Sony and Guerrilla Games have detailed some of the Horizon Forbidden West accessibility options you can expect when the game launches later this month. They include toggling tinnitus-triggering sounds, automatic sprinting and gliding controls, and more.
What Horizon Forbidden West accessibility options will there be at launch?
The last look we got at Guerrilla Games' upcoming open-world robo-dino-sim showed off its disparate tribes, but this time, we're getting a glimpse at something more practical. At launch, there will be a raft of Horizon Forbidden West accessibility features available, letting you tweak several options until you arrive at the experience you want. Some of these options are new to Forbidden West, while others were also present in Zero Dawn. All in all, it's a pretty extensive suite of tools, although Sony assures us it's just a glimpse of the full range of options in the finished product.
First up, Guerrilla has gone all-in on letting you set your own difficulty. There will be various difficulty options, but you'll also be able to tweak this setting for yourself, deciding how much damage Aloy takes and dishes out. There's also a new option whereby if you don't detach a part from a machine before killing it, you can still loot it; Guerrilla calls this Easy Loot, and it stops you needing to manually detach the part during combat, as you would in any difficulty above Easy. A range of gameplay assists will also be in the game; you'll be able to adjust weapon wheel slowdown, as well as allowing Aloy to automatically glide, sprint, and heal. Map markers will also be customizable so you can see where you're able to climb without spamming your Focus function.
Controls-wise, you'll be able to remap buttons and swap between toggle and hold functionality for some inputs. The new Co-pilot system lets someone else access your game with mirrored controls; you'll need a second DualSense or DualShock controller (depending on whether you're playing on PS4 or PS5) to achieve this, but it should help partially-sighted or sightless folks enjoy the game. This is alongside the standard suite of control accessibility adjustments; controller dead zone, movement sensitivity, and other options can all be tweaked. You can also alter the PS5's adaptive trigger settings if you're playing on Sony's newest machine. A range of audiovisual accessibility options will also be present in Horizon Forbidden West; you can tweak motion blur and camera shake, as well as turning off high-pitched sounds that could trigger tinnitus, among other things. It's well worth checking out the full PlayStation blog post to see what other accessibility features will be available when the game launches.
When is the Horizon Forbidden West release date?
All of these accessibility options and more will be available on the Horizon Forbidden West release date, which is February 18th. The game will arrive simultaneously for PS4 and PS5, and although Sony initially said its next-gen upgrade for the game would not be free, the company quickly backtracked on this stance. If you buy Forbidden West for PS4, you'll be able to play the PS5 version at no additional cost, so we'd recommend picking up the PS4 version and saving yourself a few bucks.
Horizon Forbidden West launches for PlayStation consoles on February 18th worldwide. Friendly reminder that if you pick up the Horizon Forbidden West collector's edition, you won't actually get a physical disc inside; instead, you'll receive a download code for the game on both PS4 and PS5, so bear that in mind when you're making your purchasing decision. We'll bring you more on this game as soon as we get it.
Are you excited to check out Horizon Forbidden West? Let us know in the comments below!
