Recently Seq has been heavily involved in publishing strategy and simulation games, as is the case with Total War: Warhammer III this year. This title was nominated for Game prizes, as well as another in the same category (simulation/strategy) that the company launched months later. That title is Two point campus, a construction and management game whose mechanics we will talk about in this review.
Let’s remember that Two point campus is a successor of Two point hospitalboth developed by Studios at two points. In this installment we have to take care of a university with all that that entails: offering quality programs, getting students good grades, getting them graduated, hiring good teaching and cleaning staff, and meeting every student’s needs. All of this has to be guaranteed throughout the academic year, which is a challenge.
Starting Two point campus
Starting the game is basically facing a blank canvas. We have a single empty building that we will have to fill with classrooms and laboratories, as well as other types of rooms. At this point it is a question of following the instructions step by step to understand what is happening. However, you quickly understand the controls, how to build rooms, and how to meet student needs.
A) Yes, From the outset we will realize that there are not only premises suitable for study, but also suitable bedrooms, bathrooms, entertainment venues and food and drink kiosks.. This directly affects students’ “happiness” bar, a statistic we should always keep high so that more students enroll and earn money from the experience (earned by meeting needs-related goals).
However, in addition to physical needs, we have to deal with other statistics of well-being and satisfaction. Because of this, we will eventually need to offer options for campus clubs, adequate wind chill (with heaters), infirmaries, and even tantrums that students can get.
The latter is interesting because tantrums come in the form of requests to the suggestion box. Many are asking for something like an updated foosball table or decor-enhancing posters. However, many of these are locked and must be accessed by spending “Kudos”, a special currency earned by completing achievements and other student aspirations. This system is fun as a way of progress, though it’s somewhat frustrating if someone asks for something that requires too many compliments and you don’t have enough or quick ways to get more right now.
time to play Tetris
Most of the time is spent planning how to build the next rooms to meet the academic requirements. Space is limited and both new and old courses will require more facilities. For example, third-year science students will definitely need another additional lab, while second-year culinary students require not only savory but also sweet cooking. Even if we want to be savers, the game itself will automatically encourage us to expand.
So, we will always have to look into the schedule if we need to build more rooms or hire more teachers. If there is an urgent need for these, they will appear in red in the calendar below. Although there is a lot of pressure on compliance, it is enough to have the requirements ready in a few days. Even so, the game will continuously bombard us with signals that we need specific teachers, assistants, janitors (maintenance), rooms or objects for everything to run smoothly. In this sense, it is very difficult for us to ignore the most important needs.
It might seem like a no-brainer, but once you get past the tutorials and move on to slightly looser modes, things can get out of hand. You can start feeling the pressure of student needs as you try to cut expenses a bit in a month that is a little tight on budget.. This is perhaps not a very pleasant element, because although the time can be a little early, sometimes you just need to wait for the funds to arrive at the end of the month to be able to continue building or buying objects.
Don’t see the logic – just have fun
If we level up our campus (by completing courses and building infrastructure), we will be able to offer more programs or level up the ones we already have to admit more students. The programs are a synthesis of the whole game, since we are not in normal academies: it is true that we will be able to teach Scientography, but also comedy, magic and chivalry. It’s both funny and absurd, but that’s only part of the game’s appeal.
All the while we will see jokes and comments that are at least trying to be funny. Additionally, students can be dressed as vampires, knights, or clowns, depending on their specialization. As we can see, the game abandons all seriousness and doesn’t care that it doesn’t make sense by the standards of real universities. The goal is simply to create something fun that everyone in the audience will enjoy, no matter how crazy things happen.
some problems
From what we have seen, the management in Two point campus it turns out to be very funny. However, that’s not to say that everything is perfect in the game. In fact, something that’s a bit annoying is that sometimes it’s hard to get a good handle on the build system. For example, there is no display form that cuts through the walls. This, coupled with the fact that some large objects make it impossible to select other smaller ones, makes the process of editing a room a bit tedious..
The same construction tools make it impossible to create slightly freer designs, for example with curvatures. The simplicity of the grid’s design Two point campus They make it easy to understand, but limit when designing a campus that is both functional and aesthetic. However, eventually the player gets used to coping with these elements.
Two point campus It’s an excellent management title that, despite some problems in interacting with objects, has fun mechanics that invite the player to be ambitious and dream of creating an enviable university. It may seem a little easy at first, but gradually it becomes a very fun challenge.
Review created using a digital copy of Two Point Campus for PC (Steam) provided by Seq.
