TOEM 2

TOEM 2 was provided by popagenda for review. Thank you!

I love playing all types of games, though I’m generally used to playing the larger titles. Recently, I’ve had to play a lot of them, but the last few weeks have been filled with Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, and Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. I’ve been wanting to take a little break from the large titles and get back to some awesome Indies, and I had the pleasure of playing through a short, sweet, and charm-filled experience that felt worth exploring.

A lot of it feels very familiar if you’ve played the first game, but there are clearly some differences. Visually, TOEM 2 opted for a more 3D appearance over one that looks like the entire world was sketched. The world and characters still look great, but I will say that I do miss the sketched look. It felt more unique and gave TOEM its own identity. The new look isn’t bad, and it still does feel like it fits thanks to the black-and-white colors, but it gave me more of a generic feel, whereas the first game was very clearly defined.

The gameplay of TOEM 2 follows its prequel almost completely, with a few new additions to add some variety. We’re still going to go from town to town, completing puzzles using our trusty camera, and collecting enough stamps to move on to the next one. Along the way, we will meet a quirky cast of characters, like a piece of bread who wants to be sliced bread, or a big-headed man who is collecting smelly items. And at the end of the day, we will end up witnessing a beautiful, magical event to add to our photo books.

The puzzles can vary between extremely easy and solvable within a minute, while others will have us walking through these towns to find what we need to photograph. Almost all of these puzzles felt appropriately difficult and interesting, with some of them bordering on challenging. Apart from maybe one or two puzzles where I just could not find the items I needed to, despite walking around the town four times, I never felt frustrated or disappointed. A lot of times, I would go around and find different pieces of a different puzzle, interesting sites, or unique critters that I wanted to capture. So, even if I couldn’t find everything, I still found it worthwhile.

However, there are other puzzles that don’t actually involve our camera that we can complete. TOEM 2 adds jumping and climbing to the game, and there will be parkour challenges in some regions that require us to climb and find a flag or find specific items that we will need to give to the requester. It’s a nice change of pace from just taking photos and showing them to people, and I felt there was a good amount of balance to make sure taking photos was still the highlight of the game and what we would need for the majority of progression. There are also some puzzles that will require using our camera, but not taking a photo, which felt like a nice balance of both old and new ideas.

Of course, we can just take photos for fun and leave them in our photobooks to view later or put them in different frames we can find throughout the towns. We can either take photos as we walk around, or utilize a new trustee helicopter mode to take selfies. And with the ability to return to find new clothing and change our outfit at will, and new camera abilities, there will definitely be lots of opportunities to play around with it and take some memorable photos.

As I briefly mentioned before, there’s a charming cast of characters we’re going to encounter and help out, and there is a big reason why I love the game. Whether they’re crazy, weird, or downright ridiculous, I found it so enjoyable to go up and talk to everyone just to see how they were going to react. One of my favorites was this fish-like man chowing down on a snack like a madman, and when I talked to him, he was immediately defensive and asked if I’d ever seen someone chew before. Then, he just goes right back to it. It was hilarious to watch, and the world was filled with encounters like that, so it was a blast to just walk around and meet others.

I also want to mention that the game is very short. It took me about three hours to beat the game with an 88% completion rate. If you’re going for 100%, I can’t see it taking longer than four or five hours. I’m not usually someone to harp on the length of a game; I will always prefer a shorter, quality experience like this over a longer, mediocre one, but I did wish there was more to do. It felt like it ended a little too soon, and I would’ve loved to meet more characters and solve more puzzles.

TOEM 2 - Steam Deck Performance

And for everyone who may be wondering, TOEM 2 is flawless on the Steam Deck. It runs at 90 FPS with a battery drain under 9W the entire time, making it a perfect experience to take on the go. I have no complaints at all; it’s just a wonderful experience on the go.

結論

TOEM 2 is a wonderful follow-up to an Indie gem that shows why the first game was so highly regarded. The charm of the world and its characters draws you in, while the puzzles feel good to solve and will require some thought. Not all of the changes stick the landing, and it’s a very short experience, but it’s a worthwhile one.

It’s also a near-perfect experience on the Steam Deck, so for those who want to take this on the go, you won’t be disappointed.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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