A recent update for Horizon Forbidden West (coming alongside the new Burning Shores DLC) has something interesting tucked away beside some subtitle and item changes: thereâs now a toggle for anyone who suffers from Thalassophobia, or âthe persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water such as the sea, oceans, or lakesâ.
As The Verge report, anyone who enables this option will find that the gameâs underwater sectionsâthereâs part of the Bay Area thatâs explorable under the waves, for exampleâwill be a lot less taxing on the nerves. Developers Guerrilla describe it as:
This feature aims to ease thalassophobia symptoms by improving underwater ambient visibility and allowing you to breathe indefinitely, regardless of story progression.
If that sounds stupid to you, thatâs fine, donât enable it! But as Iâve blogged repeatedly on this website the ocean is a deep, dark and terrifying place, and video games do a good jobâperhaps too goodâof playing up to the most fundamental aspects of that fear, namely the way they restrict visibility and then put loads of dangerous (and more importantly unseen) things in your vicinity.
Throw in a super common underwater stage tropeâa limited supply of oxygenâand youâve got everything you need for an experience that goes beyond challenging and into the realms of truly stressful. Like, voluntarily skip entire sections of a game levels of stressful
So this is a toggle that, for me at least, is something 30 years in the making. Thank you, Guerrilla, I appreciate it, and especially the fact that itâs an optional thing, because as fucked up as I get playing 3D underwater levels I also realise most people have no such problems, so itâs nice to have the choice.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, thatâs because a few years back Obsidian promised something similar, only in their case for anyone afraid of spiders. Which, again, as an Australian, I have nothing but understanding for.
