The Best Strategy Game of the Year Just Got Even Better
The circle of life.
Building a brand new museum of corkscrew-necked giraffes and fat little toads was a brilliant change of pace, and I was having a blast. Then I looked over at my zebra enclosure, only to see my two beloved zebras, Chuck and Zeus, dead as doornails. It was one of the most crushing moments I’ve had in a video game in years. I was genuinely emotionally affected — so much so that I had to step away for a few minutes. But I came back determined to never let it happen again, and to craft the greatest animal museum (zoo?) that’s ever been seen.
Two Point Museum, released in March 2025, came out of the gate as the best game in the series — which is saying something, as Two Point Hospital and Campus are great games in their own right. But there’s just something that really works about the museum theme for a quirky comedy-focused management sim. But what really makes Two Point Museum so compelling is how remarkably different each museum “theme” feels, and how much gameplay variation is baked into that. But with Zooseum, the game has hit a new all-time high — transforming Two Point Museum from the best strategy game of the year, to one of the best management games ever made.
Like all of the other museum themes, from ghosts to aliens, Zooseum brings entirely unique features and mechanics to Two Point Museum — plus no shortage of adorable animals. As you might have guessed, you’re essentially creating a zoo in the format of a museum. And while this new expansion falls squarely in the realm of the museum idea, it also feels like it could be a peek into the future of the Two Point franchise — and what could be done with a full zoo setting. But that’s not to say that Zooseum doesn’t feel like a full experience. In fact, it’s probably my single favorite part of the entire game now.
This expansion gives you a new map location known as the Farflung Isles, where you can explore and capture a variety of different bizarre animals — from snails with little cottages on their backs, to literal pet rocks. Ostensibly, Zooseum works a lot like the aquariums in Two Point Museum, where you need to create the right biomes for your animals and outfit their enclosures just the way they like. You, of course, need animal experts to take care of everything, but there are a variety of little twists and features layered in.
Terrariums give you some wonderful smaller exhibits that help for planning, and can be outfitted with a variety of interactive elements.
Animals might have something called the Far Flung Flu when you capture them, requiring you to put them in a spa bath to cure it, which requires you to pull away an Animal Expert from other duties. There’s a ton of detail in crafting the right enclosures for animals — bigger animals need full exhibits while smaller animals can be placed in terrariums, opening up a wealth of different planning options. At the same time, animals can form bonds with specific experts, increasing their happiness if you keep that person assigned — which in turn means better buzz for your guests. And yes, animals can also perish if their habitats aren’t making them happy and get too dirty (meaning you don’t pick up their poop fast enough). If you want to avoid a soul-crushing moment like I had, you'd better make sure you have enough staff to keep everything in tip-top shape.
But there’s another system in Zooseum that adds a fascinating wrinkle, called Sanctuary Points. The animals you capture and cure can either be put in your museum or released back into the wild to help increase the biodiversity of the Far Flung Isles. This gives you Sanctuary Points that can then be spent to instantly adopt animals, giving you a robust array of options for filling out exhibits or keeping your animals fresh.
You can put multiple animals together in one enclosure, but you’ll need to be careful that they get along — or suffer the consequences.
And what’s even more remarkable about Zooseum is that, on top of all these unique features, it comes with everything you’d expect from any of the game’s other scenarios — unique museum exhibits, workshop projects, decorations, new kiosks, and more.
Two Point Studios has done a truly stunning job of building out and enhancing this game over the last six months — while simultaneously providing bold new ways to play. Zooseum is an encapsulation of all of that, of everything Two Point Museum does well. It’s a testament to quality that I could play an entire game that’s just Zooseum, let alone the nearly a dozen other museums that are equally engrossing.
If you haven’t gotten on board with Two Point Museum already, you’re truly missing out on one of the very best gaming experiences in all of 2025.
