How Guerrilla Games is making Horizon Forbidden West a more accessible title

In a recent Horizon Forbidden West PlayStation blog, Guerilla Games’ principal designer Brian Roberts talked about accessibility. They want as many people as possible to play the game while having fun.

The developer outlined several features that players can look forward to, to make the game as accessible as possible.

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Accessibility is important and Horizon Forbidden West offers several useful options

It’s important to note that players don’t have to make the game easier if they don’t want to. Subtitles are a default feature, and also include an encyclopedia of information that players can access, and has a tutorial section that can be referenced quickly.

The game already comes with five difficulty settings, but they may not be quite enough for some players. So there’s also a “Custom Difficulty” setting, where players can adjust features like how much damage Aloy does and takes.

When it comes to the controls, it also features Left-Handed Mode, or players can completely remap the controller to have the buttons exactly where they’d like them. Forbidden Horizon West players can also swap Toggle or Hold for several options, invert the axis of the sticks, and more.

Another feature for accessibility is “Co-Pilot” mode, which had feedback from their sightless accessibility consultant. This feature turns on a second controller with mirrored controls, but does require two controllers and a second user profile.

One of the important things about Horizon Forbidden West is detaching machine parts and using them as resources and ammo. These can accidentally be destroyed if the player isn’t careful, while fighting a machine.

The new Easy Loot feature means that any resource components still attached to a machine will be added to its inventory when looted. No more stressing about getting materials!

For those who want to make perfect shots in the game, the game uses optional motion controls, to make the most precise shot possible. For those who have a bit of a problem landing great shots, Auto Concentration is available to slow the game down when aiming.

Horizon Forbidden West also has Auto Sprint, Auto Heal (below 50% HP), and Auto Shieldwing, which deploys the glider when falling from a certain height. These features don’t have to be turned on, but for players that aren’t as comfortable with the challenge, or simply want to enjoy the story, there are options for every skill difficulty.

If Horizon Forbidden West players don’t know where to climb, Climbing Annotations can be turned on, but the blog points out that some of the Auto settings only work in Story/Easy/Custom difficulty modes.

The blog goes into serious detail on how Guerilla Games are making the game accessible, so that everyone can have fun with it.