Sony has added more accessibility features to Horizon Forbidden West ahead of the game’s first major DLC release, Burning Shores, including an option to make the game’s underwater sections less daunting for players who suffer from thalassophobia.
For those unaware, thalassophobia is the persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water such as the sea, oceans, or lakes. This can be triggered by anything from watching Jaws as a child to past trauma involving a deep body of water.
In an FAQ posted to the Reddit group r/horizon, a Guerilla spokesperson said: “this feature aims to ease thalassophobia symptoms by improving underwater ambient visibility and allowing you to breathe indefinitely, regardless of story progression.”
This feature is part of a whole raft of additional accessibility options that are being added to the game via an update ahead of the release of Burning Shores that releases today.
The full list of accessibility additions include:
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Improved UI readability options – added options to increase waypoint and quest icon sizes.
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Navigation Assist – added an option to assist the player’s orientation during a quest, with a new option added in Focus mode to face the camera towards the current objective. Additionally, if the user has a waypoint set the camera will prioritize aiming towards this direction.
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Colour Blind settings – added new colour blind accessibility options.
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Auto Camera – added an option to allow the camera to follow your movement behaviour from the left stick without having to control it with the right stick.
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HUD Vignette – added an option to add a vignette to darken the edges of the screen, increasing contrast and improving HUD readability.
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Auto Pickup – added an option to automatically collect pickups without button-press interactions from the player.
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Improved Subtitle Sizes – increased the size of subtitles for the Large and Extra Large options.
All of these options have also been added to the base game Horizon Forbidden West and do not require the DLC to be used. Will you be using any of these features? Let us know in the comments below.
