These New God Of War Ragnarök Features Are A Huge Improvement
Modern gaming should include various accessibility options, and for the most part, game devs got the memo — although some game studios still haven't embraced accessibility the way they should have. In the case of Santa Monica Studio, there's little reason to complain after the announcement from May 19, 2022, because "God of War Ragnarök" is going to be packed full of accessibility options. The game studio has expanded the range of features that are meant to make the game accessible to every player, adding up to a total of over 60 ways to adjust your gameplay.
"God of War Ragnarök" comes as the next iteration of the successful "God of War" franchise, and as such, some of the accessibility options are direct ports from the previous game launched on the PC, which were already a follow-up to the features introduced by the PlayStation release. Some of these returning features include auto sprint and persistent dot — a feature that reduces motion sickness. There are also options tied to aiming and blocking in the game, and there's even more to come in terms of accessibility for the upcoming title.
The subtitle and caption system in the game has received a vast upgrade, with a lot of settings that help you choose the subtitle color, caption color, size, and background. You can now also differentiate between different speakers and turn audio cues on or off. Several colors are available to help those who are colorblind pick the right set.
Even more features are on the horizon
Text size and icon size are both important parts of any game, and if you're playing on console, reading tiny letters may be tiring for your eyes. "God of War Ragnarök" brings back a highly requested feature present in the previous title and allows the player to make plenty of adjustments to text and icon size. The game dev studio shows off the difference between the default text in the user interface and the XX-Large text, and there's a definite difference, but the icon scaling is perhaps even more striking.
Modern games almost look as good as real life does (or better), but sometimes, the colors all tend to blend in. "God of War Ragnarök" introduces a new high contrast color mode in order to make things easier to see. You'll be able to apply a color of your choice to various objects and characters, making them easier to spot. Playing in this mode will also increase the visibility of loot items, traversal paint, and various special effects. There's also a whole host of navigation assist features that help players find their way in the game, automated traversal assistance, and audio cues.
Although 60 features are plenty — especially compared to some games that have way less — "God of War Ragnarök" won't be resting on its laurels, and according to the blog post, further accessibility features are still yet to come. The game itself has not yet been released and it doesn't have an official release date, but it has been confirmed to release before the end of 2022.