Not every player can experience video games in the same way, especially if they have impairments. That’s why Ubisoft is laying out the accessibility options that are included in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which may open some doors for players who might otherwise feel excluded.
One of the key additions to Shadows is that the cinematics will have audio descriptions available, which will be a first for the series. According to UX Director Jonathan Bedard, that feature helped him realize that it could convey the depth and emotions of Shadows in an unexpected way.
“It… made me happy to see an initiative coming from the team’s passion and making its way into the game,” said Bedard. “This shows how far we’ve come along in the last few years, in terms of people being aware of and caring about accessibility at Ubisoft. I am proud to see this evolution, awareness, and care spreading and making our games more accessible every time.”
Some of the other accessibility features utilized in Shadows include colorblind options, HUD customization, improved subtitles, the ability to simplify or skip QTEs, and screen narration for menu items and HUD modules.
Additionally, Ubisoft has revealed that there will be an expansion for Shadows, which is going to be a pre-order bonus rather than a standard DLC. However, the expansion will also be available for purchase at some point in the future. The company also acknowledged that the game’s most recent delay was intended to give the team more time to improve the parkour.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on March 20 on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. You can see the full list of accessibility features 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)
