Just over one week away from launch, Guerrilla has provided a detailed blog post addressing the key accessibility options that players can expect to see in Horizon Forbidden West. The company has gone on the record as intending Aloy’s newest adventure for “as many fans as possible,” and with that promise, fans can expect to see more ways to tweak Forbidden West as compared to the previous title, Horizon Zero Dawn.
Forbidden West will include five difficulty settings, spamming from Story Mode to Very Hard. The title is also introducing the Custom Difficulty setting, which will allow players to adjust damage levels that Aloy deals and receives to/from enemies, allowing for more flexibility in adjusting combat difficulty. The Easy Loot system has also been added.
“Horizon Forbidden West has a focus on hunting machines, then detaching and looting their resources to craft ammo and upgrade equipment. Many of these resources can be destroyed if not detached before the machine is killed. This can be challenging, so we have introduced an Easy Loot system. Turning the Easy Loot option on means that any resource components that are still attached when killing a machine are added to its loot inventory. This lessens the need to detach those components during combat. This system is the default for Story and Easy difficulties as well as an option in Custom mode.”
The game has a few presets for controls including left-handed support. Players can fully remap gameplay controls. Forbidden West features optional motion sensor controls, and while the PlayStation 5 version makes use of the adaptive triggers and vibrations, these can also be altered or turned off.
Last month, IGN released the first hands-on preview of the title, ending the video with a shining review. “Nearly every misgiving I had about Zero Dawn seems to have been thought through, and then some, while everything I loved has only been improved upon. Aloy’s new journey seems more robust and rewarding than I expected while retaining the wonder and awe that its predecessor delivered on. I still don’t know quite what the Forbidden West itself will hold, but after my hands-on, I’ve never been more excited to find out,” said IGN’s Jonathon Dornbush.
Horizon Forbidden West is scheduled to release on February 18, 2022, for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The new title will be around the same length as Horizon Zero Dawn, though it will take longer to reach the 100% mark.
