There is nothing so delightful as helping people. Sitting down, listening to them and helping them work through their troubles. Toem 2, like its predecessor, is a game all about helping people, through the unexpected magic of photography.
This upcoming, highly-anticipated sequel now has a demo available on Steam as part of the latest Wholesome Direct celebrations. If you loved the first game, or you’re just looking to see what the minimalist franchise has to offer, it’s worth making time to jump in.
Toem 2 preview – quick links
Saving Deltburg, one photograph at a time
The game’s demo consists of the first explorable region, Deltburg – a cutesy 2D-3D town populated by citizens dealing with various conundrums.
There’s a woman who’s lost her ring, last seen in the aquarium. There’s a man who really wants photographs of stinky smells. There’s also an evolutionary biologist searching for the missing links in an evolutionary line, along with a desperate plumber in need of help and a rigger trying to find the perfect position for a giant sign.
You are a tiny being, but you can help! It’s all a matter of taking out your trusty camera, and photographing the world around you.
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You never know what might be useful
Toem 2 encourages play and exploration, with its many secrets hidden away in small alleys, on rooftops, down drains and in ponds. You must wander with a sense of curiosity, photographing anything that seems odd or different, with the knowledge that it may help you solve a problem for one citizen or another.
It’s particularly novel that Toem 2 gives you a sense of freedom. While quests are fairly linear, once they’re logged in your journal, you’re able to roam around various idyllic locales looking for a potential solution.
The quest to photograph smelly items – a bin bag, old shoes, cheese – is particularly fun because you’ll only find each item by experimenting in your travels. What if you climbed up this particular pole? Is that a hidden door by the pond? Where does this alley lead?
You poke and prod, and are finally rewarded by encountering the grossest, smelliest objects around – which the man you’re helping then proudly displays in his smell shop.
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Toem 2 promises the right balance of fun and challenge
While the demo for Toem 2 is relatively short, comprising just the first 40 to 60 minutes of gameplay, it reveals a promising start. Like its predecessor, its exploration and camera systems are very fun and freeform, and its puzzles err on the right side of challenging.
Sometimes, solutions are very obvious, or puzzles are very simple. Helping the rigger to put up their overlarge poster is just a matter of taking out your camera, positioning a stand in the right place, and taking a snap.
But there are also more thought-driven puzzles that require you to analyse your surrounds and make clever choices, as well as puzzles where deeper exploration is needed. In the evolutionary puzzle, for example, you’re examining creatures hiding in ponds as you would with Pokémon, figuring out which fish is the natural evolution of the next.
The key to Toem 2‘s good vibes and cosy atmosphere is balance, with a novel array of puzzle types on offer in this opening demo. They can’t always be easy – there were some extra puzzles and discoveries that stumped me during gameplay – but they can’t be so challenging that they’re off-putting.
So far, Toem 2 is shaping up to be a very balanced experience, striking the right notes of whimsy and delight. As development continues, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what comes next.
If this early demo is anything to go by, Toem 2 will more than live up to its predecessor, while being buoyed by the same charm and sense of wonder.
