God of War Ragnarok's Accessibility No Worse Than in TLoU Remake
God of War: Ragnarok will offer more than 60 accessibility options implemented with disabled players in mind. Some of them were presented in the video.
The State of Play episode dedicated to God of War: Ragnarok - despite numerous rumors - is nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of footage from the upcoming game by Santa Monica Studio. In recent days two short gameplays have appeared online (you can watch them here and here) as well as a commercial starring Rick and Morty. Today, however, Game Informer published footage demonstrating a sample of the accessibility options that will be present in the game (below).
Mila Pavlin - head of the department responsible for "user experience" (UX in short) in God of War: Ragnarok - revealed that the game will offer more than 60 different options designed to make it easier for disabled players to interact with it. In implementing them, the focus was on four areas: vision, hearing, motor cognitive skills (such as effective planning and learning from one's mistakes). Below are a handful of examples.
- High contrast mode will enable players to adjust the colors of different types of objects to reduce "visual clutter" on the screen.
- Audio cues - combined with subtitles - will indicate which button press is required for the scene unfolding on screen.
- The movement of objects that need to be thrown at with the axe, for example, can be slowed down so that sequences requiring reflexes don't cause frustration.
- Some of Kratos' abilities - such as the Spartan rage or quick turn - will be assignable to the controller's touchpad, making them easier to perform.
- It is also possible to enable automatic lifting of objects, which will significantly facilitate the regeneration of health during combat for those with impaired motor skills.
- Enabling camera navigation support, meanwhile, will make it easier for players to spot their next targets.
- In addition, God of War: Ragnarok expanded the options for customizing the size of text and icons displayed on the screen, compared to the 2018 installment of the series .
In the game itself, we will find many more such options. This confirms that Sony cares a lot about this aspect of its games - The Last of Us: Part I has seen just as many similar features. Nevertheless, Mila Pavlin believes that even more can be done:
"More than 60 options is really a lot. However, I think there is room for more customization. I think we would have been able to do even better. But honestly, I feel that people will be excited to see how much more people can play. If I could expand these features to enable one more player to play - just one more player - it would be the best thing in the world; to be able to see it and find out how it enabled them to become part of the community."
As a reminder, let me add that the release of God of War: Ragnarok is scheduled for November 9 2022. The title will be released on PS4 and PS5.
