Assassin’s Creed Shadows Accessibility Options Are The Series’ Most Robust Yet

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Different gamers don’t necessarily enjoy video games alike, especially when they have disabilities. This is the reason Ubisoft is highlighting the accessibility features available in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which could make the game more inclusive for those who may have felt left out before.

In my gaming adventures with Shadows, I’ve got some exciting news: for the very first time in this series, cinematics will be accompanied by audio descriptions! As a gamer, I can’t wait to see how this innovative feature brings the depth and emotions of Shadows to life in ways I didn’t expect. UX Director Jonathan Bedard shared that this addition was instrumental in helping him grasp the richness of the game in an unexpected manner.

According to Bedard, it was heartening to observe a team-driven initiative that stemmed from their passion and found its place within the game. This demonstrates the significant progress we’ve made in recent years regarding the acknowledgement and commitment to accessibility at Ubisoft. I feel honored to witness this growth, increased awareness, and concern for accessibility, as it continually enhances our games to be more inclusive with each release.

In Shadows, there are various features that cater to accessibility, such as colorblind settings, personalized Head-Up Display (HUD), enhanced subtitles, options to make Quick Time Events (QTEs) less complex or skip them altogether, and a narration function for menu items and HUD components.

As an avid fan, I’m thrilled to share that Ubisoft has unveiled a fascinating expansion for Shadows! Unlike regular DLC, it will initially be offered as a pre-order bonus. But fear not, for those who don’t pre-order, the expansion can be purchased later down the line. Moreover, the team behind Shadows has openly admitted that the game’s latest delay was to ensure they could perfect the parkour experience.

Excitedly speaking here as a die-hard fan, I just wanted to share that “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows” will be dropping on my gaming console on March 20th! That’s right, it’s coming out for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. Can’t wait to dive in! And if you’re curious about the accessibility options, they’ve got you covered – check them out below.

Visual

  • Colorblind options – Ability to change colors for certain gameplay elements from a list of presets
  • Screen Narration – Not only most menu items, but also many HUD modules and time-sensitive elements can be narrated
  • HUD Customization – Ability to turn all HUD elements on or off either all at once, or individually, either with shortcut or using presets – increase opacity, resize text, resize Icons or add background to increase readability
  • Screen shake on/off toggle

Audio

  • Subtitles – Better color modifications, speaker directions and speaker emotions
  • Gameplay Captions – Surfacing stimuli and points to their origins
  • Audio Description for Cinematics – Cinematic will be audio descripted
  • Audio Cues/Audio Glossary – New signs and feedback allowing navigation and path finding with non-visual cues
  • Separate, isolated audio sliders

Navigation and Guidance

  • FTUE – First time user experience flow is back, offering first-access critical options
  • Guided Mode – Offer streamlined systems and remove part of the gameplay to alleviate the requirement for player engagement in exploration and finding content
  • Tutorials Section – Tutorials can be found in the Codex section at any time
  • Menu Tutorials – Always alerts when there are new menu functions
  • Conversation Log – Every line can be perused from the start to the end of a dialogue

Controls

  • Control Remapping – Remap gameplay inputs, and their action (hold, press, double-press)
  • Many inputs devices – Mouse and keyboard, controllers, combinations
  • Lock-On Camera – Lock the camera on an enemy
  • X and Y axis inversion – Ability to invert the axis for aiming actions
  • Stick inversion – Invert the analog-stick behavior

Gameplay

  • Stealth and combat each have four separate difficulty settings
  • Guided Mode – Offer streamlined systems and remove part of the gameplay to alleviate the requirement for player engagement in exploration and finding content
  • Canon Mode – Enable automatic selection of narrative decisions for the “canon” story to unfold
  • Melee Attack Mode – Simplifies the combat by using a single input instead of multiple buttons or complex combinations
  • Quick Timed Events – Type of input required to complete Quick Time Events can be simplified, or skipped entirely
  • Aim Assistance – Four levels of aim assistance are offered (off, light, moderate, full)

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2025-01-25 00:39