How Accessible Were 2019’s Biggest Games?

Around this time last year, I made a series
of videos called Designing for Disability,

where I looked at the options and design decisions
that developers could employ, to make their

games more accessible to players living with
disabilities.

So I looked at colourblind palettes, audio
visualisers, customisable controls, and optional

assist modes.

It was fascinating to see the ways that games
could be tweaked to be more approachable - but

also sad to see when games dropped the ball
and shut certain players out.

But now, 12 months on, I thought it was a
good time to check back in and see how the

industry was doing.

So, over the last few weeks, I played 50 of
the most noteworthy games that were released

in 2019 - from massive new blockbusters like
Death Stranding and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint,

to indie titles like Overland and Untitled
Goose Game.

I wanted to see where they succeeded, and
where they struggled in terms of accessibility.

And this is what I found out.

Part 1 - Auditory

The first huge game of 2019 was Capcom’s
terrifying remake of Resident Evil 2 - which

spooked a whole new generation of players,
with the aid of this bulky bloke in a Brony’s

hat: Mr. X.

You’ll spend the majority of the game on
the run from this unstoppable, unkillable

nightmare - only able to predict his position
by listening out for his clonking great footsteps.

Unless, of course, you’re deaf or hard of
hearing.

That’s because Resident Evil 2 offers no
visual reinforcement of Mr. X’s footsteps,

making him near impossible to track for those
living with some auditory disabilities.

CanIPlayThat.com dubbed the game “virtually
unplayable very early on for deaf/hoh players,”

and a “complete failure in accessibility”.

Other games this year went some way to help
convey sound effects to those who can’t

hear them.

Far Cry: New Dawn offers sound subtitles for
things like gunfire and explosions, with little

arrows that point to the sound’s source.

And in Gears 5, that iconic musical sting that
symbolises that all enemies are dead, is subtitled

as “music settles”.

Plus, in that game, enemy bullet trails are
- by default - shown as clearly visible yellow

lines to help you see where shots are coming
from.

Another game worth mentioning is Apex Legends,
and its clever ping system.

This lets you highlight areas, enemies, and
objects to team mates through both a subtitled

voice line and a visual indicator - allowing
players to communicate important info in a

multiplayer game, but without audio.

Of course, a really important feature for
deaf and hard of hearing players is subtitles

for spoken dialogue.

And this year saw some really good examples
with nice big fonts, speaker names, and high

contrast backgrounds.

Remedy’s mind-melting shooter Control has
very readable subtitles.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order offers massive
great subtitles if you want them.

And Metro Exodus also employs black backgrounds
and speaker names.

Most of these let you customise the subtitles
yourself, through a menu of different options.

Also this year, Ubisoft experimented with
having subtitles on by default.

And discovered that, in Far Cry New Dawn, a whopping
great 97% of players kept them on.

Other games offer subtitles as an option before
the game even begins.

It’s also of note that every game I played
this year actually has subtitles.

Which shouldn’t be noteworthy, but at the
tail end of 2018, Activision released the

Spyro Reignited Trilogy without any subtitles
at all in its major cutscenes.

Thankfully, they were added in a patch this
year.

But still, there’s plenty of examples of
less-than-ideal subtitles.

Many games fail to include the speaker’s
name through labels or colour coding.

Games like Borderlands 3 and Rage 2 put way
too much text on one line, forcing you to

scan across the entire screen to read the
subtitles.

Some games mismatch the text and audio, like
in Planet Zoo where the actor says “Trade

Center”, but the subtitle says “Animal
Storage”.

Games still fail to include subtitles for
every part of the game.

In FIFA 20, the commentators aren’t subtitled,
this opening cutscene in RAGE 2 has no subtitles,

and Breakpoint doesn’t transcribe certain
enemy barks, which lets them get the drop

on you.

Also, some games still use on-brand fonts
instead of plain, sans serif text.

And while games like Devil May Cry 5 and Sekiro
aren’t bad, Blasphemous’s pixelated gothic

font is, well, blasphemous.

And finally, there’s the all-too-familar,
too-small subtitles.

Crackdown 3 has teeny tiny text to read while
punching up bad guys, and The Surge 2 has

microscopic subtitles.

But subtitles aren’t the only place where
you’ll find small text.

Which brings us onto part two.

Part 2 - Visual

Text size is the area where games most frequently
fail, in terms of accessibility.

Not just in subtitles, but across user interfaces,
in collectible documents, and on your heads-up display.

So The Outer Worlds continues to be a squint
‘em up, thanks to minute words all across

its user interface.

The text in Fire Emblem: Three Houses is small
on your TV, but minuscule on your Switch.

And Death Stranding tries to look cool with
its sleek UI, but it’s a struggle to parse

at a distance.

The worst perp of 2019, though, is the tactical
Baba Yaga simulator John Wick Hex, which writes

some critical information in text that’s
only 12 points big.

Luckily, other games use a far more readable
font size.

In Outer Wilds, the rumours on the computer
are nice and legible from most distances - and

it’s the same with the user interface in
Kingdom Hearts III, and the translation screens

in Heaven’s Vault.

Other games offer the option to choose your
own text size: such as the existential detective

drama Disco Elysium, and the gothic horror
adventure Sunless Skies.

Planet Zoo, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Borderlands
3 let you scale the entire user interface,

making both text and icons easier to see.

And this isn’t just important for accessibility
- because as we move into a future where the

same game can be steamed to your big TV or
your tiny phone screen, scaleable user interfaces

are going to have to become the norm.

Another area where some games have shined,
is in offering players the option to switch

out special fonts for plain, easy-to-read
text: Untitled Goose Game lets you change

its cursive to-do list to a more basic font.

And Overland is one of the only games
this year to offer a font choice that’s

designed to aid those with dyslexia.

A number of games this year also use built-in
screen reader tech, to have the game speak

its text to you.

Here’s how Eagle Island sounds when clicking
through the menu

SCREEN READER: "Controls. Save.
Game. Use right stick."

And Apex Legends can turn text chat messages
into voice, and voice chat messages into text,

so you won’t miss people talking about your
low level profile

SCREEN READER: "TADEthePRO says
'Level 2' 'omg' 'why'."

And finally, more games are giving players
the chance to read text at their own speed.

Bloodstained won’t go to the next line until
you press a button, and Tangle Tower lets

you pause the dialogue at any moment.

Time’s always ticking by in the clockwork
space sim Outer Wilds, but you can have the

game pause while reading text.

And Kingdom Hearts III lets you slow down
time when clicking through menus.

Another key area for visual accessibility
is colourblindness.

And this year saw some great approaches to
the problem.

The Color Dungeon in The Legend of Zelda:
Link’s Awakening DX wasn’t much fun for

those with Deuteranopia - but this year's Switch remake
adds things like distinct shapes on the enemies

and unique cracks in the floor tiles, to help
distinguish between the different colours.

Far Cry New Dawn has another simple colourblind
mode, which makes key on-screen elements become

pink and yellow.

Total War: Three Kingdoms lets you switch
the colour scheme of the game’s different factions.

And Resident Evil 2 lets you pick the laser
dot colour of your weapons, to help it stand

out from the background.

Apex Legends has one of the better features,
with three distinct palettes, and a preview

of what those new colours will look like right
there on the menu.

And The Outer Worlds doesn’t confer information
solely through colour by design, because one

of the company’s directors is colourblind.

Some games, though, are still using these
full-screen filters, which often don’t work

as intended and only really have the affect
of making the game look ugly and gross.

The full screen Protanopia filter in Modern
Warfare, for example, doesn’t stop red enemy

names from blending into the background at
key moments.

Thankfully, the Call of Duty series has long
since switched from red and green teams, to

red and blue ones.

And some games do still use colour as the
exclusive way to convey information.

In Death Stranding, the labels on your packages
go from yellow to red to indicate how beaten

up they are - plus some tiny scuffs and scratches.

Those labels are practically identical to
those with certain types of colourblindness.

Thanks to Twitter user RazorBeamz for pointing
that one out.

Providing more visual clarity is a good way
to alleviate the problems of colourblindness

- and help with other visual disabilities.

In Eagle Island, you can dim the background
to make the foreground layer easier to see

- plus, you can put outlines around enemies
and objects to help them pop out.

In FIFA 20, you can boost the size of the
player indicators.

And in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, you can not
only boost the size of the user interface

- but you can put shadows behind indicators
and markers to ensure they stand out from

the background.

Part 3 - Motor

One of the most requested features, when it
comes to accessibility, is the option to remap

a game’s controls.

This lets players with motor disabilities
put all of the key functions in easy-to-reach

places, or avoid using difficult inputs like
touchpads or the buttons under the analogue sticks.

Unfortunately, some games still don’t offer
any controller options whatsoever, including

the Zelda remake, the avant-garde Postman
Pat episode Death Stranding, and the zombie

biker game Days Gone.

Other games make do with presets.

Crackdown 3, The Outer Worlds, Resident Evil
2, and Wolfenstein Youngblood just have you

pick between a few developer-made layouts.

Not bad, but not good enough.

But I’m really pleased to see just how many
games this year

let you pick your own button placement.

The Surge 2, Team Sonic Racing, and Sekiro:
Shadows Die Twice have full remapping.

And Devil May Cry 5 shows how it’s important
to provide this on a game level, rather than

relying on the system-level remapping, by
letting you independently wire up the inputs

for the game’s three distinct characters,
Nero, Dante, and V.

Apex Legends and Borderlands 3 go a step further,
and don’t just let you pick your own buttons,

but give you really in-depth control over
things like camera sensitivity and dead zone options.

Plus, there are aim assist and aim snap options
to help you pick out targets.

Also of note is Overland, where the entire
game can be played with just a mouse.

Or just a controller. Or just a keyboard.

Those are really strong options that should
open the game up to a wide range of players.

This year’s MVP, though, is Gears 5.

Between controller remapping, the ability
to make the camera follow behind your character,

and the option to use the left stick for aiming
when your gun is raised, you can basically

play the game with one hand.

Tricky, but possible, thanks to a wide range
of accessibility options.

Pokémon Sword and Shield is notable, too,
for its casual control scheme that maps all

important buttons onto one Switch joy-con,
making it possible to play the game with just

one hand.

This thoughtful option is especially welcome
after the disastrously inaccessible Pokémon

Let’s Go, which forced players to use cumbersome
waggle gestures to throw Pokeballs.

Toggles are key, too - as seen in Crackdown
3’s lock-on mode.

In Borderlands 3’s aim, sprint, and crouch
options.

And in Yoshi’s Crafted World, where hasty
and patient egg throwing is basically just

about toggling or holding the aim button.

These stop players from needing to hold a
button down for great periods of time, which

can be impossible with some motor disabilities.

Unfortunately not every game got the memo:
you need to hold down the lock-on button in

DMC 5, and Team Sonic Racing should have just nicked
Mario Kart 8’s generous auto-drive option.

Most games also let you turn off these button-bashy
quick time events these days,

but there’s sadly no such
option in Jedi: Fallen Order.

Part 4 - Difficulty

Finally, let’s take a moment to talk about
difficulty settings in games.

Offering more lenient challenge levels can
give players with disabilities more time to

deal with threats - but also allows players
with all sorts of skill levels to get into games.

This year we saw lots of games with plenty
of difficulty options to pick from, and the

language used on these options is much better.

Instead of patronising players who choose
to play on easy, this year’s games talk

about wanting to feel like a badass - or just
focus on the storyline.

The exact nature of these difficulty modes
is often described to the player - Astral

Chain’s Unchained mode will do the hard
combos for you, but won’t give you

a letter ranking.

And Resident Evil 2’s assisted difficulty
mode replenishes your health.

Some developers note which difficulty level
is intended by the designers, which is great.

Super Mario Maker 2 continues Nintendo’s
campaign for assist modes, with the option

to bring up a palette of blocks and items
that you can place inside levels to help you out.

And Yoshi’s Mallow mode gives you infinite
flight to breeze through stages, which is

perfect for really young players.

And also on Switch, there’s the rhythm action
roguelike Cadence of Hyrule which typically

expects players to move to the beat of the
music.

I don’t know if having no sense of rhythm
counts as a disability, but I personally really

appreciated the game’s fixed beat mode,
which lets you move without conforming to

the beat of the song.

But then there’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Yeah, you saw it coming.

I don’t want to replay the conversation
that the internet had back at the game’s

launch because there’s more than enough articles,
videos, and tweetstorms out there about easy

modes and whatnot.

But it is worth noting that From Software’s
latest game is actually less accessible than

the notoriously tough Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

And that’s because it takes out key features
like the ability to level up your character,

or invite a friend into your game to help
out with bosses.

Sekiro does offer some accessibility options,
like full controller remapping and toggles,

but there’s nothing to make the game less
gruelling.

And I think that makes Sekiro stand out in
a year where developers have typically tried

to make their games as approachable and accessible
as possible - and often through completely

optional tweaks and modes that don’t affect
the experience for the able-bodied

or hardcore player.

That’s not to say there aren’t missteps.

It’s clear that games still have a long
way to go with accessibility,

with annoying oversights like too-small text,

features that don’t work if you’re
colourblind, and silly stuff like how boosting

both the UI and the subtitles in Borderlands
3 makes the text fall off the side of the screen.

Whoops.

And it’s especially aggravating when a game
makes big strides in one area, but stumbles

in others - like Control with its huge subtitles,
but small UI text.

Or publishers that aren’t consistent across
their games - most notably Nintendo, which

has great features in some games, but a complete
lack of options in others.

Plus: we’re seeing a number of games where
important accessibility options are being

added to the game months after release in
downloadable patches.

Better late than never, of course, but it’s
not a good look when players with certain

disabilities have to wait ages to play a huge
Sony game like Days Gone.

But still, I’m actually really impressed
by the strides we’ve seen in 2019.

Ubisoft continues to be the industry leader
in this space with amazing features across

Far Cry New Dawn, The Division 2, and Ghost
Recon Breakpoint.

Microsoft’s doing great too: Gears 5 has
an enormous selection of options, from colourblind

settings to controller remapping to button
toggles to gore and language filters, making

it one of the most feature-packed games of
the year.

Respawn works really hard, with great options
in both Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Borderlands 3 has lots of thoughtful options,
which is good for a series that has struggled

with this stuff in the past.

Overland and Eagle Island are jam packed with
accessibility features, despite being made

by tiny indie teams.

And hardcore, ultra-challenging games like
Devil May Cry 5 and Astral Chain want everyone

to join in - and so offer practice areas,
assisted combos, and easy difficulty settings.

But those looking for a challenge will not
struggle to find it.

But most of all, it’s just impressive to
see how almost every major game this year

includes some kind of accessibility option
- or a full accessibility menu.

And how studios like Microsoft, Ubisoft, and
EA are publishing info on their accessibility

options online so players can make better
purchasing decisions.

How Microsoft dedicated its 2019 Superbowl
commercial to its adaptive Xbox controller.

And how the Fortnite clan FaZe enlisted the
deaf player Ewok - who can tear up the competition

thanks to the game’s clever audio visualiser.

Because games are for everyone.

It’s just that developers might need to
provide a few extra options.

Hey, thanks so much for watching!

And cheers to accessibility specialist Ian
Hamilton, once again, for his assistance and wisdom.

This was probably the most expensive video
I’ve ever made - and it’s about... accessibility options?

What is wrong with me?

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supporters who back me on Patreon, or buy

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