Toem 2 Enhances The Original While Maintaining The Heart And Charm Of The Original

I love a large, meaty game that you can sink hundreds of hours into learning deep mechanics and investing in an oversized story… but equally as much I love the experience of playing a nice small game, with tight gameplay mechanics, that you can power through in a single sitting or over an afternoon. Toem was the latter of that for me, a simple game about taking scavenger hunt like photos and exploring the world, and when I got my hands on Toem 2, I was incredibly delighted that the heart and charm of the original were still so prevalent.

My gameplay session began in a small town on the edge of a forest, complete with nearby dark caves and even a potions hut off in the distance. Immediately, I could see all of the graphical differences. Every character was 3D, the camera was rotateable, and you could now jump.

You Can Turn The Camera?

It was exciting to see progression that many might take for granted, but a large and interesting step for Toem to take. This rotatable camera not only gives you a better idea of the world around you, but for a game where it's important to be searching every nook and cranny provides WAY more places for things to be hidden.

It didn't take five minutes of gameplay before I was spotting interesting hints on walls, ladders across the roofs of buildings, and characters obscured behind the environment.

While the game looks and feels all kinds of shiny and new the core gameplay loop seems to be intact. You'll spend Toem 2 exploring from one region to the next, at each stop along the way you'll encounter a totally new environment with different animals to take photos of and residents to help with their issues (which normally involves taking a photo of something).

For each task you complete you're able to collect a stamp for your passport/notebook. Collect enough stamps and you'll be able to proceed to the next work and continue your adventure.

If you choose to remain in place you can continue to collect stamps and additional rewards such as clothing items allowing you to casually march your way towards 100% completion.

In the original Toem, there was a loose plot to explain why you were heading out on this journey, and I'm sure there's a story in there for Toem 2 but this really is the definition of a game that you're not there for the destination but the experience along the way.

A Variety Of Objectives

In my time playing Toem 2, I was really excited at the variety of objectives that I needed to complete. Sure, I needed to do something simple like taking a photo of a gem or locating a donkey and taking a photo of it, but there were also quests where you needed to collect toadstools to help someone turn into a frog. There was an added depth to the steps that you needed to complete.

Toem 2 Preview | Final Thoughts

There's a thing that I like to do when watching trailers for movies and TV shows, the exact moment that I know it's going to be something I want to watch I switch it off and wait until I can experience the whole game.

There was a point while playing Toem 2, after creating a potion to turn someone into a frog, that I stopped trying to complete objectives, and instead just wandered around the world, taking photos of random things or platforming to hard-to-reach areas. In a way I switched off the trailer, because it showed that much polish that I was just ready for the full game.

I know when Toem 2 comes out, I'm going to play it.

Toem 2 was previewed at Summer Game Fest 2025.