The characters, meanwhile, seem as if they were plucked right out of a Nickelodeon cartoon. Toem’s charming black-and-white art style is a joy to take in I especially liked how things looked like they’re made from paper and cardboard. That encouraged me to constantly pick up my camera as I was playing and scan the world around me. But sometimes, that first-person view is the only way to see some things that might be out of sight while in the isometric view, such as what might be under a bridge. Usually, you’ll use your camera to take pictures of animals, interesting landmarks, or specific things for a quest.
![toem review toem review](https://www.playpennies.com/media/imager/10501-3258057f2fe80fafac1203d9810b274d.jpg)
The bulk of your exploration takes place from an isometric point of view, but when you use your camera, the game shifts to a first-person perspective, often giving you a whole new look at the world around you. In Toem, developed by Swedish indie studio Something We Made, you play as a character armed with a camera who wanders through a number of different themed areas, such as a forest and a city, taking pictures of what you find along the way. And to my surprise, I enjoyed Toem a lot more. Its emphasis on exploration and low stakes felt vastly different from another photography game I played this year, New Pokémon Snap. Toem is such a short game, there’s not really much else to say that doesn’t start veering into spoiler territory.Toem is a delightful game about photography. However, this is a game that’s supposed to help you unwind and relax, so if you’ve come here looking for compelling storylines, this probably isn’t the game for you. There are a few UI quirks that are a little clunky, and the fact that the game is relentlessly upbeat means that the narrative can feel a little flat and unreal. While you can easily finish the game in three hours, there’s no shortage of things to do in Toem, especially if you’re after 100%-ing this quirky little indie. I can confirm that this also works in real life. Likewise, collecting outfits, such as a press pass helps gain you access to new areas. The air horn, for example, is a weird thing to chuck on a camera, but you can use it to move seagulls or break ice that’s blocking your path. While there are no level-up mechanics to speak of, playing through the game unlocks new outfits and camera add-ons, which in turn unlock new areas and abilities.
![toem review toem review](https://nonstopnerd748323109.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/tom-and-jerry-1.jpg)
There are more cryptic photography challenges interspersed throughout the game too, which requires the occasional bit of lateral thinking, and challenges which rely entirely on the dynamic zoom, using your camera as a telescope to guide locals through everything from a game of hide-and-seek to conducting a full-on search and rescue.Īs with most photography games, if you fancy stopping and snapping photos of the local fauna, there’s a compendium of animal photos that you keep, Pokédex style, which is always a neat addition. Other requests are little more unusual, such as spying on a mysterious figure or taking photos of something fluffy for the local yeti. Sometimes, these are simple requests, like photographing a bear’s hotel for marketing material or snapping photos for someone’s social media. Help a person and get a stamp on your card get enough stamps and you get to the next area. These good deeds - you guessed it - involve helping the locals with your camera.