Horizon: Desperate West is just a few days away, and the official Playstation blog shares the assist tools available at that time. Early in development, developers were determined to promote the game and create a hassle-free and immersive experience that all players could enjoy. Some of these features are inherited from their predecessor, Horizon: Dawn of Zero, while others are new to the game after a better understanding of the player's needs.
General assistance tool settings
There are several features that are automatically enabled at the beginning of the game, one of which is subtitles. Players can change the font size and subtitle background to see more clearly. You can choose your preferred language (including voice and subtitles) the first time you launch the game.
The game menu contains "Notes", an extensive encyclopedia that records useful information such as characters, machines, and data points in the world. To ensure that players can quickly find the guidance they need as they play, we've added a new teaching area explaining the various game mechanics or controls.
Difficulty setting
We understand that every player wants to experience their own challenge type in the Forbidden Lands of the West, so we offer five difficulty settings for you to enjoy a tailor-made and exclusive adventure: whether it's a simplified battle, a story mode that allows you to focus on story development and exploration, or a super difficulty that tests skills and fights tricky battles.
We've also introduced a "Custom Difficulty" setting that allows players to adjust the degree to which Elloy deals/takes damage to enemies, making the battle difficulty more resilient.
Horizon: Desperate West focuses on hunting machines and dismantling and recovering machine resources to craft ammunition and upgrade equipment. If the components are not removed before the machine is killed, these resources will be destroyed, which is not easy to do. Therefore, we have added the "Easy Loot" system: when enabled, all the components on the machine when it is killed will be added to the resources obtained by the scavenging of the wreckage, so that the player does not have to bother to disassemble the components in battle. This system is a preset setting for story and simple difficulty, and is also an option in custom mode.
Controller settings
Since Elloy is a seasoned and agile hunter, the control operation must also be intuitive and easy to use, so that Elloy can fully exert his ability. With this in mind, we've designed several options that are as user-friendly as possible.
Horizon: Desperate West has several preset controls (including support for left-handed people), but the gameplay controls can be completely reset, plus conflict-avoiding guidelines, allowing players to fully customize buttons or input configurations for each action. In addition, some operations also offer the option of "toggle" or "hold", or to reverse the X or Y axis.
Another new feature is the "Co-Pilot" system, which allows a second PlayStation controller to operate the game together through mirror control, requiring only another controller (PS5 with DualSense controller, PS4 with DualShock 4 controller) and a second user profile. The implementation of the "co-pilot" system is due to the valuable advice and support of our visually impaired assistance tool consultants.
Horizon: Desperate West also features optional motion sensing control: with the Built-in Accelerometer and Gyroscope of the DualSense Wireless Controller, players can intuitively fine-tune their aiming shots to improve accuracy.
There are also slider settings that adjust the sensitivity of the action, and "invalid area" settings for the analog joysticks. Players can also press the "Quick Switch" weapon, or swap left and right lever functions for character and perspective movements.
Since the PS5 version of the game has adaptive trigger and vibration capabilities, we've added the following settings for players who aren't yet familiar with these options: you can change the intensity of the motions, traversals, combat, UI, or environment, or you can choose to disable the adaptive board when operating the weapon.
Play assist settings
These settings are designed to support players who may be having difficulties with either aspect of the game.
For example, in terms of weapons and combat, players can adjust the degree to which the game slows down when the "Weapon Wheel" (which allows you to quickly equip weapons) or aim assists when turned on. You can also increase the duration of "Focus" to slow down when aiming with your bow, or even set "Auto Focus" (if "Focus" is still available) so that you don't have to turn on the feature yourself in tricky battles.
Other auto settings that eliminate button actions include "Auto Dash", "Auto Heal" (when health is less than 50%) and "Auto Shield Wing" (when this skill is unlocked, the Shield Wing will automatically deploy when you fall from a height). There is also a setting called "Always turn on the climbing marker", which makes the climbing point obvious without the need to use "Focus". Please note that some "Automatic" settings are limited to Story/Easy/and Custom Difficulty modes.
Horizon: Desperate West is vast, so we've designed some guiding tools to help players explore this vast and vivid world. You can choose to explore the world with minimal guidance or use markers to help you reach your mission destination. The same goes for navigation points, where you can dynamically place markers and go to the target location under guidance. For long-distance travel, you can choose "Ride the Road" so that the mount will get you to your destination with minimal effort.
There are also pop-up reminders on how to use skills, weapons, or dealing with specific enemies, which the player can toggle on or off. If you restart the game after shutting down your console, there will also be a pre-story screen to help you re-enter the situation. PS4 players may occasionally encounter load screens (including practical prompts), and PS5 players can switch between the "Info" and "Immediate" options, because the PS5 load time is faster, but some players will still want to read the loading screen prompts.
Sound and visual settings
This game is also specially designed to reduce the discomfort of players. Visually, players can fine-tune the lens vibration and motion blur settings themselves, or they can fully customize the game's HUD to control the information content and time points displayed.
Players can also set the subtitle size and choose whether to add a subtitle background.
As for sound effects, music, voice, and sound effects all have their own volume controls. You can force mono audio, or you can turn off tinnitus: these are triggered sounds similar to tinnitus, such as the harsh sound of a machine.
The PS5 version also has more options that allow players to lower the volume of machine sounds, weapons, and explosions or ambient sounds, which is especially helpful for highly sensitive players.