Running a college campus is difficult. If the hit 2006 movie Accepted, starring Justin Long, has taught me anything, it’s that making sure your students are following their dreams is the top priority. At least, that’s what I thought at first.
Two Point Campus lets you run your very own college campus. You get to pick the curriculum, building layout, staff, and more. Two Point Studios has crafted the ultimate college campus management game.
Two Point Campus Review | Acceptance Is Just One Click Away
The campaign starts by teaching you how to provide for students’ basic needs as it slowly rolls out different and escalating challenges you’ll need to solve. At first, you just need to ensure there are courses and teachers in place, a dormitory for students to rest and relax, and food and water.
As your campus grows, so will the student body and their wants and needs. You’ll go from needing one classroom to multiple clubs and extracurricular activities and whatever else the students start requesting.
Designing in Two Point Campus is a blast. Customizing each room’s color, furniture, and positioning allow you a level of control that facilitates creativity. Sure these rooms need to be functional, but it’s up to you how you want to design them to fit the vibe.
Items and furniture can be a little wonky. Sometimes moving them around can clip through walls and not also land where you want them to, but it’s easy enough to fix with a click of a button. I found sometimes I would have to wrestle the controls a bit, but not enough to make it a hassle.
As you work your way through each level in the campaign, you’ll unlock more and more themes. While starting with science and cooking, you’ll eventually work your way to more whimsical campuses like wizards and knight school. Each level has its own set of objectives ranging from having an average grade percentage of a B+ to controlling the temperature of your campus.
All of these are designed to teach you about the different facets of managing your college campus and provide a consistent way to learn and master the controls of Two Point Campus.
During the Spiffinmoore section of the game. Where you’re tasked with running a magical campus of magic, I needed an average grade point percentage of a B+. After trying and trying for hours to get more students to hit the books and focus, I was at a dead end. So I did the unthinkable and expelled every student with a grade point average below a B+. This brought the campus’ grade point average to an acceptable standard, but at what cost? I was the monster I never wanted to become.
While it wasn’t my proudest moment, and I failed many of the students I was trying to help, it opened my eyes to how creative you can be within the bounds of the ruleset provided in the game. There are a lot of exciting ways to go about completing your task. I appreciate the option to tackle the situation this way, and honestly, it says way more about the higher education system than a simple line of dialogue ever could.
It quickly taught me that I wouldn’t be able to make everyone happy, but I have to strike a balance between what financially makes sense and what I can then do with the money. I became the thing I hate the most, the man. My new goal was to ensure every dollar earned went directly back into making the students’ lives better, no matter the cost. It didn’t always work, but I tried my best.
Two Point Campus excellently approaches comedy and commentary. Announcements will be filled with one-liners mocking the faults of higher education, radio bits and podcasts will deliver witty banter about the college experience, and even some of the characters you meet along the way have quips and other entertaining dialogue.
However, the real star of the show in Two Point Campus is the students. These over-the-top characters are filled with life. They animate expressively, have hilarious names that are randomly generated, and bring the campus to life. I spent much of my time at Two Point Campus simply zooming in on students as they went about their day.
The team at Two Point Studios clearly put a ton of love into crafting all of the animations for the staff and students. They emote when talking to each other, fall asleep in class, and even shoot each other with water guns. You can schedule events like open mic nights, dance parties, and more. Watching the students and staff break it down and loosen up after a hard week of classes was as fun and entertaining as running the college itself.
As your students progress through the year, you’ll need to manage different facets of their lives, sending them to tutoring if they’re failing, making sure they seek medical attention when necessary, and giving them adequate sleeping arrangements. There is a little more micromanaging of them than I would have liked. I often found students refusing to pay tuition because they were unhappy, only to find out they weren’t seeing the school nurse or taking care of themselves despite having the required buildings and staff.
I don’t know if the team accurately represents the stubbornness of college students. Still, it was often frustrating to have to click on everyone and ensure they were okay while trying to manage other aspects of the campus.
Overall, Two Point Campus is an excellent look at college life’s management, business, and students. If you’re looking for a new management sim or just want to mess around for a few hours. Two Point Campus is an excellent place to enroll.
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review.
Pros:
- Students are animated and expressive
- A great look at college life
- Customization is top notch
Cons:
- A little too much student micro-management
- Item placement and copy/paste can be a hassle
Score: 9.0
A copy of this game was provided to Prima Games for review. Reviewed on PC.
