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Avoozl

Games which include taking photos as a gameplay mechanic?

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So far I know Beyond Good and Evil, GTA San Andreas and Anachronox all involved a camera for certain gameplay elements. BGE used one for taking photos of animals to earn credits and to post evidence in missions, GTASA used one to take pictures of particular locations as collectables for one of the areas to unlock weapon spawns near the safe house and to take photos of evidence for one or two of the missions, and Anachronox used a camera to earn credits.

 

Is there any other games which involve a camera for similar reasons?

Edited by Avoozl

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The first things that came to mind were Dead Rising, Pokémon Snap and Selfie Doom. In Dead Rising you take photos of zombies since you’re a reporter but it’s been so long since I played that I can’t remember how exactly it works.

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Spiderman on Genesis/Megadrive offered a cash incentive (with which you could buy more web, etc) for photos of criminal activity. There was a minigame in Tant-R/Puzzle and Action that was literally "take the photo of the thing at the correct time". One of the 'Heart Attack' mode tasks in Out Run 2 involved taking a picture of a landmark or two as you drifted corners.

This is the limit of my knowledge, I'm afraid.

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Zelda Breath of the Wild lets you take photos of creatures to track them using your Sheikah sensor, useful for hunting or for looking for ingredients. there's also sidequests that require taking photos of stuff for rewards.

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In No Man's Sky sometimes you get a mission to take a photo/screenshot of a particular planet or structure.

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The fatal frame franchise of horror video games revolves around photographing ghosts to fight them :)

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Jurassic Park Operation Genesis had a mission where you had to had to fly about in a helicopter taking close-up photos of the dinosaurs in your park. As I remember, the mission briefing had something about it being to prove to the press that your dinosaurs were genuine and not just animatronics, and your score was based on how "exciting" the photographs you took were.

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In No One Lives Forever you are required to take pictures of certain critical mission documents. Medal of Honor: Underground has you disguised as a photographer in a couple missions as well, and you can take pictures of the nazis. They'll even pose for the camera! :)

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Spider-Man On PS4 has you take pictures of landmarks in exchange for tokens to spend on equipment unlocks and upgrades.

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Myst 4 got a camera as a gameplay feature to help you keep records of the puzzles in the game. There are more than what has already been mentioned above. But can't quite recall which right now. Recall that some RPG game I heard about had a quest where you were supposed to take pictures of characters in the game for whatever reason and show to a guy.

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Pokémon Snap is the one that comes to mind to me; the entire game is based on you being a Pokémon photographer in an automatically-driven pod of sorts, you get various things like food to interact with the wild pokemon to try and line them up for better-ranking photographs or unique interactions. Haven't played it in well over a decade but it was a fun game for a couple of hours here and there.

 

On a small tangent, still N64 era, Banjo Kazooie had a mechanic where you take photos of these fairy things which give you powers. 'Capturing' them in a photograph or something of that sort.

Edited by Dragonfly

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Not really a core gameplay mechanic but in either MGS1 or MGS Twin Snakes you get a camera at the end of the game that you can take pictures of secrets ghosts of all the developers in new playthroughs.

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In Bully, you eventually get access to a camera and have to take photos of all the other school kids in order to complete the yearbook and 100% game completion.

It doesn't serve any other purpose, though.

 

Condemned and Condemned 2 would have you take photos at crime scenes. They were pretty specific about what and where you could photograph.

 

GTA 4 and 5 would also have you use your phone's camera to photograph stuff.

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It's not really a crucial part of the game by any means, but Firewatch has an option to take photos throughout the game. Your photos will then be shown back to you during the credits sequence. A nice touch!

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