PS5 tech revealed to take Horizon Forbidden West immersion to crazy new level

PS5 gamers are going to be very happy indeed when playing Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West
(Image credit: Sony / Guerrilla Games)

The PS5 has some amazing exclusive games coming down the pipe, including Horizon Forbidden West, the much-wanted sequel to the 2017 smash hit Horizon Zero Dawn.

Gamers are currently massively enthused to see just what Guerrilla Games, the series’ maker, can do with the next-gen PS5 hardware, with a far more expansive and alive game world on their wish list.

However, now we’ve just got a great example of just how the PS5’s state-of-the-art hardware is going to take immersion in Horizon Forbidden West to all new levels. That’s because Angie Smets, who is a director at Guerrilla games, has just confirmed that thanks to the super-advanced haptic feedback in the PlayStation 5’s DualSense 5 controller when you play Horizon Forbidden West “if you want to take a stealth approach to a combat situation and you dive into long grass, you can feel those long grass leaves”.

The idea that things like long grass can be felt through the PS5’s DualSense controller is just remarkable. As anyone who has played the first Horizon game will testify to, sneaking through grass is a large part of the game, so the fact that users will be able feel that is going to help them be drawn into the game in an even more immersive way.

This elite-level haptic feedback is something that the Xbox Series X controller doesn’t share, too, meaning that Sony really does have something to shout about here.

Here at T3 we think that we can expect to see even more subtle haptic controller feedback in Horizon Forbidden West, too, with things like bow strings being pulled and released, as well as throwing objects and feeling the footsteps of your foes taken to a new level of fidelity and immersion.

Hopefully we’ll also see more of this sort of programming in other PS5 games, and especially showstopper exclusives like God of War 2.

Robert Jones

Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.