Horizon Forbidden West has myriad accessibility and quality of life features

Where to begin

If you were curious as to what Horizon Forbidden West accessibility features entail, Sony just put out a blowout post on the topic, which also showcases general quality of life upgrades that a lot of people are going to want to use.

Sony has offered a look at the Horizon Forbidden West accessibility menu, and it’s expansive. Tutorials have been expanded, and controls can be fully remapped: with contingencies for toggling and hold options, as well as inverting the X and Y axis. Here’s something else not a lot of games are doing:

“Another new feature is the Co-pilot system, which grants a second PlayStation controller with mirrored controls access to the game. This only requires another controller (DualSense controller for PS5, DualShock 4 controller for PS4) and a second user profile. The Co-pilot system was implemented thanks to incredible feedback and support from our sightless accessibility consultant.”

Another really nice thing the game has: toggles for the DualSense vibration. I wish I could do that more often! This is on top of gameplay assists (like extra concentration, or slo-mo time when aiming your bow with the ability active), as well as auto-sprint, auto-heal, auto-Shieldwing (the glider in the game), and the chance to turn “climbing annotations” on at all times (so you can see where the footholds are with a glow, as shown in the header image). Audio can be fine-tuned to your liking, too.

Arguably the biggest addition for a lot of people is the difficulty slider, which also encroaches on the loot mechanic. So there are actually five difficulty settings to choose from, including story through “very hard.” But the kicker is a custom difficulty setting, where you can slide damage levels (receive/deal), and the loot quality of life toggle. Remember how in the original, you could detach parts from robots then loot them (and if you kill the robot before you do, they’re lost)? With “easy loot” you can preserve these portions, so you don’t have to meticulously break apart enemies to get upgrade items. It’s on by default on story and easy modes, but you can also toggle it on.

When farming, this is a really nice upgrade, and probably my favorite of the entire lot. But given the sheer breadth of features on offer here, there’s something for everyone.