Lushfoil Photography Sim Review

As someone who is a keen traveller and full of wanderlust, my travel opportunities have been clipped since starting a family. I have been to a good number of countries including some that are featured in Lushfoil – China and France (and of course, home here in ‘Blighty’) and so this game’s love for exploration and discovery of new lands reinforced the notion that I owe my child the opportunity to see the world. Lushfoil resonated with me in a way few games have in recent years and will with anyone who enjoys seeing the most gorgeous parts of the sphere we call home.

Before starting Lushfoil Photography Sim I’d had my eyes on the game for a awful long time. I’d been tracking the game from when Annapurna originally revealed the title, through various showcases and then finally getting to play the title at London Games Fest in early April 2025. I was blown away by how stunning the games visuals were when I got my hands on, but was left wondering what the actual game could be when it reached full release.

Now, after over 15 wonderful hours with the final release and the credits rolled, I can comfortably say that Lushfoil Photography Sim has exceeded every expectation I had for the game and unfortunately for Firewatch, Lushfoil is now my favourite walking sim of all time – despite having no story beside the one the player creates. Matt Newell’s solo-developed game is a triumph, his love for photography is evident but he has managed to keep its photography accessible to non-hobbyists like myself.

This is a mostly spoiler free review of the game. However, to dispel the perception that there is little depth to the game light spoilers will be included. As there is no narrative story to the game, these light spoilers will unlikely impact any blind playthroughs.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Lushfoil is very basic, whilst being a photography simulator it also comfortably sits in the walking sim genre. For the most part, you are exploring one of eight stunning vistas – across France, Japan, China and Iceland to name a few – to find locations to take pictures of key landmarks. Though how you take these pictures is largely up to the player and the beauty really is in your hands in terms of how you setup your shots.

Lushfoil is an experience that shouldn’t be rushed, yes there are objectives but the game explicitly encourages players to not objective chase, rather enjoy the stunning zones available to explore. Throughout each stunning zone this happened naturally anyway, as I would often find myself as distracted as I would be playing a Ubisoft open world game. Every time you launch the game it randomly assigns you a zone which could even be one you’ve 100%’d, which positively removes any sense of urgency. Newell really wants players to spend as much time embracing the Unreal Engine 5 crafted beauty as possible.

One of Lushfoil’s many picture objective boards

Aside from walking, riding a bike or boat, or flying a drone to take pictures, there is a ‘game’ here. The zones are littered with secrets for players to find including various collectibles which players are required to find to unlock later levels. This includes general collectibles, but also old-school cameras you can use, or items that can appear in your images such as kites and paper planes.

A unique gameplay feature in the game is its approach to fast travel. Your camera shots create fast travel points for you, meaning you can checkpoint locations around the zones to come back later for another angle, filter, or even time of day. Its a very unique take on a common gameplay trope.

Story

There is no narrative story in Lushfoil Photography Sim and that couldn’t be any more fine. After all, the game is a simulator therefore a story shouldn’t be expected. The story is the one that you make of your own, your pictures will tell your story and what you found captivating in the game.

Since launch, I’ve seen so many pictures from players online and although many have taken shots of the orange gates of Fushimi Inari Taisha, or the stunning lake of Lago di Braies, every player has been finding their own story in Lushfoil, exactly how its intended to be played

Accessible camera options for photography novices

After all, this is a simulator and as such some level of reality is part of the game. That said, the game is entirely accessible to any photography entry level novices like myself. You primarily will use a DSLR camera which has expansive levels of customisation on how you configure your photography. Though, if you just want to walk around happy-snapping away then you can absolutely do that.

Setting up a shot at one of Lushfoil’s many stunning vistas

The game does offer a complex but understandable series of tutorials to help you setup the camera. Though, tutorials don’t make it clear what images would look like with an A / B comparison. Therefore if you’re not a seasoned DSLR user in real life, I recommend you check out our Lushfoil Camera Starter Guide before getting started. I wrote this guide as someone who has never laid hands on a DSLR, like many people who will be playing the game.

Visuals

Lushfoil Photography Sim has been created in Unreal Engine 5 and as you would expect, looks stunning. This review was played on Xbox Series X/S and I can comfortably say it is in top-3 most graphically impressive games I have ever played, alongside A Plague Tale Requiem and Senua’s Sage: Hellbalde II.

Each zone in the game has at least two times of day, or seasons, which present the zones in a variety of breathtaking ways. For example, you will begin the game in Lago di Braies in a beaming spring/summer season:

After completing the spring/summer season you will then be able to revisit the zone in a snowy winter season with more stunning images to capture as your primary objective:

Playing through the game, you will encounter local climate conditions including rain, volcanic ash and blizzards that made me want to pull my camera out every few steps. There are also hidden variants of levels for players to find, see the footer for more of our Lushfoil guides on how to unlock them.

For PC players, there are extensive custom settings that will help optimise the game to a varying range of hardware. This includes settings that will take advantage of high-end graphics cards.

Audio and sound design

Lushfoil’s soundtrack is both perfectly fitting to the game it sings for, and wonderful music in its own right. If you’re yet to play the game, I implore you to listen to the first few tracks from the Lushfoil Spotify playlist that Newell has put together to get a feel for the tranquillity of the simulator. Every song on this beautiful soundtrack adds to the zen and peacefulness of this blissful sim. Whilst I sit writing this paragraph listening to David Moore’s TWTGA, I’m taken back to my time circumventing the lake of Lago di Braies – a transformative experience that only the finest game soundtracks can offer (I hear you, Majula). This is my favourite indie soundtrack since Unpacking and one I anticipate will accompany me through many stressful days at work.

It isn’t just the soundtrack in Lushfoil that excels, the all around sound design shines. Rain drops on my umbrella walking around East Maddon Park, the beeping sounds of an early 2000’s digital camera turning on, or the sound of the ocean lapping the beach of Castle Rock Shore, the sounds of the game are forever adding to the immersion.

I do have to add, that the audio dropped frequently on Shengshan Island, leaving with me with no sound for seconds at a time.

Issues and glitches

There is one big problem with the game and that is image memory, which is a bizarre problem for a game centred on photography. There simply isn’t enough storage space for pictures and I found myself deleting many of my most proud pictures to take more. Whilst this might be a technical limitation, or even a creative decision to avoid players having too many pictures stored at one time, it was gameplay limiting and infuriating at times. Furthermore, when completing the game I would have liked to have looked back at my favourite images and include some in this review for readers, however I’d had to delete far too many.

The game suffers from a few other minor (and forgivable for a solo developer) bugs. During a late part of the game my game crashed and when I re-loaded back up I’d lost all my photos, thankfully a second reboot restored them. I did also encounter a few small bugs when playing the game which required hard resets including the ‘disk full’ message being displayed over the centre of my screen even after deleting images from my camera memory.

By later stages like Mardi Himal Trail I was deleting far too many stunning pictures

Conclusion

Lushfoil Photography Sim exceeded every expectation I had and it is now my favourite walking simulator ever made, and to-date my 2025 GOTY. In a year full of AAA games and some incredibly exciting indies, Lushfoil is proud to stand as its own entity and it does something new in an incredible way. Matt Newell has transformed his personal love for photography into the video games medium and I truly hope this is something he has the opportunity to create DLC or a sequel for. This is as much a game for people who love photography, as those who love video game or real world exploration.

Lushfoil Photography Sim is now available on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and the Epic Games Store. The title is a respectable price and a launch discount is currently available. Thank you to Annapurna Interactive for the Xbox version of the game which was provided to Gamer Social Club for review.

Further Lushfoil Photography Sim guides and coverage

For further Lushfoil Photography Sim guides and coverage, please see the following from Gamer Social Club:

Are you having a good time with Lushfoil? What’s been your favourite location to take pictures so far? Please tag us in them on X / Twitter and Bluesky, and stick with Gamer Social Club for more Lushfoil Photography Sim guides and coverage.

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