TOEM: A Photo Adventure review - "Charming puzzle adventure"

• Charming adventure full of quests and characters
• Lots of different ways to experiment with your own camera
• Ghosts! So many ghosts!

I am often a fan of longer, more quest-based adventures, but do not find many that fit that category on my mobile phone. I am delighted to say that TOEM: A Photo Adventure fits the brief and delivers a fun, quest-based journey that's on the longer side, even if you are trying to rush through it.

In TOEM: A Photo Adventure, you are given a small camera and let loose on the world to take pictures and solve little puzzles in a bunch of different locations. This feels more open-world, with tons of different characters to talk to, animals to take pictures of, and moments to discover.

There isn't a traditional level select as such, and instead, you need to complete a number of different photo challenges to make it to the next area, as the bus will only give you a bus pass after you have helped a number of people in the area.

You will be keeping track of the people you help and the quests you solve in your notebook, where you can get stamps for everyone you help. Some of these quests are straightforward, like taking a picture of 5 pieces of graffiti, while others will be more challenging, like taking a picture of something that inspires music in one of the characters. Over time, you do start to get a hang of what things mean, as there are a handful of characters that move from area to area.

One person is actually often in an animated bunch of dust, as it's a telescope sticking out of whatever they are currently in. They are always looking for a picture of the same character, so over time, you realise you just need to find that person early on and take a picture. There are also Photography Scouts in each of the areas, with one having more challenging puzzles and the other having far easier puzzles. 

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• Best console and PC conversions for iPhone and iPad (iOS)

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Inside your journal, you can also take pictures of all of the different living creatures across the world, with some creatures having special close-up images, giving them a sparkly background. With your camera, if you are more interested in snapping cute photos instead of solving puzzles, you can unlock various filters and frames to make things look different. There are also environmental changes like mud and snow that can change the way the camera looks, giving you more to play around with.

The camera feel, where you switch to your camera to take a picture, does feel very good as well. It uses your phone's gyroscope to create a subtle movement when you are taking a photo, as if you are using your actual phone to actually take a picture.

Some of the puzzles in TOEM: A Photo Adventure aren't even ones that use your camera to take pictures, either. Sometimes you just need to look at something: boats to warn someone where they are, items stuck in a bunch of cogs, or porcupines that need to be scared back to their home. There are even items you can use with your camera, like a horn, to move animals on, so you can make it to new areas.

TOEM: A Photo Adventure has so many funny moments, from glasses to see ghosts to becoming a runway star by inspiring an entire fashion line. Everything is extremely charming, and it feels so well-developed for your mobile phone. I did find some of the puzzles to be extremely tricky, but the fact that you do not need to solve them all feels like a breath of fresh air.