Horizon Forbidden West Accessibility — Menu Deep Dive

Ben Bayliss5 minute read

Journeying to the West is a dangerous task in Horizon Forbidden West, and there are a number of accessibility features to help players have a more comfortable experience. Our Horizon Forbidden West accessibility review wasn’t entirely favorable, but if you’re looking to see what’s available at launch through the settings, then this is the list.

All images and information displayed below are from the launch version and could be subject to change in the actual product.

General

While there is a shortcut to the accessibility menu from the main menu, what’s contained there is exactly what you’ll find in the other sub-menus. As a result, we’ll go through these one by one.

  • Text Language
  • Movie and Speech Language
  • Difficulty
    • Story
      • Concentration Duration
      • Auto Concentration
      • Auto Heal
    • Easy
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Quest Pathfinding
    • Guided
    • Explorer
  • Waypoint Pathfinding
    • Guided
    • Explorer
  • HUD Visibility
  • Contextual Reminders
  • Stand By Screen Mode
    • Informative
    • Immediate
  • Weapon Wheel Slowdown
    • Normal
    • Slower
    • Slowest
    • None
  • Auto Shieldwing
  • Guantlet Runs Quick Time Events
  • Mount Follows Road
  • Co-Pilot
  • Show Headpiece

Controls

There’s a fair deal of features here such as full button remapping, allowing players to adjust anything gameplay-wise, such as jump types, using the Focus, aiming, and more. In addition, control over vibrations is a great thing to see.

Remapping list showing mapping for individual buttons.
  • Button Remapping + Layout Schemes
  • X and Y axis presets
  • Movement Sensitivity
  • Left/Right Stick Dead Zone
  • Camera X and Y-axis senstivity
  • Vibration Intensity
    • Cinematics
    • Traversal
    • Combat
    • Player Weapon
    • Environmental
    • UI
  • Trigger Effect for Weapons
  • Aim Assist
    • Default
    • Strong
    • Strongest
  • Motion Aiming
  • Weapon Quick Swap
  • Hold or Toggle
    • All Hold
    • All Toggle
    • Custom
      • Aiming
      • Quick Craft Ammo
      • Weapon Wheel
      • Shieldwing
      • Pullcaster
      • Menu Hold Actions
  • Swap Move and Look
  • Focus Mode Input
  • Dodge in Focus Mode
  • Auto Sprint on Foot
  • Auto Sprint on Mount

Audio

Players can certainly take control of a number of options here, and a PS5-only feature allows users to trim the volume of certain noises, while those who dislike the tinnitus sound effects, or anything similar, can turn those off.

  • Display Subtitles
    • Subtitle Size
      • Standard
      • Large
      • Extra Large
    • Subtitle Background
  • Audio Mix
  • Volume Sliders
    • Music
    • Speech
    • Sound Effects
  • Trim (PS5 Only)
    • Machine Sounds
    • Weapon Sounds
    • Ambient Sounds
  • Force Mono Audio
  • Turn Off Tinnitus Sound

Visual

For visual, there are a few options here that allow for adjusting how much motion blur and camera shake are present for the game. The graphical modes can also be a good thing to change as for some players and consoles, favoring performance can make for a smoother play.

  • Dynamic Range
  • Graphics Mode
    • Performance
    • Resolution
  • Camera Positioning
  • Motion Blur
  • Camera Shake
  • Underwater Camera Shake

Accessibility Menu

The accessibility menu compiles everything from the other menus into one area, allowing users easy access to everything they may need. The features are kind of broken down into segments, with a gap between each section to make the list less daunting. What’s more, Sony Interactive Entertainment revealed most of these features in an official blog post prior to launch!

It’s nice to see a populated list, but it’s also worth remembering that lists are not an indication as to how accessible a title is.

Horizon Forbidden West will be available on PS4 and PS5 on February 18, 2022.

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Ben
BaylissEditor-in-ChiefHe/Him

Ben is the one in charge of keeping the content cogs at Can I Play That? turning. Deafness means that he has a focus on discussing captions, but with experience in consultancy and advocacy, he covers what bases he can. Having written about accessibility in video games at DualShockers, GamesRadar+, GamesIndustry.biz, Wireframe, and more he continues his advocacy at CIPT. He was actually awarded a Good Games Writing award for an article he wrote here! He enjoys a range of games, but anything that’s open-world and with a photo mode will probably be his cup of tea. You can get in touch with him at: ben@caniplaythat.com

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