![]() ![]() Players explore the game's world from a top-down perspective, though it will shift to first-person when the player is taking photos. Gameplay primarily revolves around helping the locals by solving various puzzles using the player character's camera. As the player character progresses, they will visit numerous Scandinavian towns and cities that are filled with non-playable characters (NPCs), who will ask the players for help. In the game, the player assumes control of a young photographer who must ascend a mountain to witness a phenomenon known as "Toem". It won in the Best Debut category at the 18th British Academy Games Awards. The game received generally positive reviews upon release. It was released in September 2021 for Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5. ![]() Toem shows what can be achieved with modest means rather than, say, the $200 million former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden thinks you need to make a PlayStation 5 title.Toem (stylized as TOEM: A Photo Adventure) is a photography game developed and published by Swedish independent game studio Something We Made. To this point, I get the same kick from exploring the pretty dioramas of Toem as I do from ostensibly prettier, more expensive games-the same satisfaction of uncovering secrets squirreled away in their hidden corners, of experiencing thoughtful worldbuilding, of just working through a checklist of objectives within a virtual space. Toem is filled with genuine craft.Īs Cameron Kunzelman wrote in his piece on the “shockingly small” skateboarding game The Ramp, there’s been a move within independent games towards miniaturizing the ideas of big games. Your character glides across the environment, the camera swings seamlessly around them, and when the gentle action is paused, the menu and dialogue options feel similarly satisfying to navigate thanks to each sound effect that chimes on cue. Even if you start to tire of tasks, which include basic fetch and find-the-object quests alongside actual photography, you’ll likely barely notice because the game feels so good. This speaks to an experience that’s just tight. Unlike Ubisoft’s blockbuster open worlds, pleasure derives from focusing on the foreground rather than a vista. These aren’t single, unbroken spaces but a series of modular environments that fit together like puzzle pieces. This compact, deliberate design extends to the levels which whisk you to a summer camp, beach resort, bustling city, and snow-capped mountain. It gives you the freedom to approach tasks in any order you like but lacks the unending horizons and cluttered maps that have come to define it. Like A Short Hike, Toem distills open world video games down to their joyful essence, even as it eschews many of the genre’s hallmarks. ![]() You go from looking down at your character to looking around. Each time you pull your old-school camera out, this tension is resolved beautifully. As you explore the game’s diorama environments, there’s always the nagging sense that you’re seeing less than you would like, that you should be able to peer beyond the top of the isometric viewpoint. You’ll photograph a lot of stuff in Toem because this is a checklist game at its heart, one filled with cute non-playable characters who need you to take a particular shot-graffiti, skateboarders, a DJing moose. What’s surprising is that this mechanic doesn’t get old. For the first time, you see her bespectacled 2D form in front of you alongside the cozy environment. By pressing triangle, the zoomed-out viewpoint snaps to first-person. She asks you to photograph her, and it’s here that the game’s central mechanic is revealed. Her home is rendered in unfussy hand-drawn style-thick black lines, bold shapes. Toem begins in your grandma’s house on what feels like one of those endless summer days. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |