‘God Of War: Ragnarok’ was made with accessibility in mind, says its producer.
The 2018 game was lauded for its sleek game play, storytelling that evoked emotion, its vivid setting and the reprise of the fan-favourite character Kratos but it could have been better for people who struggle with hearing and sight, an ethos Santa Monica Studios took to heart for its sequel - which was released on Wednesday (09.11.2022) for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Mila Pavlin, a team leader at the company told BBC News: "It was apparent that the accessibility features needed to be better, 100 per cent.
Mila and her team say inclusion is“the biggest thing” they are working towards with the follow-up.
She said: "It was the biggest thing that we looked out for at the beginning of the process of making the game - how to make it more accessible to more people.
"There were many gamers who wanted to play in 2018, but were unable to because of things like low vision, motor issues, cognitive or hearing disabilities. We wanted to make sure that everyone was included.”
They are keen to push the wider games industry to adapt for people from “all walks of life” to pick up a controller by adding adjustments such as visual cues, adapting how closed captions appear on screen, take away the need to press certain buttons and add automatic movements, such as climbing.
Mila continued: “We want to show that blockbuster games can open up their worlds to brand new players, making sure that players of all walks of life are able to play. The learning we have implemented, we want to spread across the industry to create more accessible games everywhere.”
