The original Toem felt like an adventure game where instead of fetching items to finish quests, we instead paid attention to our surroundings and took photos. It felt light and delightful, encouraging players to take their time and enjoy the moment in a hand-drawn type of world. Now Something We Made takes us on another trip with Toem 2, a game that builds on the first with some new camera-related mechanics and visual update.
Toem 2 begins with our avatar heading out on a new journey. A Whirlhill Festival is being held a few towns away in honor of the Whirling Birch blooming. After seeing the news report about the upcoming Toem (special moment and event), we leave Homelanda on a trip to capture that, and many other, special moments. Of course, that also means helping folks along the way via small tasks and photography in order to get enough stamps to go ahead and make enough progress to head through each stop.
The approach to Toem 2 is largely the same as the original. Once you get to a stop on your road trip, you wander around assisting people with quests. Doing so usually involves taking a specific sort of photo, then returning to the quest giver to check in and get a stamp for the efforts. However, in a bit of a twist this time around, there are additional elements. Right from the start, we’re introduced to the way different functions of the camera can affect the world to help complete certain requests. Like early on, this involves a tutorial with the Focus mechanic that can act as a trigger to change a paper to an airplane. But later, it could lead to you “bonking” environmental objects to cause a photo subject to appear or “twist” screws to change positions.
It’s clever! The camera and photography are still the main focus. We’ll zoom in and out on subjects, taking shots people want or need. This can still mean visiting different areas or moving around to get the right positions. But these additional actions allow for a little interactivity while using the camera first-person viewpoint and diversity for requests. They fit! It feels like a natural progression too for an avatar that comes across as genuinely helpful.
I also feel like the presentation and design again encourages exploration and checking things out from different angles. The original game encouraged us to look around, check spots, and get creative with the camera. That’s even more encouraged here with the 3D models, light platforming, and ways in which we can now interact with the world by pulling up our camera and performing different actions.
While I do I appreciate the way Toem 2 looks, I am a little nostalgic for the original game. That first one featured a more 2D, isometric appearance as we went through the 3D environments. Here, we actually see 3D models in the world and 2D characters and critters. In some situations, the ensuing photos and contrast can feel a little off. It isn’t an issue for each area or picture and the design still feels true to the overall aesthetic, but I think I appreciated the consistency of the original design a bit more.
As an aside, Toem 2 makes me appreciate concise adventures too. Something We Made accomplishes everything they intend in the span of a few hours, while still creating an experience that feels rich and full. After spending time with two games recently that spanned 60 to 100 hours, I love smaller experiences that still don’t skimp on good times.
Toem 2 inspires the same sort of joy as the original while offering another beautiful world to explore and new ways to capture fun photos. It’s a welcoming world full of big deal affairs like festivals and smaller celebrations like getting to see a cute critter. The new mechanics that involve triggering new reactions fit well into the existing framework, and the 3D elements still work with the character design and aesthetic.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.siliconera.com/review-toem-2-lets-us-capture-more-memories/
