While the game’s release date remains a secret still as well kept by Cory Barlog and his team, it is Mila Pavlin, head of user experience at Santa Monica Studio, who speaks on this World Awareness Day to accessibility. In addition to retaining all of the accessibility features from 2018’s God of War, including its recent PC port, this sequel will feature many new features, starting with more tweaks for subtitle size and color.
If needed, subtitles can also be turned on to highlight important gameplay information, which can be helpful in solving puzzles and understanding the narration. In the same genre, players can activate a direction indicator to help locate the source of essential gameplay sounds and in particular to solve puzzles with sound clues. In addition to the subtitles, the size of the texts of the interface can also be significantly enlarged, just like that of the icons.
Controller in hand, the key reassignment system has been revised for full customization of controls, without forgetting to be able to choose a range of predefined configurations. Touchpad shortcuts are also provided for certain complex actions that require pressing several keys, for example activating Sparta’s Rage or even the quick U-turn.
The PlayStation Blog publication also details how the high contrast mode works, already seen previously in The Last of Us Part II, in particular. “When enabled, this option applies a layer of color to the characters, making them stand out more from the background. You can also desaturate the background to further increase the contrast. This mode can also make routes, loot and special effects more visible“, can we read.
Added to all this are options such as navigation assistance (allows you to point the camera in the direction of the next objective in the story), movement assistance (automates actions such as crossing ditches or hide) or even audio cues that extend into combat, for example to indicate unblockable attacks.
“We are committed to improving accessibility and customization for all of our players. We look forward to giving you more details on the categories of our accessibility features, such as combat/targeting aids, puzzle/mini-game aids, heads-up display changes, camera, automatic object pick-up and more“, concludes Mila Pavlin.
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