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How to Make Horror Games Less Scary With Accessibility and Gameplay Settings

Learn which accessibility and gameplay settings can help reduce specific sources of intensity in horror games—and how to check what each option actually changes.
Length5 min Posted Quest giverVGSources Team
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Start with the game’s accessibility, audio, video, and gameplay menus. Look for content warnings, options to hide or bypass selected scenes, separate volume controls, subtitles or captions, visual and motion settings, and difficulty adjustments. What is available—and how much it helps—varies by game, platform, and version. These settings can reduce particular sources of intensity, but they cannot guarantee that a horror game will feel comfortable.

First, identify what is making the game feel scary

Different settings address different sources of discomfort. A sudden sound may call for a volume adjustment; camera movement may be affected by a motion setting; a specific creature or scene may have a content filter or bypass. Difficulty and control options can ease play pressure, but they do not necessarily change frightening content.

  • Specific content: look for content advisories, scene warnings, visual filters, or skip and bypass options.
  • Sound: check for separate sliders for effects, music, dialogue, and cinematics. Subtitles or captions may help you follow dialogue without relying on loud audio, though they may not describe every sound.
  • Visual intensity and motion: check brightness and contrast, camera shake, head bob, and motion blur options where offered.
  • Challenge or control pressure: look for difficulty, aim assistance, quick-time-event options, remapping, and toggle controls. These may make play easier without removing frightening scenes.

Try changing the setting that corresponds to the specific problem, rather than assuming one adjustment will work for everyone. Raising brightness, lowering volume, or choosing an easier difficulty is not guaranteed to make a game less scary.

Check content warnings, filters, and scene bypasses

A warning and a content control do different jobs: a warning tells you what may be coming, while a filter or bypass can alter or avoid some of it. Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guideline 123 recommends giving players information about potentially distressing content and ways to customize, avoid, remove, or bypass it where appropriate. It suggests options such as advance online information, in-game warnings, and the ability to skip or bypass a cutscene or mission.

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Before relying on a skip, check whether it preserves progress and whether it can be used after the scene begins. Microsoft says players should ideally be able to choose to skip or bypass relevant content during a mission or cutscene. The actual behavior is specific to each game.

Content options need not remove a game’s story or premise. Microsoft’s guidance emphasizes informing players and supporting their choices, rather than directing developers to remove story content. Its example from Grounded describes an arachnophobia safe mode that changes how spiders look; it does not remove them completely or affect gameplay or difficulty.

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Use ordinary audio, visual, and gameplay settings

Accessibility settings are not always labeled as fear-reduction features. Standard audio, display, motion, and difficulty controls can still help with a particular source of intensity. Their names and scope vary, so check the game’s own guide if an option is unclear.

Audio and captions

If loud effects or music are the problem, reduce the relevant slider rather than muting everything by default. Separate controls can let you lower effects or cinematic audio while keeping dialogue audible. Subtitles and closed captions may provide another way to follow speech or some sound information. Caption coverage is not necessarily complete: Bethesda’s Redfall Accessibility Guide, for example, notes that captions do not cover every possible sound effect.

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Brightness, contrast, and motion

Brightness and contrast can change visibility, while camera-shake or head-bob toggles can reduce some movement in the presentation. These settings may make a specific visual element easier to manage, but they do not remove the game’s underlying content. Check for motion blur controls too, if camera movement is uncomfortable; the option may not exist in every title.

Difficulty and controls

A lower difficulty, aim assistance, simplified quick-time events, remapping, or toggle controls can reduce the effort or pressure of playing. Treat these as gameplay adjustments, not content filters. Some changes may take effect only after restarting or reloading: Bethesda notes that in Redfall, enemies already present may not reflect a mid-game difficulty change until the game is reloaded.

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What two official game examples show

Official documentation illustrates how different the scope of these options can be. The examples below are specific to the named games, not a checklist of features every horror game provides.

Game and source Documented options Important scope or limitation
Dead Space, EA’s accessibility article Configurable subtitles, including font size, capitalization, text/background color inversion and background opacity, and speaker-name display; camera-shake reduction; optional warnings for potentially disturbing scenes; and an option to obscure selected upcoming visuals. EA says the content features are optional and disabled by default. The visual obscuring option leaves the scene’s audio audible. EA also notes that what a player finds disturbing is subjective.
Redfall, Bethesda’s accessibility guide Four difficulty levels; subtitles or closed captions; font scaling and colorblind filters; camera-shake and head-bob toggles; separate music, effects, dialogue, and cinematic volume controls; brightness and contrast; and vibration on/off. Bethesda says captions do not cover every possible sound effect. Enemies already present may not change when difficulty is adjusted mid-game until reload.

In EA’s Dead Space article, EA accessibility program lead Morgan Baker explains that the options recognize that some players may want to avoid seeing certain content typical of horror and gore games. EA also quotes a developer emphasizing that “Dead Space remains a horror game, with gore and blood.” The distinction matters: a setting may give you more control over a particular scene without removing the genre’s premise.

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Verify the options for your game and platform

  1. Open the game’s Settings or Options menu. Check Accessibility first, then Audio, Video or Display, and Gameplay or Controls.
  2. Look for both information and controls. Read content advisories and check whether the game offers scene warnings, filters, concealment, or a skip/bypass option.
  3. Confirm what the option changes. Find out whether it affects visuals only, audio too, gameplay, all scenes, or only selected content.
  4. Check when it can be changed. A setting may need to be enabled before play, may be adjustable during a scene, or may require a reload to take effect.
  5. Consult the current official manual or accessibility guide. Confirm that it covers your game, platform, and version; menu labels and features can differ.

If the guide does not explain whether a bypass preserves progress or how broadly a filter applies, do not assume. Warnings can help you make an informed choice, but a warning alone does not remove content or guarantee comfort.

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