Over the last few years, the video game industry has continued to include and improve accessibility options that allow more people to experience the latest title. Games like The Last of Us Part 2 and Forza Horizon 5 go above and beyond by including features like sign language support, text-to-speech, and camera options to prevent Motion Sickness.
A modern trend also includes providing accessibility options to avoid triggering a reaction from anyone with a phobia. Some games will go out of their way to remove creatures or locations that might make someone feel uncomfortable, which is incredibly considerate and appreciated by many. Each one of these games includes a phobia mode that makes them easier for everyone to enjoy.
7 Kill It With Fire
The premise of Kill It With Fire is simple; locate spiders hiding in an open environment and destroy them by any means necessary. This might sound like a dream come true for anyone with arachnophobia, but the spiders are genuinely creepy, and having one sneak up on you when you least expect it can be absolutely terrifying.
Shortly after Kill It With Fire first launched, the developers decided to add an arachnophobia mode to make the spiders less creepy and less likely to induce someone with a panic attack. The eight-legged freaks now resemble harmless stuffed toys, and you can even turn the jump scare sound effect off as an extra precaution.
6 Webbed
Webbed is a platforming game that lets you take on the role of a spider in search of her beloved boyfriend, who has been abducted by a monstrous bird. Unlike Kill It With Fire, you play as a cute spider instead of killing them, but even that can dissuade someone with arachnophobia from ever considering Webbed as an option for them.
Despite the entire premise of Webbed focusing on the life of a spider, the developers were kind enough to include an arachnophobia mode that changes the protagonist into an adorable purple blob. The game is full of other bugs and creatures, but the decision to provide an option that changes the main character's design is an extra mile the developers didn't need to take, and it's certainly appreciated.
5 Satisfactory
Satisfactory is an open-world game full of resources to harvest and aliens to vanquish. A couple of years after it launched in early access, the developers decided to include an arachnophobia mode that transformed its spider-like creatures - Stingers - into giant, photo-realistic cats. It's pretty hilarious, and you might want to throw it on even if you're not scared of spiders.
To give credit where it's due, Satisfactory is one of the first games to feature an arachnophobia mode and certainly helped set a new standard for accessibility in video games. Three different kinds of cats can show up in place of the Stingers, and each one will melt your heart instead of scaring you out of your chair.
4 Sea Of Thieves
While most phobia modes in games take care of spiders, Rare's Sea of Thieves introduced a new setting in 2020 designed to help circumvent a different type of fear. If the thought of being underwater scares you, but you still enjoy the idea of sailing across the seven seas, the auto float feature ensures that your character doesn't spend too much time beneath the surface of the ocean.
It's not uncommon to have a fear of being underwater, so the auto float feature was designed to compel more people to check out the game without worrying about accidentally drowning. In any situation where your character hits the water - intentionally or during combat - they will automatically rise to the surface before needing to worry about oxygen and the loss of direction.
3 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
The inclusion of phobia modes in indie games has become increasingly prevalent, and even triple-A titles are incorporating these types of options now. If you played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, you might remember certain spider-like enemies - known as Wyyyschokks - that were bigger than Cal himself. If they scared you away, the game's sequel includes a mode that removes them entirely.
Like many other games, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor replaces the spider-like creatures with something else that has fewer legs. Aside from appearances, your encounters with the modified creatures will play the exact same way as they would against a Wyyyschokk, so you'll still need to stay on your toes to defeat the less-terrifying but still dangerous aliens.
2 Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is another phenomenal example of a triple-A game providing the perfect range of accessibility settings, so everyone can enjoy exploring its post-apocalyptic world. While Aloy doesn't encounter any spiders, her underwater adventures might be too much for some people, which is why the developers added a thalassophobia mode in 2023.
Toward the second half of Horizon Forbidden West, you'll unlock a diving mask that allows Aloy to explore underwater without worrying about oxygen. If you enable the thalassophobia mode at the beginning of the adventure, you will be able to hold your breath indefinitely from the start, meaning Aloy will never drown. Once again, it's an extra feature that the developers didn't need to work on, but its inclusion is a great milestone for the industry.
1 Grounded
In many ways, Grounded is like a playable version of the classic 1989 film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. You and three other friends play as teenagers after being shrunk and stuck in a backyard full of dangerous critters. Of course, deadly spiders are one of the many insects waiting for you, but Grounded features a customizable arachnophobia mode that is the epitome of how to include phobia settings in games.
The spiders in Grounded are genuinely terrifying, and they come in all shapes in sizes. Instead of having the option to toggle the arachnophobia mode on or off, the game includes a slider that you can use to set how much you want to change their appearance. The first level on the slider simply removes two of the spider's eight legs, while the fifth level turns them into giant blobs of goo.