Remember Toem? That was a bloody lovely game. I’m always partial to a game where photography is the core mechanic, there’s such a specific joy in navigating a space attempting to capture a fracture of its essence. Photo modes just aren’t the same, I want someone to textually give me a camera and send me on my way. A sequel was announced last year, quite simply called Toem 2, and during yesterday’s Day of the Devs, some gameplay was shown off for the first time.
Essentially, it looks like more of the same (which I want to quickly make clear is a wonderful thing), albeit clearly with a few more years of artistic experience under the developers’ belts. Environments are fully 3D now, rather than what (I’m guessing) were all 2D textures mapped onto 3D objects. You’re still out on an adventure, taking pictures along the way to uncover a phenomenon that is being kept hush, hush for the time being.
The sequel will feature special NPCs called Friends (aww), all of which have their own unique questline. Once you’ve wrapped up a quest, they’ll give you a camera tool like, uh, scissors! Which cut things! As scissors are want to do. Or you’ll get a hammer, no prize for guessing what that does. None of these things sound particularly camera related, but they look like fun ways to interact with the world. You can jump around and climb things now too, lots of ways to have some fun outside of taking a picture of a cheeky gnome.
There’s no exact release date for Toem 2 just yet, but it is slated for release sometime in 2026. You can wishlist it on Steam here!
