TOEM 2, the sequel to Something We Made's black-and-white photography game, came out on Tuesday, 29 September, on PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. It costs US$19.99, with 15 per cent off for launch, and the small Swedish studio says it takes about three to four hours to finish.

Critics are charmed. OpenCritic has it at 84, with about 93 per cent of critics recommending it, and Polygon's review calls it "somehow even more perfect" than the original. The main complaint is that it's too easy and over too soon.

A camera, a bus ticket and a lot of odd jobs

Something We Made is based in Karlshamn, a harbour town in the south of Sweden. Niklas Mikkelsen and Lucas Gullbo started it in 2018, and their first game, TOEM: A Photography Adventure, came out in 2021. The studio's own launch release describes that first game as "BAFTA-winning." The sequel is co-published by popagenda, a games marketing and publishing company that's also worked on Bugsnax, Cuphead and Venba.

Photo: Joe Haupt / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), cropped

The idea hasn't changed. You're a young photographer setting off to see a TOEM, a mysterious natural event, and your camera solves almost everything. Locals have problems. You help by photographing something they need to see, and they stamp your journal. Collect enough stamps and you've earned a bus ticket to the next stop. There's no time limit, and the release says there are "no hard requirements for full completion."

Most of what's new is in the camera. The release says it now takes attachments that let you use it "in more unconventional ways." Reviewers describe scissors, a hammer for nails and jars, and a wrench for turning pipes and screws, each tied to a different region. Kotaku says the camera also gets a focus lens for spotting things that look out of place. You can jump and climb now, so the little diorama worlds are taller. Polygon notes there's finally a minimap. There's also a bundle with the first game at an extra 10 per cent off, and the soundtrack by Launchable Socks and Jamal Green is sold separately.

The launch trailer is on Something We Made's YouTube channel.

What critics love

Polygon's Ford James headlined his review "Toem 2 is somehow even more perfect than Toem." He wrote that the sequel has "exactly the same premise as the first game with a near-identical structure, but even more polish." He compared the studio to a restaurant with a short menu, where the chefs have mastered every dish. He called it "wholesome, whimsical, and wonderfully funny." It's a puzzle game, he said, "but with none of the friction or frustration that pure puzzle games often create."

He liked the places as much as the puzzles. There's a sprawling farm where the pigs have run off at bathtime and got far too muddy. There's a mystical forest village with a Dungeons and Dragons feel, and a city built around a huge aquarium. There are more interiors to explore than in the first game, he wrote, which means "more secrets to find, more photo quests to complete, and more characters to interact with."

Kotaku's Rebekah Valentine opened her review with a tiny animation. When your character walks on stone paths or through autumn leaves, he holds his arms out like an aeroplane and skips. "There's no reason for this animation to exist, except to make me happy when I see it," she wrote. She praised the "superb" sound and music and told readers, "don't play this on mute!" She had favourite quests too. One man wants five smelly things photographed for his smell museum. There are singing fish you track by ear, and a giant chicken that, technically, isn't there.

Valentine also got more out of the ending than she expected. The first game's TOEM turned out to be one spectacular sight. The sequel reveals there are lots of them, and she read that as a gentle point about everyday wonder. "There are TOEMs all around us for the finding if we take the initiative," she wrote. She said the game "might stick to the walls of my brain a little more tightly" than the first.

The catches

The complaints line up, and they're about challenge and length, not quality. PC Gamer's Lauren Morton gave it 73 out of 100, one of the lower scores so far. Her verdict was that it's "a cute sequel, but the adventure game magic of original has been streamlined out." Each area pairs one camera attachment with one local who needs it, and she found that too direct. "Toem 2 gave me a hammer and then actually did present me only with nails," she wrote. "I'm doing a whole lot of camera clicking but very little brain clicking."

Valentine agreed "by a smidge." She thought the sequel plays a little weaker than the first, because the attachments replace some of the cleverer puzzles where you just had to look closely. She missed the first game's honking horn, and said she could whoosh through most areas in two laps.

James's only gripe was length. "I waited five years for a sequel that I beat in a single afternoon," he wrote. He said it's not quite a cosy game in the farming-sim sense, but it is "a game that is best played when you're cozy."

Even the cooler reviews found plenty to like. Morton enjoyed the collectable outfits, especially a mascot costume of your character's own head, and the "airborne camera tripod" for overhead selfies. She also noted it's Steam Deck verified.

Who it's for

If you want a short, kind game you can finish in an evening or two, the reviews make TOEM 2 an easy pick. It suits younger players and people who don't usually play games. James wrote that its simple puzzles make it approachable for "a non-gamer audience." At US$19.99, it costs a fraction of this week's big releases.

If you loved the first game's head-scratchers, expect something gentler. If you've never played either, the bundle's the better deal, and the studio says the sequel was made to welcome newcomers as well as returning fans.

For another gentle game from this year, our review of Lou's Lagoon covers Tiny Roar's seaplane adventure.

We haven't played TOEM 2 ourselves, so this is what the studio and the critics say.