Horizon Forbidden West Has An Impressive Number Of Accessibility Features

Ahead of its launch later this month, Sony has been revealing more about the world of Horizon Forbidden West through a series of trailers and gameplay deep dives. This week, the focus is on the accessibility of the game and the options available to players who want to fine-tune the experience of exploring a land where giant robot snakes are at the top of the food chain.

Some of these options were previously seen in Horizon Zero Dawn, but developer Guerrilla explained in a PS Blog post that there will be plenty of new options to select from as well. General accessibility settings include subtitles that can be tweaked to be more visible, and you can select your preferred language–both spoken and subtitles–when you start the game for the first time.

A notebook creates an expansive encyclopedia containing useful information about characters, machines, and data points found in the world, and is designed to be easily accessible in case you need to brush up on any gameplay mechanics.

In the gameplay and difficulty settings department, Horizon Forbidden West has five difficulty settings that are tailored to give you as much challenge as you want. Story Mode eases the combat experience so you can explore the wilderness without having to worry about being irreparably mauled by rampaging robots, and on the opposite end of the spectrum there is Very Hard mode which will push Aloy’s survival skills to the limits.

A custom difficulty option will allow you to adjust various factors, such as damage levels, while the hunting aspect of the game has an Easy Loot system that’s designed to protect valuable resources from being destroyed while you engage in combat against a machine. Weapons and combat settings can be eased up further with aim assist and temporarily slowing down time while you cycle through your gear, and many of Auto functions can be set for Aloy’s concentration gauge, sprinting, healing, and Shieldwing skills.

As for controls using the DualSense controller, Guerrilla added that there’ll be presets available–including left-handed support–fully remappable gameplay controls with guidance on any potential conflicts, and the Co-pilot system. This allows a second PlayStation controller with mirrored controls access to the game–either DualSense or DualShock 4–and was designed based on feedback and support from Guerrilla’s sightless accessibility consultant.

Lastly, a number of audio and visual settings can also be adjusted. A number of these options are designed to trim the volume of machine sounds, weapon and explosion sounds, or ambient sounds on the PS5 edition of the game, which can be helpful for people who are easily overstimulated. Triggering sounds that can potentially affect people who have Tinnitus can be switched off and replaced with Mono Audio.

In case you missed it, you can catch up on our guide to everything we know about Horizon Forbidden West. The game launches on PS5 and PS4 on February 18, with several editions and collector’s items that you can still preorder. In a show of PlayStation camraderie, Ghost of Tsushima features Horizon Forbidden West crossover content, and if you’re looking for some assistance, here’s how you can complete the newly-added Forbidden Shrine and score some themed armor in the process.

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