plagiarism is not a belief system.” This kept the mood light-hearted and fun as we built a university empire to envy. In addition to earning money, you will earn kudosh for the whole organisation which is another currency that enables upgrades. In the item shop you can see things that can be bought with money or kudosh. A handy list of campus requirements in the top right of the screen keeps you on track if you are looking for inspiration for what to build next, but your students will also express their interests and feelings.
One of the clubs we had at this uni was a sleeping club, and it had a huge beanbag pile that we unlocked. That was strategically placed right next to the coffee kiosk. You must hire assistants to work kiosks, the library, and you must hire teachers. Good teachers cost more of course, and you can hire janitors. Some of the randomly generated names were hilarious, like Cat Sauce the coffee lady and Matilda Massive who was the gastronomy teacher.
At the end of each in-game year, there is a ceremony where you can see how many students passed, failed, or dropped out, the average grades percentage, and so-on. Then it’s straight back to business. The first year gave you small numbers of stats given courses take several years to complete. As you build prestige in each room and keep your students happy and engaged, you will earn stars. As you earn stars you will unlock new courses, classrooms and items to add to your university’s offerings.
It’s pretty hard to mess things up in the early stages – just keep building. However, if you don’t earn enough money or run out of funds, you can still start the academic year behind, but you’ll be chasing your tail. You will be given a limit of days to meet the objectives, like ensuring the science teacher is in the science lab, and your students will be sure to let you know about it with red exclamation marks everywhere! As you progress your skills and planning, you will eventually be able to unlock campus’ like Knight School, Spiffinmoore for Wizardry and Magic, Pebberly Ruins for Archeology, Blundergrad for Spy games, and so on. It gives you great incentive to keep persisting, learning and growing your campus and looking after your students.
Overall, Two Point Campus is a chilled and fun game that brought back many happy memories of my four years at university. It’s an easy game to pick up and play, with enough quirkiness to keep the many tasks from being mundane. These games have come a long way since the Theme Park/Theme Hospital days, and Two Point Campus will provide lots of fun for weeks to come. Two Point Campus will see a similar post-launch DLC plan as Two Point Hospital, where the developers will be introducing new courses, characters, locations, and other content (paid and free). More details about post-launch content and DLC plans will follow after launch.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by Five Star Games Oz. Two Point Campus will release on August 9, 2022, on PC & Mac, PlayStation 4|5, Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch.
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Yonan