Horizon Forbidden West Dev Reveals Why Load Times Were Purposefully Slowed Down
The PlayStation 5 has drastically improved load times over the PlayStation 4. Games like Horizon Forbidden West load significantly faster on the system, but that can cause unforeseen problems for development teams. In an interview with Engadget, Guerrilla Games' Mathijs de Jonge revealed that load times go so quickly on the PS5 that it didn't allow players enough time to read tips that would appear on-screen. The developer decided to slow things down to give players just enough time to read that valuable advice, though there is an option to speed it up!
"In Horizon Zero Dawn, we called it fast travel, but it could take maybe a minute to actually load," de Jonge told Engadget. "With the PS5, it's maybe four or five seconds, it loads so quickly that players can't even read the hints. We had to add a very simple feature where it hangs on the loading screen for enough time so you can actually read at least one hint while it loads."
For players that grew up in the era of the original PlayStation, it's pretty amazing to see how far load times have come. Over the last 25 years, players went from having enough time to flip through the instruction manual, to not having enough time to read on-screen tips! While faster load times might not be a system seller for most gamers, the feature is a really nice perk of the next-gen hardware. It definitely shows just how much of an improvement the console is over its predecessor. Of course, players that choose the PS5 version of Horizon Forbidden West over the PS4 version can see other ways the next-gen system is a step-up. The game takes advantage of the PS5's improved visuals, and offers support for adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. It just might be one of the system's best showpieces, thus far!
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.
Have you started playing Horizon Forbidden West? What do you think of the PS5 version so far? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!