TOEM Review: Look At This Photograph
TOEM: A Photo Adventure is a delightful puzzle-adventure game that focuses on the power of connections and photography. The wonderful score, unique characters, and stunning aesthetic, framed my time with the game into a picturesque weekend of loveliness.
Story
The game quickly brings the player into focus while introducing them to their grandmother - a fellow fan of photography. Through her conversation, you find out that your character is about to begin their own adventure. With this journey, you’re challenged to photograph and travel around various areas, all while helping fellow characters along the way. The ultimate goal is to discover and photograph the mysteries of an ambiguous event known as TOEM.
One of my favorite bits of the game occurs throughout the areas you’re left to explore. Meeting a myriad of characters and focusing in on some of their stories allowed for some interesting puzzles and even more intriguing photos. TOEM also has no problem pushing the boundaries of abstract scenarios - from a character made of socks, to squirrel cooks, and even a mysterious dark shadowed figure - these are only the tip of the iceberg to all the whimsy that can be discovered.
Presentation
Another highlight to TOEM is the incredible art direction throughout the adventure. The game is in black and white (much like the first photographs) with a mostly 2D design for characters. However, there are several 3D fixtures throughout that almost give a diorama vibe mixed with sharp paper cutouts. Each location varies widely, but keeps the Scandinavian-inspired aesthetic consistent.
In addition to the beautiful visuals, the audio also offers incredible atmospheric immersion. As you progress through each of the levels, you’re able to collect cassettes with relaxing songs that you can listen to on your adventure. The songs often fit the activity that you’re engaging with at that moment, but you’re able to go into the menu and choose what songs you want to listen to. I found this to be a fantastic touch that more games should implement - especially since I had a few favorites that I played on repeat.
It’s also worth noting that my time with the game on PlayStation 5 played as smooth as butter - no crashes, hiccups, nor framerate slowdowns.
Gameplay
As in the title of the game, the main gameplay mechanic revolves around the camera and the photos you take along the pilgrimage to TOEM. At the start, you have your basic camera with a zoom and that’s pretty much it. As the story progresses, you eventually gain a bit more customization for the camera and additional items that can help offer a wider lens of options for you to experiment with. These updated mechanics with the camera felt natural and meaningful, allowing for more fun and a bit more complicated puzzles to solve.
Within each area, you’re charged to complete several objectives in order to move on to the next area. This is done with a Community Card where if you earn enough stamps, you’ll be allowed to ride the bus towards the next level. Luckily, you aren’t forced to complete every objective (there are usually 10-15 per level), but rather about half. This was immensely helpful because I had some trouble with a few objectives for one reason or another. Having the ability to maneuver around and complete other objectives instead of banging my head trying to figure out what this clue means continued to make TOEM a delight to play. These objectives also had a nice variety to them. Some were cryptic clues to photograph specific characters or events, others were finding lost items and returning them to their owners, and a few were so surprising that I’ll let you find them for yourself!
In addition to these overarching objectives, there are several puzzle elements required to advance the story. Luckily, none were overtly obtuse or frustratingly abstract. Instead, the puzzles offered either environmental or written cues to help me along my way. And, just like before, if I was stuck on something, I would work on completing another objective, and eventually was able to piece everything together. There’s also a compendium to fill with all the creatures you find and a trophy list within the game to explore if you want to stay immersed in the world a little longer.
Accessibility-wise, there wasn’t any option to adjust font sizes, but there are several features to change how you can maneuver the camera and invert controls. Additionally, since this game is monochrome, color blindness isn’t an issue for any of the puzzles.
Breakdown
Game: TOEM: A Photo Adventure
Developer: Something We Made
Availability: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
Pros:
+ Charming characters with their own stories to tell
+ Relaxing adventure that doesn’t feel forced upon the player
+ Beautiful aesthetic and score
+ You can pet dogs
Final Thoughts
TOEM absolutely captured my attention from start to finish. This 3-6 hour adventure was a perfect snapshot trip for anyone who wants a relaxing, engaging, and wholesome journey to explore. I can’t recommend this enough and I look forward to fun conversations and even more interesting photos!
Reviewed by Harry Loizides