TOEM appeared out of nowhere for me and as someone who likes photography, I couldn’t help but get interested. And it turned out to be a curious and sweet little game.
Mechanically, it’s a very simple adventure title where the camera is your main tool for solving problems. The game starts as you set out on an adventure to see the titular TOEM and what follows is a series of locations, each divided into small isometric scenes, where you help others to progress to the next location. Take a picture of where an item someone lost is, follow the treasure hunt hints and even occasionally carry around actual items like in a typical adventure game. But most of the time you just take pictures, to help others, to fill out the creature log and just because you want to. It is kinda like the photography aspect of Beyond Good & Evil placed into A Short Hike with a light Chicory flavor.
And it is very cute and wholesome and sweet to go through. The visuals are nice, the music is mellow, the writing does what it sets out to do. It’s a nice game to play through. Maybe you’ll find it especially nice, I just found it pleasant. Nothing extraordinarily good or exciting. Yet, not much to complain about either. I mean, I suppose it would’ve been nice if the camera controls felt more natural and better on keyboard and mouse, since the usage of camera feels surprisingly awkward. But it’s nothing you can’t get used to.
Overall, I liked TOEM. It’s a “feel good” game that does its job right. There’s not much of an experience to be had here, but it’s a very nice past time that, I’m sure, lots of people will enjoy.