Every once in a while, it’s just nice to play a game that doesn’t ask countless hours of your time. Games that like to give you a short but memorable experience. Developer Something We Made, has accomplished just the game with TOEM: A Photo Adventure. An experience that may only last you a few hours, but its gift of relaxing atmosphere, cute and humble vibes, and a really well-done art style in black and white.
You play as a delightfully cute traveler who sets out on a personal journey to discovery the mysteries of TOEM. On this journey, you bring with you a camera to fill your album up with photos. You also use your camera to fulfill quests wherever you go. You make stops to a few different towns and you must collect enough stamps to afford a bus ride to your next stop. To collect these stamps, you assist many of the townspeople with a variety of different little quests that always involve your camera. These tasks vary from taking the perfect photo of a hotel so they can use it to advertise, or it could be something like spotting and snapshot ring several monsters you see.
Using the camera itself is very simple. There’s a zoom feature and that’s kind of it. Your photos also don’t necessarily need to look super great. Given that the art style is sort of this 2D design in a 3D environment, just as long as you take photos at the designated object you need to is enough to complete your mission. I can’t speak highly enough about the game’s overall design. It’s simple, it’s cute, each area is small but effective. It’s almost as if the developers respected your time and realized that everything didn’t need to be completely over-bloated. The extra fluff they do add doesn’t even feel like it’s a chore. A section of your album is to collect photos of all the different wildlife creatures you come across… I feel like I would have done that anyways!
Another huge highlight for me is the soundtrack. Throughout the story, you are constantly unlocking new tracks that really compliment this very quaint and peaceful journey. You’re also give the option to play the songs at your leisure with your own music player. This overall adventure is just a huge breath of fresh air, I love the characters you briefly interact with, I like how uncomplicated it is. It’s just nice to sit back and relax to a soothing chill game that at times can pull on your little heart strings. It’s on PS5 for twenty bucks, and while the game is short, it leaves a lasting impression, which is more you could say than some of the more expensive ones.
8.5/10
For more information, please visit: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10003267/
PlayStation 5 Review
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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