Open-world games are often a study in contrasts. While they're among the most impressive titles on a technical level, many have forgotten what makes the genre fun to play. Thanks to genre tropes established by franchises like Assassin's Creed, even games with much to recommend in areas like combat and story like Horizon Forbidden West can feel overstuffed with filler content.
Giving the player the chance to shape their own story has always been an important part of open-world games. That can mean anything from trying to steal as many wheels of cheese as possible in an Elder Scrolls game to completely ignoring John Marston's plight in favor of playing poker in Red Dead Redemption. A fairly recent addition to console games that's almost a game unto itself is photo mode, which can turn open-world games into a form of virtual tourism.
The ability to take screenshots was once the province of PC gamers. It became a default part of console gaming during the eighth generation, when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One delivered the ability to capture screenshots, with the PS4 controller having a dedicated share button. Photo modes started to become more prevalent as the eighth generation wore on, with games like Batman: Arkham Knight and Marvel's Spider-Man either launching with the mode or having one added in a post-launch update.
The apex of the photo mode came in Sony's last high-profile PS4 release, Ghost of Tsushima. The game's photo mode allowed players to embrace the game's cinematic influences and create screenshots and clips that emulate classic samurai movies. While not every photo mode is as elaborate as Ghost of Tsushima's, all of them allow players to capture images in a more precise way than simply hitting a console's share button.
The obvious utility of photo modes comes in sharing well-composed screenshots on social media. There's a simple pleasure in using the mechanic beyond showing off a favorite part of a game to friends and followers. Using a photo mode helps players appreciate the work that goes into the massive environments of open-world games, which may have been overlooked otherwise. The artistry of the environment in a game like Horizon Forbidden West is surprisingly easy to ignore when you're caught up in playing it.
Whether you're using fast travel to bypass Forbidden West's scenic mountain ranges and get to the location of your next quest or mining resources for crafting, it can be easy to trivialize how beautiful the game is. Using photo mode requires taking in scenery that can become wallpaper after prolonged exposure to a game as lengthy as Forbidden West. Creating the best images requires players to engage with a game's world in a way they wouldn't otherwise, giving them a chance to explore it the same way they might a city they're visiting as a tourist. It's as valid a way to experience open-world games, even one of the best of the year, as actually playing them.