Overview Two Point Campus – The first university that wants us to love class hours

After a strong comeback 4 years ago with Two Point Hospitala worthy successor to the cult Theme Hospitalthe developers of Two Point Studios and SEGA will offer us this summer a new opus of the saga, devoted this time to higher education, via Two Point Campus.

The game was supposed to be released on May 17 but was recently pushed back. It will finally be available on next august 9 on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and will be available from launch in the Xbox Game Pass (PC and consoles).

A few weeks before its release and in order to have a first glimpse of what the title will offer us when it is released, we had the opportunity to attend a press event organized by SEGA and Two Point Studios, consisting of a online presentation followed by a trial of the game for long hours.

Preview Conditions: We played Two Point Campus for just under ten hours across various levels of the game, all on PC via Steam.

There are still seats in the first row

During this preview of Two Point Campuswe were able to try 4 different levels, represented by 4 schools scattered throughout Two Point County. The game takes very broad outlines of the mechanics that made the success of the previous opus (sometimes even too much?) By accommodating all of this with school sauce.

Choice of training provided by the campus, atypical courses (virtual normality, shenanigans, cash coring, etc.), wacky clubs, monitoring of students’ education from their grades to their timetables, continuing education of teachers (names of teachers in the game), everything is done so that you really feel in the shoes of a university managerwho must invest but also make decisions and manage priorities.

The first school we were able to try was the school of Freshleigh Meadowsa level serving as tutorial the basics of the game and the mechanics specific to this new opus. Here, few training courses are provided, the students are relatively good and their patience is very high, enough to ensure perfect success while learning to master the interface, complete, a bit heavy in its content but which manages to fade away when necessary.

Indeed, you have the possibility to hide your annual objectives but also other information such as the progress of the school year etc. to gradually erase the interface. It will not be necessary to skimp on mouse clicks to browse the menus and even find “hidden” menus providing new information, in particular a overall summary of your campus for example.

Note that, like the previous titles of the genre, each end of the year (here school) will be the occasion of a awards congratulating you on your pass rate and taking stock of student failures and dropouts, while earning stars will unlock next levels and new goals. A way to involve the player in pushing the personalization of his campus as much as possible.

Among our wanderings within Two Point County, we were able to put our suitcases down at the school of Piazza Lanatra whose specialty is the study of Gastronomya beginner level introducing in particular the student events and parties as well as clubs. Two Point Campus then takes the players by the hand by gradually incorporating new features into its gameplay.

The arrival of gastronomy courses (and its equally wacky rooms and astronomical dishes) does not prevent you from incorporating courses learned during previous levels, namely Scientology for example. It is also up to you to “manage” the schedules of the student office, the parties organized as well as the attraction in your sleep or brisk walking clubs.

The pinnacle of university management

Thanks to our success in the 2 previous levels, we were able to tackle slightly more robust levels, in particular with Noblestead Knights School introducing in particular rival schools but also medical problems and geological disasters of all kinds.

Right here, the adventure thickens drastically and you will have a little more difficulty obtaining your famous stars in order to continue your epic. The objectives became more and more pointed and precise, you will have to be pugnacious to achieve your goals. For example, we had to redo part of this level as our choices had not been conclusive and even reduced the attractiveness offered by our campus.

This level incorporates a lot of new gameplay features such as the creation of a dispensary to treat your students suffering from sprains, among other things, but also with the arrival of a research service to develop objects requested by students or even new knowledge about chivalry, while offering private training for late students.

In the department of practical lessons, the training fields or the equestrian jousting lessons will bring a little spice to these often dissatisfied students. To spice up your management even more, earthquakes destroying your structures or invaders from other schools will offer you challenges or invade your campus. It’s up to you to chase them away via your security-trained concierges who will face them in wacky duels based on water guns in particular.

The last level available for this first introduction to Two Point Campus will delight fans of the Harry Potter universe since it was none other than Bacon Hen School of Witchcraftexpected by many players waiting for a certain Hogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts Legacy still planned for this year. Dark arts and magic will be at work while falling meteorites and freezing temperatures will complicate your task.

Note that this level will allow you to get to know the Bank loans (if you haven’t needed it so far), of different kinds and at different rates, since you will start your magical career with a bank account reduced to nothing, but also with the presence of student tutoring to boost the morale of the troops.

In the department of novelties, know that there is also a preview mode which will allow you, in schematic form, to visualize where specific rooms, teachers, students, concierges etc. are located, while a filter menu (icon in the shape of an eye) will allow you to visualize more precisely, for example, the happiness of either staff or students or even the distribution of heat in your establishments.

An extremely useful feature (which we learned to master a little late), and which can tell you about many aspects. With its ever more complete formula, still just as organic, Two Point Campus finally seems at the top of what it can offer in the management of space, finance, material and human resources, and this to the detriment of a few disappointments which place us a little on the reserve.

The limits of the formula?

In particular, we can blame this young license for not offering more renewal in its gameplay mechanics. For example, we did not encounter the “whims” of staff ready to slam the door, we did not really suffer visits from officials or the consequences of scheduling or refusing a student event. Note also the omnipresence of emails and messages on the right of the screen, forcing you to consult them several times a minute most of the time.

It would also miss a concept of reputation for your schools which will also require the completion of at least 3 years of university studies to see your first graduates and the success (or not) of your training. We also found that too many decorative items were subject to the expenditure of Kudosh Points earned from your previous achievements.

We also had to deal with the problems of too few toilets, showers and dormitories, with distributors on every street corner not quenching the thirst of our students but also the problems of collision of objects during their movements, forcing us to delete our changes to start over etc., but all this remains deja vu.

Furthermore, to increase the level of prestige of our rooms and therefore the attractiveness of your university, you will have to artificially decorate your rooms, making the whole thing a little less personalized than we would have liked. The bookcases, for example, were for us the perfect example of a room that had to be redone constantly because it no longer corresponded to usage, going so far as to find this precise point a bit off-putting.

We would have liked more to have manage time rooms and staff, which, except for an incongruous break causing the absence of an assistant or a pedagogue, clearly did not cause any planning problems, even though they are specific to educational fields. we missed him a little more crazy, quirky and barred that we love so much in this license and that we had a hard time finding here.

Note also that Two Point Campus has rather long loading screens at the opening of the levels, even with an SSD, but offers a smooth gameplay, very nicely modeled and without loading afterwards. In short, many things still need to be refined and improved to achieve a perfect proposal in all aspects. Finally, it should be noted that we have not experienced the game with the controller but it remains a safe bet that the game will be more optimized for playing the keyboard / mouse combo.

The game will be available in original voices but is fully translated into French. You also have the possibility of displaying subtitles to take advantage of the interventions of the radio hosts or the legendary secretary always inclined to a delirious little sentence addressed to students and staff. All this without taking into account the presence of a soundtrack at the top, composed of playful titles, with heady rhythms but never too present but which are a real strong point.

Two Point Campus will be released in just over 2 months, and although we have only been able to test 4 of the levels that will be offered in the end, it should be noted that in total in the final game (excluding DLC ​​if there is), 12 levels should be playable including 2 tutorial levels, schools of gastronomy, witchcraft and knights tried here but also schools of spies, archaeology, performing arts and others still undisclosed.