Two Point Campus: we tried out new management software dedicated to “weird” universities

If there’s one thing that the current video game market, especially indie games, amply proves, it’s that there’s always a niche of gamers willing to return to genres that have disappeared from stores for years. considered “small. lucrative” or “not mainstream enough”. The tendency of major publishers to ignore games belonging to these subsets has opened up small goldmines for more enterprising development teams, especially those who already have knowledge in the field and dive into the fray without any particular concern.

this Two-Point Studios This is how they won the spotlight: this group of savvy programmers and designers, largely made up of Bullfrog and Lionhead veterans, decided to get back into the game with modernized versions of these management systems that started their careers.

The first attempt was an obvious spiritual successor to the much-loved Theme Hospital (presumably called Two Point Hospital), and its success pretty much launched a veritable universe of such titles built on the still very solid foundations of the classics of the past. .

Intrigued by the team’s next step, we flew to London. Try Two Points Campus, management software dedicated to the creation of frankly absurd college campuses. We’ve had it for a few hours, and today we’re here to describe our direct experience. Did you order the books from the copy shop?

Magic degree? Why?

That Two Points wants to keep its management universe fairly coherent is evident at first glance at Campus: The game looks very similar to Hospital’s and puts a heavy emphasis on realism to embrace whatever nonsense the developers had in mind. Forget the addresses in these parts like physics, math, or engineering, because the most normal courses are the swapping of crazy experiments for weird courses in pseudoscience, or even a whole year dedicated to witchcraft and the noble art of dueling on horseback. Yes, it’s more or less called, the game’s universities are pretty much ridiculous, and also unlocked by completing objectives from level to level, with increasing difficulty depending on the university type.

Our testing did not allow us to fully explore all the available courses (there are apparently even a dozen), but for the first time we were able to live test the “knighthood” university and get a glimpse of the magical one. the variables they add to the game.

There campaign formula after all, after going through a very intuitive and clear tutorial (it overlooks the importance of several options and rooms, but explains the basics in a valuable way if nothing else) at least reaching the third floor and its armored students without much effort? It was a fair march. But from then on, things get complicated and we begin to glimpse the complex elements of a management system worthy of its name.

A similar progression might actually suggest a title very close to Two Point Hospital, but the components of the Campus system are non-zero. On the one hand, if your university’s project is absolutely important, and how you build it and what you put into it remains the mainstay of its development (as well as earning capacity), on the other students they are not like the patients of the previous title (often they can be easily replaced) and you will need to make sure that they are as happy as possible and have the greatest interest in maintaining and deepening friendly relations with each other. In summary, in this game, the desires and problems of the people roaming your structures are much more central to the success of the campaign, so much so that creating a profit-only structure seems rather difficult (if not impossible) because services such as dorms, bathrooms, or food and beverage dispensers are essential. .

balance exercises

This foundation therefore already requires a different overall approach to the game, but it is also a rebalancing General decoration objects and systems in the field. Allows you to get special points for completing objectives, unlocking tools for customizing rooms, classes, gardens (yes, there is outside to manage) and so on, as it should, but in Two Point Campus it doesn’t always seem to be better choices than others (points like gold stars, which is literally abused to maximize it). Also, using the same object too much reduces its effectiveness until it’s cancelled, and so there seems to be a need to change strategy as you go along.

Mechanical complexity never seemed overwhelming, but from map three onwards, things get complicated as already mentioned. Courses to be managed proliferate, natural disasters and attacks from rival universities begin to arrive (usually resolved by combat-trained officials), and even heating becomes important, especially when you reach the magic school. rooms, any loan and staff training rooms become the center for maximizing resources when the economic situation gets tough.

In short, a few hours is enough to get a glimpse of a much more complex and solid management foundation than the lighthearted style of the title, and the first few bars are a relaxed introduction designed to offer the player a calm and stressed-out environment. free approach. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time and opportunity to explore the advanced images a little more during our testing.

There is little to be said about the technical sector, which is very similar to the previous one. This type of title doesn’t necessarily imply who is what type of exploit from this point of view, and we did not encounter any issues or bugs in the tested build.