Toem is a neat little adventure game with cameras acting as the main interactive tool. It’s sort of like Pokemon Snap if those games allowed players to freely walk around and photograph things at their leisure. That would be a decent idea for the Pokemon series to take inspiration from if there ever is a third Snap entry.
This little indie game comes from the developer Something We Made. The studio has two prototype games on its official website but Toem is its first major release. It’s doing well in reviews. Toem is not blowing up the gaming world but it is good to see success from a small team like this. It’s not perfect as there are downsides to this adorable experience but adventure game fans may really dig it.
7 Best: Black And White Aesthetic
At first glance, the most distinct thing about Toem is the black and white aesthetic. This mirrors the classic setup of old cameras rather well. The black lines really pop out on the newer systems, but even on the Switch, it is striking.
Toem is a good-looking indie game. The only downside to the visuals is that the environments and characters start to look blurry when zoomed in on. That may have been done intentionally to better emulate cameras.
6 Worst: Photo Options
There are not that many photo options in the game, which is odd considering that is the major mechanic. At first, players can only take pictures wherever their character stands. Eventually, they will get a tripod so that they take better selfies from a distance. On the selfie front, characters can make a few different faces in this setup.
The camera basics, these expressions, and the tripod are about it for Toem. It’s not a huge disappointment but again, the photo mode in a game about taking photos should be more legendary than Ghost of Tsushima. That game still has the best wealth of options.
5 Best: Weird Characters
Toem is filled with colorful characters despite the black and white aesthetic. Most of them have missions for players ranging from simple tasks like taking a picture of a hotel from a mountain view to tracking down three missing porcupine brothers.
Their dialogue can add to the charm along with their speech patterns. Dialogue sounds like gibberish in Toem, sort of like how characters speak in The Legend of Zelda games. It’s a good series to draw from if that was Toem’s inspiration.
4 Worst: Obtuse Puzzles Without Help
The beginning homestead and the first big area of the game are not that challenging. Players will have to run around several screens in order to solve each quest. The challenge lies within the time spent running around rather than in the actual solving of the puzzles.
The second area and everything beyond that are real brain twisters. Missions can be as obscure as some of the best point-and-click adventure games of the '90s. Toem doesn’t have a clue system either or accessibility options of any kind. It can create stopgaps that are never good for a game.
3 Best: Dressing Up
While Toem doesn’t have much in terms of photo options, it does allow players to customize their characters. There are even missions in the game that require players to dress a certain way.
For example, there is one that requires shades in order to enter a rave filled with dancing bears and a moose DJ. The accessories and clothing options will unlock as missions see fit, or through exploration of the world. Fashion goes hand in hand with photography, and video games, so this inclusion makes sense.
2 Worst: Stamps Don’t Carry Over
Toem's gameplay loop works like this: players get a travel card to which stamps are added whenever missions are completed. Every area of the game is gated by stamps. The first area, for example, requires seven stamps in order to leave and move on to the next stage. The possible number of stamps will be indicated in each region. The first has fifteen, which means not every stamp has to be collected.
This is good news but it comes with a twist. Each area resets itself so when players move onto the beach after the forest, they need to collect seven more stamps even if they aced the forest. It doesn’t give much incentive for players to complete every area since stamps don’t carry over. It might have been better if the game worked like Super Mario 64. No matter where they are acquired in that game, every Star counted towards the total which unlocked new doors.
1 Best: Zooming In And Out
This might be a small bonus for some but it is worth mentioning. The game allows players to zoom in and out of the camera perspectives to a great degree. They can zoom as far out as to witness every screen like a diorama. This can be a useful option when trying to solve some of the trickier puzzles.
That’s a good way to look at Toem thematically. The whole game is like a series of dioramas with secrets hidden in each one. To liken it to the Mario series once again, it is reminiscent of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in this way. Instead of a pickaxe, the camera is the almighty tool of choice in Toem. A real-life diorama figure set of this game would be neat to see.