
Lushfoil Photography Sim is an exceptional Adventure/Simulation that raises the bar for the genre.
90
Verdict
92%
Steam
—
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive on Steam (92% positive from 1.5K reviews)
Rich open world to explore
Limited professional critic coverage
Lushfoil Photography Sim is an adventure game developed by Matt Newell and published by Annapurna Interactive. The photography simulator, created with Unreal Engine, showcases various digitized real-life environments across the world through a hiker's perspective. It was released on April 15, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 10d ago
I bought this game for its native VR mode, and it didn't disappoint. The VR controls are well designed, performance is solid, and the visuals are good. It's one of the best-looking VR games available. One issue I noticed is that some ground textures have very noticeable pop-in in VR. I hope this can be improved with a future patch. Another small disappointment is that, in VR, every level is available from the start, so the sense of progression from unlocking new areas is missing. I enjoy simply exploring the beautiful environments, but it would be even more rewarding if there were some progression or incentive to discover new locations naturally. About UEVR: I also tried the game with UEVR instead of the native VR mode. While UEVR preserves Unreal5 effects that aren't compatible with native VR, the trade-offs aren't worth it in my opinion. Performance is significantly worse, and you'll likely spend hours tweaking UEVR settings to get acceptable results. Even then, the game only looks slightly better than the native VR version, and that's only if you have a high-end PC. In every other respect, the native VR mode provides the better experience.
This game is very pretty and the mechanics are solid however one thing i cannot ignore is the fact that this game has files that get flagged for being trojan viruses. The dev has said these are false however with online crime going up and how easy it can be to hide nefarious code in software this is not a risk i would recommend. It's sad as this game is really cool and is one of the most gorgeous games i have played in a long time. TLDR: Don't download has a flagged trojan file in it.
I have mixed feelings about this game. I absolutely loved the desktop version. The bicycle was the real fun. Stunning and beautiful. However the VR has a couple of immersion-ruining issues - the most convenient photo mode, which is when you use hands to make a frame, just doesn't work correctly 90% of the time, so the gameplay switches from exploration to struggle, the window mode (where frame hangs in the air) switches off on its own all the time, and a handheld mode is just unusable (the screen window is too small). The second biggest issue is holes in it in the meshes - every corner you turn there is a mesh with a hole in it because of poor alignment (in some areas like France some elements are missing at all - the tracks are missing rail sleepers) - it just ruins the immersion. And also the meshes that grow out of nowhere when you approach its just too obvious not to notice and it does it even if you set up distance to max. The VR version needs a lot of fixing as of now.
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