Two Point Campus

You start the game with an empty plot of land, so you can lay out, plan and build the university according to your own tastes. The generous sandbox style open world allows you a lot of freedom: There is an as-you-need tutorial which guides you when you are stuck or starting something new, without influencing too many of your decisions as you go.

For example, you will need to ensure there is enough dorm space for all your students, as well as a good sufficiency of toilets, among other things. Once the game is sure you know what you are doing, the tutorial dials back and lets you take the driving seat.

There are hundreds of customisation options, to keep you busy for literal hours – especially during the endless summer vacation, more about which to come.

At all times, you should bear in mind that a clean and welcoming campus will attract more students, which means more income: financial management to fund both new building construction and student happiness is one of the main pillars of the game.

‘City’ building has more of an emphasis in this game, so fans of building games will be more engaged – this is mainly because with Two Point Hospital, patients flitted through the wards at speed: on campus the students will stay for a game year (about 20 minutes of real time play). One of your jobs is overseeing the graduation of those students who have reached their third or fourth year and welcoming the new cohort.

Do note, if students have too much of a good time at night, they might claim they can’t attend classes the next day which could make satisfaction and achievement stats fall, so don’t supply too much tempting mid-week entertainment!

As with the previous game in the series, this one does not take itself too seriously, offering classes such as Knight School, where you can learn to be a medieval knight (other quirky classes include Gastronomy and Robotics). The characters have a cute and enjoyable cartoon style, which makes the game even more fun to play through.

The Nitty Gritty

With each building, there are some basic requirements that you must fulfil – books must appear in any building called a library, for example – but otherwise you can add whatever features you like. And you can keep coming back to redo and continue fitting out rooms as more items are unlocked as you progress through the game.

You have to ensure that you provide all the buildings that a university would need, from lecture theatres, to classrooms, and libraries, as well as hosting events and extra-curricular activities. Staffing is also up to you: you must hire everyone from lecturers to janitors and everything in between. Student happiness is key, so you must take care not to allow your attention to focus on one area of the game alone.

The game gives you a list of objectives to achieve, but then lets you work through them at your own pace, exploring elsewhere or simply having fun – as long as you keep balancing the finances, building and student happiness of course!

The exception to this is during the endless summer holiday (you can make it last as long as you need) when you can devote all your time and attention to complete your sandbox modelling of the campus, using cash reserves and getting everything ready for the new school year. Like its predecessor the game is set in Two point county.

The whole student body falls into groups of archetypes – rather like high school, but much cuter so you can follow their progress and recognise the ‘types’ as they go about their college experience. The graphics are fun and quirky and add to the overall enjoyment of the game – listen out for the student radio station as a hidden treat.

Gameplay is easy and intuitive, but there are enough diverse tasks to keep you coming back for more and not getting bored – and then, of course, you can use the summer vacation to make dramatic any changes to the campus that you deem necessary.

What they need

Things the students need:

Housing: you must make sure that you have enough dorm space for the size campus you have built. Being cramped or isolated will make your students deeply unhappy, and they might take their money elsewhere

Feeding: students are always hungry, so make sure that you place cafeterias anywhere they might be needed!

Educating: not only must you put on a good array of classes, but you must supply high-quality lecturers and comfortable and attractive lecture halls too

Entertaining: pizza slices, nightclubs, bars, events that you stage for them – there is a wide range of things with which you can tempt your students to keep them happy, not lonely, and spending money. Just be careful not to make things so much fun that they start skipping classes…