We Were Here Too

31 January, 2025 - 5:46 pm by Drew Sherratt
About 7 mins to read
Reviewed on: PC

Drew has pledged to slowly but slowly churn his way through his sizeable stack of Nintendo Switch games for his ‘Beat the Backlog’ feature. Check out his main article to see what games he’s completed already!

If you’ve read any of my work before, you may be familiar with the We Were Here franchise, which Gaz Jones and I have enjoyed since taking up our walkie-talkies back in 2022. Well, after playing the truly wonderful mini-adventure FriendShip, we each sprung for the back catalogue on Steam, keen to see what we’d missed from the folks at Total Mayhem Games before they were on our radar. Our time with the OG We Were Here was mixed, but that wasn’t going to stop us from taking the sequel, We Were Here Too, for a spin.

As we’ve come to expect with these games, first impressions were not especially good, and this time they were perhaps even worse than expected.

After a lacklustre introductory 3D cutscene (which was definitely a step back from stylised storyboards in the original game), just 30-seconds into the first level, my game crashed. After some yukyukking about how my laptop couldn’t even run a 7-year old game, we gave it another go, only to run into the same issue again. A whole 30-minutes later, we were still battling various settings in trial and error fashion, running into critical crashes every time, before finally offering up a prayer to Father Google for help… It turns out that controllers are not (or no longer?) supported and that having the gall to even attempt to use one will be met with swift and stern retribution. Big thanks to BigBoyeJeesus on Steam, without whose five year old Discussions post, I may have still been battling the game today.

So, once the controller issues were finally out of the way, we dived headlong into the game, and to be honest, I’m sad to say it may not have been worth all the effort.

At a Glance

Date of original release:	02/02/2019
Date added to backlog:	27/09/2023
Positives	Negatives
+ Short run time will help you fill a slow afternoon + Run-of-the-mill puzzles to ease you in to more complex later entries + Gives you the opportunity to shout at your pal without repercussions	– Significant controller issues wasted a bunch of our time – Uninteresting puzzle design – Devoid of atmosphere
Available on:	PC (Steam) PlayStation Xbox
Find out about our scoring policy here

If I’m being honest, while the environments certainly keep a strong and consistent theme, the puzzles offered in We Were Here Too are all rather uninteresting. Made up mostly of cypher conundrums and a couple of finicky “describe and collect” problems, there seems to be a lack of diversity on offer here. The puzzles certainly take the difficulty up a notch from the original game, and that’s a step in the right direction, but the stylish set ups and flair for the dramatic all seem to be sorely lacking this time around, which is what Gaz and I found so enjoyable in other entries.

Gaz and I played We Were Here Too for just over three hours according to Steam, and as we reached the finale, we realised that we’d missed some optional elements (much like we did in the original) which kept us from clearing the game with the “good” ending. Sadly, we didn’t have the inclination to go back and find everything we needed, which, considering the amount of replaying and bickering we put each other through to perfect the excellent puzzles in FriendShip, tells you plenty about our entertainment level here.

Visually, the style of the original game carries over nicely into the sequel, continuing the slow meander towards the more polished and characterful style that we’d come to see in the later installments. Sadly the sound, which has until now been worthy of sturdy praise, was a real let down in We Were Here Too. Where the first title mostly lacked in atmosphere, the backing music added to the levels in the sequel somehow sapped atmosphere from the experience, perhaps by overly gamifying things. We’re also still a little early in the franchise to be treated to much in the way of voice acting, which might have helped put a plaster over the generic level music and build at least a little tension and immersion.

As the series continues to take shape, it moves from subtle environmental storytelling in the debut title to fantastic voice-acted storytelling later on, and We Were Here Too seems to be the awkward flicky-out hairstyle that you have to suffer in between “cool-but-basic short hair” and “glorious flowing locks of a Viking prince”. Total Mayhem Games tries to introduce some more atmosphere to its sequel with written passages in the hope of adding substance to their puzzles, but the large blocks of text mostly come across as longwinded, drab, and often difficult to read due to the moody lighting. Even if it doesn’t come off, I can appreciate what they’re trying to do here – you can’t make an omelette without throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, or whatever it is they say.

We Were Here Too is a regression from the original in almost every way, setting it up as the low point of the franchise so far. While the visuals continue to evolve into the characterful style we’d come to love in future entries, the sound design takes a nosedive, as does the puzzle design, which feels bland, flat and somewhat repetitive. Lacking the sense of atmosphere and immersion that makes other entries such fun, there’s the feel of a workplace teambuilding in We Were Here Too – sure, you’re working together, but it’s because you have to, not because you especially enjoy it. Thankfully, I know that future titles soar to significant heights, and I’m thrilled that the team at Total Mayhem Games found their groove with time.