Toem is filled with genuine craft.Īs Cameron Kunzelman wrote in his piece on the “shockingly small” skateboarding game The Ramp, there’s been a move within independent games towards miniaturizing the ideas of big games. Your character glides across the environment, the camera swings seamlessly around them, and when the gentle action is paused, the menu and dialogue options feel similarly satisfying to navigate thanks to each sound effect that chimes on cue. Even if you start to tire of tasks, which include basic fetch and find-the-object quests alongside actual photography, you’ll likely barely notice because the game feels so good. This speaks to an experience that’s just tight. Unlike Ubisoft’s blockbuster open worlds, pleasure derives from focusing on the foreground rather than a vista. These aren’t single, unbroken spaces but a series of modular environments that fit together like puzzle pieces. This compact, deliberate design extends to the levels which whisk you to a summer camp, beach resort, bustling city, and snow-capped mountain. It gives you the freedom to approach tasks in any order you like but lacks the unending horizons and cluttered maps that have come to define it. Like A Short Hike, Toem distills open world video games down to their joyful essence, even as it eschews many of the genre’s hallmarks. You go from looking down at your character to looking around. Each time you pull your old-school camera out, this tension is resolved beautifully. As you explore the game’s diorama environments, there’s always the nagging sense that you’re seeing less than you would like, that you should be able to peer beyond the top of the isometric viewpoint. You’ll photograph a lot of stuff in Toem because this is a checklist game at its heart, one filled with cute non-playable characters who need you to take a particular shot-graffiti, skateboarders, a DJing moose. What’s surprising is that this mechanic doesn’t get old. For the first time, you see her bespectacled 2D form in front of you alongside the cozy environment. By pressing triangle, the zoomed-out viewpoint snaps to first-person. She asks you to photograph her, and it’s here that the game’s central mechanic is revealed. Her home is rendered in unfussy hand-drawn style-thick black lines, bold shapes. Please note that offerings and operating hours may be affected due to COVID-19.Toem begins in your grandma’s house on what feels like one of those endless summer days. As you stroll along the Eureka Boardwalk, you’ll be looking across Humboldt Bay to Woodley Island. The Eureka Boardwalk & Marina is part of the Eureka Waterfront Trail, which runs along Humboldt Bay for over 6 miles. Park your car and take the town on foot, or hop aboard an old-timey carriage ride to see the sites from a different perspective.Įureka’s waterfront runs along historic Old Town, but it isn’t relegated to history - it’s a vibrant, working wharf where you can buy local crab and other seafood delights fresh off the boat. The spectacular architecture is authentic and is one of the last well-preserved downtown areas in California, having missed out on the redevelopment era in the ‘70s. The entire Old Town district is part of the United States National Register of Historic Places, featuring over 150 buildings from the Victorian era. All this and more, nestled in stunning Victorian architecture interspersed with giant, colorful murals. Sip on craft beer, eat at hyper-local restaurants, rent a kayak or go for a sunset cruise on the Madaket, and visit shops populated with passionate home-grown business owners. Located just blocks off Highway 101, you’d never know they’re there unless you pulled off to linger a bit longer. Location: Roughly, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Streets, between B and M StreetsĮureka’s historic Old Town and Waterfront are a must-visit.
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