As games become increasingly beautiful, players are exploring a desire to capture them in their own unique way. For years, developers have been working to integrate more immersive and innovative photo mode features into their games, allowing players to get creative and express their love for a title, character, or world.

RELATED: Games With The Most Impressive Graphics, Ranked

However, not every game features a photo mode - it's an obvious fact, but not every game needs a photo mode. Those that feature them tend to be open-world, epic titles, boasting gorgeous lighting, intense visual effects, masterfully-created characters, or stunning environments. With an advanced photo mode, players can study these environments on a much deeper level, coming to appreciate the time, effort, and love poured into creating them.

9 The Last Of Us Part 2

Ellie looks out over a ruined city

Released in 2020, The Last of Us Part 2 was an improvement on the first game in many ways. For fans of the more artistic side of the post-apocalyptic environments present in the game, a wonderful photo mode was added, serving as an evolution to the mode featured in 2014's The Last of Us Remastered on PS4.

RELATED: PS3 Games That Still Need To Be Remastered

With this in-depth, immersive photo mode, players could frame their dark, gritty adventures perfectly, applying filters and tweaking the lighting as they saw fit. There were many features that could have been added to this photo mode, but the base cinematic nature of the title meant that much of the work was done by the environment itself - players were just capturing those moments as and when needed.

8 Ghost Of Tsushima

Jin Sakai plays a flute at sunset

Ghost of Tsushima's photo mode was nothing short of awe-inspiring. It was a groundbreaking, artistic platform that enabled players to interact with the game world like never before. With this mode, players could pour their creativity into each snapshot image, applying a wide range of features and filters that turned a simple scene into something worthy of a still from a traditional Japanese samurai movie.

It starts with basic filters and camera effects, but before long, players are tweaking dynamic, animated overlays that impact the world around Jin Sakai, the protagonist. They can send a cloud of embers to fill the screen, or envelop the character in a swarm of butterflies. There are options to change the time of day, the lighting, and even control the wind - it's an experience all in itself.

7 Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Miles Morales poses as he plummets towards the street

Spider-Man launched in 2018, bringing with it an advanced photo mode that kept comic book fans occupied for hours. However, when Spider-Man: Miles Morales was released in 2020, it introduced an upgraded, evolved version of that photo mode that was simply stunning.

RELATED: Marvel: Spider-Man's Best Comic Suits Ever, Ranked

With this photo mode, players could manipulate light and color on a deeper level than ever before. They could set up and tweak different lighting sources, fully customizing a scene and changing the tone of a still in a matter of minutes. It was the perfect way to secure gorgeous snapshots of a world that, on the surface, already looked absolutely flawless.

6 No Man's Sky

A space explorer looks at a bizarre alien

At launch, No Man's Sky was something of a trainwreck, and that's something that the developer eventually owned. However, once things began picking up for the developer, No Man's Sky began to recover, and before long, it was living out a rags to riches story.

In 2017, a year after the game was released, the Path Finder update launched, bringing with it an advanced photo mode menu. This feature was an instant hit with fans, and players began deploying the photo mode everywhere - in the depths of space, on alien planets, and in space stations. It was a brilliant implementation, with No Man's Sky fans now able to control the time of day, lighting, and many filters and overlays - even if they were playing in multiplayer.

5 Cyberpunk 2077

A muscle car sits in an old warehouse

Cyberpunk 2077 had its fair share of difficulties at launch, that was for certain. However, if there's one thing that CD Projekt Red did well with the Cyberpunk release, it was the integration of an innovative and immersive photo mode. It was a grating experience for fans that had picked the game up on day one, but at least there was a fantastic photo mode to use when exploring Night City.

RELATED: Things To Do If You Get Bored In Cyberpunk 2077

At the top of the table in the Cyberpunk 2077 photo mode feature sat the wide array of poses available for use. These poses referenced pop culture and memes, making them an instant hit among internet-savvy players. Today, the Cyberpunk 2077 digital photography community is alive and well, and a string of visual mods has further supplemented the fantastic photo mode offering.

4 God Of War (2018)

Kratos and Atreus look over a snowy landsacpe

God of War was released in 2018, and it was a beautiful, harrowing journey from start to finish. As one of the highest-rated games in the series, God of War wowed fans around the world with its storytelling, its visuals, and its immersive photo mode.

Fans of the hack-and-slash adventure could now snap Kratos, and his son Atreus, in a variety of scenes, positions, and styles. At the press of a button, photo mode could be deployed, effortlessly capturing the muscled, raging protagonist in action. As an added bonus, players could manipulate the poses and facial expressions of either character, a feature that included giving the surly, all-business Kratos a beaming, toothy smile.

3 Horizon: Forbidden West

Aloy crouches near a snake-like robot

Horizon: Forbidden West's photo mode didn't change that much from the first title in the series, but it didn't really need to. As one of the best photo modes in gaming, Horizon: Zero Dawn set the standard for digital photography, fusing together a flawless, perfectly-created world with the ability to capture that world as the player saw fit.

In Forbidden West, players can put the photo mode to use at any given moment, posing Aloy and manipulating the time of day to suit their style. As photo mode features go, it was a relatively simple offering, but the world of Forbidden West (and the characters) was masterfully made and simply beautiful to behold.

2 Red Dead Redemption 2

A cowboy rides a horse in front of a sunset

Red Dead Redemption 2, which launched in 2018, was originally left without any kind of photo mode. However, when the PC version launched in 2019, it brought with it a glorious photo mode that players had long been waiting for, and not long after, this photo mode was added to console platforms, too.

It quickly became regarded as one of the best photo modes in gaming, giving players the ability to perfectly frame a gorgeous, wild world. In fact, in 2022, RDR2's photo mode became an award-winning feature when it was used to win a photo mode contest at the London Games Festival.

1 InFamous: Second Son

Delsin Rowe leaps in the air in front of a city skyline

InFamous: Second Son is thought by many to have introduced the modern photo mode to gaming. It was released back in 2014, serving as one of the best early exclusives on the PS4 platform, and it brought with it a concept that, up until that point, hadn't really been seen in modern gaming.

With InFamous: Second Son, players could enter a photo mode that they could manipulate, moving the camera around and tweaking certain effects, before exporting those images. While screenshot and screen-recording technology had existed for a while, the ability to go into a game, freeze time, and manipulate the camera as the player saw fit was a relatively new concept - and it was a huge win for the developers.

MORE: Why More Games Should Have Photo Modes Like Ghost of Tsushima