Horizon Forbidden West has the option to load slower so players can read hints

Horizon Forbidden West loads so fast on PS5 that Guerrilla Games had to slow it down so players can actually read the hints on the loading screen. In an interview with Engadget, game director Mathijs de Jonge explained that loading screens are much faster on PS5.

De Jonge explained that while Horizon Zero Dawn took nearly one minute to load whenever players fast traveled, Horizon Forbidden West is down to four or five seconds. Guerrilla was able to optimize the experience for the PS5 SSD to the point that the team had to slow it back down so players could read 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,” de Jonge said. Guerrilla said it knew that being able to read the hints was an important part of the experience for many players, providing information that might have been missed or forgotten about during the experience.

By default, Horizon Forbidden West hangs on the loading screen longer than necessary so people can read hints, but there is an option in the menu to disable this feature. Anyone that feels like they don’t need to read hints can enjoy the fully optimized loading, fast traveling in mere seconds.