Man, anybody else simply having a troublesome time this week? I do know I shouldn’t complain about it an excessive amount of. I’m not within the direct line of fireside of the newest information in video video games, nor in nationwide politics. However I feel it’s fantastic for us all to acknowledge that logging on each day is changing into a an increasing number of depressing prospect with every new headline. I’m unhappy. It’s laborious to focus. All of the tales in my queue are main bummers. So I’m going to set these tales apart for like, half-hour or so, and go take some images of singing fish. Additionally, non-singing fish. And birds. Perhaps a snake, or snail. Anyway. Apologies to my editors. That is for our personal good. I’m dabbling within the demo of TOEM 2, the sequel to a beautiful little pictures sport that captured my coronary heart in 2021. It’s a kind of indies that you just’d by no means count on to get a sequel in one million years, simply because it was each very small and in addition a really full factor from the bounce. However right here we’re with TOEM 2, and also you received’t hear me complaining. As an alternative, you’ll hear the soothing sounds of Jamal Inexperienced and Launchable Socks, composers each getting back from the primary sport to share some nice, perky tunes whilst you run round little diorama-like areas and take images. Within the first TOEM, you have been on a ceremony of passage of kinds to take a photograph of a mysterious phenomenon, visiting numerous cities and bergs alongside the best way. I’m unsure what you’re as much as particularly in TOEM 2, however I’m fantastic not figuring out. The demo is brief and candy: you and your digicam are unleashed within the hamlet of Deltburg, the place the locals request that you just take images of issues like smelly rubbish for the native odor retailer and a bicycle for a robotic that wants assist together with his comedy routine, and off you go.
©One thing We Made I’ve seen TOEM earlier than, and TOEM 2 is extra of that. It’s acquired foolish little fellas in it, it’s acquired a full serving of little secrets and techniques to search out, and it’s acquired a digicam which you can zoom, flip right into a selfie stick, and do just a few different assorted puzzle features with reminiscent of (inexplicably) convert it right into a screwdriver. The massive new options in TOEM 2 are the power to focus your lens, and the power to leap, the latter of which principally serves to assist developer One thing We Made disguise extra little fine details vertically than earlier than, like foolish hats on your character. There’s some mild platforming. I like to recommend a controller reasonably than a keyboard. However principally, in TOEM 2 as in TOEM, I like to recommend taking lots of photos. That’s actually it. The sport itself turns pictures right into a automobile for quests, however I feel one among TOEM 2‘s greatest attributes is being stuffed with attention-grabbing little guys of which to take images. TOEM had lots of hidden interactions or poses you might immediate from numerous NPCs, and I’m hoping TOEM 2 has these too. Within the demo, there’s an aquarium stuffed with foolish fish with foolish faces ripe for picture taking, and there are additionally many little fish in Deltburg’s ponds and streams which can be placing on little musical exhibits for you. There are additionally good, spherical birds (borbs), and I like photographing them too. There’s a critter encyclopedia that tracks all of the humorous little fellas you discover.
©One thing We Made Should you additionally wish to take a break from doomscrolling and as an alternative scroll your focus dial up and down on a pleasant, swoopy seagull, TOEM 2‘s free demo remains to be up on Steam, and the complete sport is deliberate for a Q3 2026 launch. That’s not too far-off. We will make it, everybody, one singing fish picture at a time.
