Does Assassin’s Creed Shadows Have Accessibility Features?

Game creators strive to design games that cater to a wide range of players. Yet, their job doesn’t stop when the game is released on multiple platforms. A key focus in game development is ensuring accessibility, which involves creating specialized tools to make the game enjoyable for various types of gamers, thereby broadening the player base. Today, let’s explore the Accessibility Features in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

What Accessibility Features Does Assassin’s Creed Shadows Include?

In his latest blog post, Assassin’s Creed Shadows UX Director Jonathan Bedard outlined the game’s accessibility features. He mentioned that as a new project comes along, there is an increasing number of people who are engaged and passionate about various aspects of accessibility. Each team contributes suggestions to advance and explore the boundaries of what we can achieve in terms of accessibility.

Bedard expressed that “Audio descriptions for cinematic scenes” is the accessibility feature he’s most proud of in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and he shared an instance where the development team was deeply moved by the way a multitude of emotions and actions were effectively conveyed through these audio descriptions.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Accessibility Features List

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, accessibility options are distributed across five key areas of the game: visual, auditory, navigation and guidance, controls, and gameplay mechanics. Here’s a look at the available tools for each section:

1. Visual: Adjust brightness, contrast, colorblind modes, subtitles, and text size options.
2. Audio: Customize audio settings like volume levels, speech rates, and subtitle styles.
3. Navigation & Guidance: Utilize waypoints, map markers, and on-screen prompts to help navigate the game world.
4. Controls: Remap buttons, adjust input sensitivity, and activate assisted aiming features.
5. Gameplay: Adjust difficulty levels, enable slow motion, or toggle auto-save options for a more tailored gaming experience.

Visual

Colorblind options – Players can change colours for certain gameplay elements from a list of presets.
Screen Narration – Players will find Narration for most menu items, HUD modules, and time-sensitive elements.
HUD Customization – Players can turn all HUD elements on or off either all at once or individually, either with a shortcut or using presets such as; ‘increase opacity’, ‘resize text’, ‘resize Icons’ or ‘add background’ to increase readability
Screen Shake: A toggle has been added to turn Screen Shake on or off.

Audio

Subtitles include better colour modifications, speaker directions, and speaker emotions.
Gameplay Captions – Provides surfacing stimuli and points to their origins.
Audio Description for Cinematics – Cutscenes will feature audio descriptions.
Audio Cues/Audio Glossary: Players will find new signs and feedback, allowing them to navigate and find their way with non-visual cues.
Audio Sliders: The game will feature separate, isolated audio sliders.

Navigation and Guidance

FTUE – First-time user experience flow is back, offering first-access critical options.
Guided Mode: This mode includes streamlined systems and removes part of the gameplay to reduce the requirement for player engagement in exploring and finding content.
Tutorials Section – Players can find tutorials in the Codex section anytime.
Menu Tutorials – Players will be alerted about new menu functions.
Conversation Log – Players can peruse every line from the start to the end of a dialogue.

Controls

Control Remapping – Players can remap gameplay inputs and their actions (hold, press, double-press)
Many input devices – Players can use a mouse and keyboard, controllers, and combinations.
Lock-On Camera – Enemy camera lock-on is available for players.
X and Y axis inversion – Players can invert the axis for aiming actions.
Stick inversion – Players can also invert the analog-stick behaviour.

Gameplay

Stealth and combat will each feature four separate difficulty settings
Guided Mode – The mode includes streamlined systems and removes part of the gameplay to alleviate the requirement for player engagement in exploration and finding content.
Canon Mode – This mode will automatically select narrative decisions to follow the “canon” story.
Melee Attack Mode – Combat will be simplified by using a single input instead of multiple buttons or complex combinations.
Quick-Timed Events—The input required to complete Quick-Time Events can be simplified or skipped entirely by the players.
Aim Assistance – Players will find Four levels of aim assistance: off, light, moderate and full.

Concerning Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the graphic elements will be toned down for the Japanese release. Additionally, the game was pushed back again on account of intricate rooftops during its development process.

2025-01-27 17:23