There are plenty of reasons to fire up your Xbox or PC. You might want to save the world, you may prefer to get behind the wheel and partake in a race, attempt to survive a zombie outbreak or simply lose a few hours in some of the very finest virtual worlds. But sometimes, the best reason to play is when you’re given the opportunity to stop, look around and take a picture.
With World Photography Day upon us (August 19th), it feels like the perfect excuse to celebrate some Xbox games that understand the appeal of photography. These aren’t games that happen to make the most of a photo mode either. In each of these, picking up a camera is part of the adventure itself.
There’s a bit of everything too. From documenting adorable dogs and exploring magical islands to solving puzzles, uncovering memories and even fighting ghosts, there is no doubt that photography takes on some surprisingly different roles across these nine games.
So grab your virtual camera and get ready to see these Xbox and Game Pass adventures from a different perspective…
At A Glance
- Pupperazzi – Photography as a profession
- TOEM – Photography as exploration
- Lushfoil Photography Sim – Photography as the entire experience
- Viewfinder – Photography as a puzzle mechanic
- FOMOGRAPHY – Photography as exploration
- Alba: A Wildlife Adventure – Photography as conservation
- Beasts Of Maravilla Island – Photography as discovery
- Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster – Photography as a gameplay system
- FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE – Photography as combat
Pupperazzi – Photography As A Profession
What if taking pictures of dogs was an actual career? That’s the premise behind Pupperazzi, which puts you in the role of a canine photographer tasked with snapping and cataloguing as many dogs as possible.
Of course, there is more to it than simply pointing a camera at a cute face. You can build your photography career, upgrade your equipment and chase those all-important shots while maintaining your social media presence. You can even decide what sort of photographer you want to become, whether that’s someone chasing fame or an aspiring artist.
Unfortunately, the execution doesn’t quite match the appeal of the idea. We awarded Pupperazzi a 2.5/5 in our review, noting that while the concept is cute, the game struggles with its controls and overall execution. As we put it: “If Pupperazzi was a dog, it would be a pug.” Now, you might like pugs, but you catch our drift…
Still, there is something undeniably fitting about celebrating World Photography Day with a game where the entire profession revolves around getting the perfect picture of a good boy.
TOEM – Photography As Exploration
Photography feels less like a job and more like a way of life in TOEM, a wonderfully cozy adventure where your camera becomes your ticket to exploring a charming hand-drawn world. It was made all the more intriguing due to its surprise Game Pass launch too.
Rather than filling your time with combat or challenges, TOEM encourages you to wander, talk to unusual characters and use your camera to solve their problems. Taking the right photograph can reveal something new, complete a request or help you progress to the next part of your journey.
It’s an incredibly relaxed approach to adventure, and one that we loved in our 4.5/5 review. “TOEM is one to treasure,” we wrote, describing it as possibly the coziest of cozy games. The camera gives you a reason to look closer at the world around you, while the lack of pressure makes simply wandering around and finding something interesting part of the fun.
It’s photography as exploration in its purest form – there’s no need to rush when there’s always something curious waiting to be captured.
Lushfoil Photography Sim – Photography As The Entire Experience
With a name like Lushfoil Photography Sim, there’s really no hiding what you’re getting into. And with Annapurna Interactive behind it, you know you’ll be in for a treat of a gaming experience.
This is perhaps the most straightforward celebration of photography on this list. There are no zombies to fight, worlds to save or complicated puzzles to solve. Instead, Lushfoil drops you into beautiful environments and gives you a sophisticated camera with which to explore them.
The camera offers controls inspired by real-world photography, including focus, exposure, contrast, white balance and aperture. You can even manipulate environmental conditions such as lighting, fog, snow, wind and rain to create the shot you’re after.
That focus makes Lushfoil Photography Sim particularly relaxing. Our 4/5 review praised its ability to let players simply take in beautiful landscapes without the usual distractions of traditional games.
“If you aren’t interested in photography, then you will struggle here,” we noted. But for anyone who enjoys composing a good shot, Lushfoil Photography Sim offers a wonderfully peaceful place to practise.
Viewfinder – Photography As A Puzzle Mechanic
Viewfinder takes the basic idea of snapping a photograph before asking a much more intriguing question: what if you could put that shot back into the world?
That’s the central idea behind this clever first-person puzzle adventure. Take a picture, place it in the environment and watch it become part of reality. Photographs aren’t simply something to collect – they’re tools that can completely reshape the world around you.
And it isn’t limited to photographs either. Paintings, sketches, screenshots and postcards can all become part of the puzzles, creating some wonderfully inventive situations as you experiment with perspective and reality.
We awarded Viewfinder a 4/5 score in review, praising its accessible and enjoyable puzzles alongside its distinctive visual style. While anyone looking for a seriously difficult brain-teaser might find the challenge a little light, there’s plenty to enjoy in its inventive approach.
Photography has rarely been this strange – or this useful.
FOMOGRAPHY – Photography As Exploration
DANGEN Entertainment sees FOMOGRAPHY taking photography somewhere considerably more personal.
You play as an aging man reliving his life through the lens of his younger self, using a camera to navigate memories, uncover mysteries and revisit moments that might otherwise have been lost. Every photograph becomes another fragment of a life being pieced back together.
That gives photography a purpose beyond simply documenting beautiful scenery. You can take pics of wildlife, plants, landscapes, people and clues while completing quests and exploring everything from Australian forests to underground caves and bustling towns.
There’s also plenty of freedom to make the camera your own, with different lenses, filters and display options allowing you to shape how you capture these memories.
We reviewed FOMOGRAPHY with a 4/5 score attached, finding it a particularly pleasant experience for anyone who enjoys photography.
Sometimes a photograph isn’t about what you’re looking at. It’s about what you’re trying to remember.
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure – Photography As Conservation
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure turns photography into something with a purpose.
Set on a Mediterranean island, the game follows Alba as she explores the local wildlife with her friend Ines. What begins as a peaceful summer adventure takes a more serious turn when Alba discovers an animal in danger and decides to do something about it.
Photography becomes a part of documenting the island’s wildlife, as you are encouraged to find and photograph its various species. Along the way, you’ll explore the island, meet its colourful inhabitants, recruit volunteers and work towards protecting the environment.
It’s a wholesome concept, and one that we enjoyed in our 4/5 review.
We described Alba as feeling “like taking a vacation on your Xbox“, praising both its beautiful island setting and its environmental message. Although it is clearly aimed towards younger players, there’s plenty here for anyone who wants a gentle adventure with a positive message.
Photography isn’t just about capturing a moment here – it’s about helping to make sure those moments and the wildlife behind them have a future.
Beasts Of Maravilla Island – Photography As Discovery
Photography is all about discovering something worth capturing, and Beasts of Maravilla Island builds its entire adventure around that idea.
You play as a young wildlife photographer exploring the magical ecosystems of Maravilla Island, doing so with your grandfather’s journal and camera to hand. The island is packed with unusual creatures and plants, but discovering them is only part of the challenge. You’ll need to understand their behaviour and find ways to photograph them in their natural surroundings.
The photographs have a purpose, too. Maravilla’s protective magic is fading, and documenting its extraordinary wildlife could help restore humanity’s belief in the island’s wonders.
The concept certainly has plenty of potential, although our 2.5/5 review of Beasts of Maravilla Island found the finished experience lacking in the depth needed to make the most of its magical setting. The story and journal provide some nice detail, but the adventure can be completed relatively quickly and doesn’t quite deliver on the promise of its mysterious world.
Still, the idea of using photography to discover a world full of strange and wonderful creatures makes it a fitting addition to this list.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster – Photography As A Gameplay System
Frank West isn’t just a photographer. He’s a journalist. And when the zombie apocalypse arrives, he’s got 72 hours to find out exactly what happened.
Although a camera is not essential in all the Dead Rising games, it is with the original as Frank captures dramatic, gruesome and sometimes downright ridiculous moments happening inside the zombie-infested shopping mall.
Of course, taking photographs is just one part of the madness. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster also lets you rescue survivors, battle psychopaths and use almost anything you can find as a weapon. The remaster brings the original experience back with significantly improved visuals, fully voiced characters, improved controls and various quality-of-life changes.
We awarded the Deluxe Remaster 4/5 in review when Capcom released it in 2024, praising its bonkers story, visual overhaul and improved gameplay mechanics.
Photography might not be the main event in Dead Rising, but it gives Frank another reason to wander through the chaos with his camera ready. After all, when you’re a freelance journalist surrounded by thousands of zombies, you may as well get the scoop – and the photograph – while you’re there.
FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE – Photography As Combat
And then there’s KOEI TECMO’s FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE, where taking a photograph can quite literally mean the difference between life and death.
In this Japanese horror adventure, some twin sisters become trapped in an abandoned village haunted by vengeful spirits. Their most important weapon isn’t a gun or sword, but the Camera Obscura – a mysterious device capable of capturing and repelling the supernatural entities surrounding them.
That turns photography into combat. Players need to face ghosts through the camera lens, using features such as Focus, Zoom and filters to make their shots count. The same camera also plays a role in exploration, making photography an essential part of understanding and surviving the cursed village.
A 4/5 score was awarded to FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE in review, as we went about praising the substantial campaign, atmospheric world and the way the remake improves upon a cult classic.
It’s perhaps the darkest interpretation of photography on this list, but it also demonstrates just how creatively a camera can be used in a video game.
Forget finding the perfect sunset. Here, you need to worry about what’s standing behind you.
Photography Can Be So Much More Than A Photo Mode
World Photography Day is a good excuse to celebrate the art of taking pictures, but these Xbox games demonstrate that photography can be so much more than an optional photo mode.
The humble camera is key to what makes these games so interesting. They don’t just ask you to take screenshots. They give you the chance to think about what you’re looking at, why you’re taking the picture and what that image means to the world around you.
And really, isn’t that what photography is all about?
Let us know which game from this list you feel is the perfect photographer’s companion. Perhaps we’ve missed your favourite out? The comments are below, waiting for your interaction.
