'God of War: Ragnarök' to Release Over 70 Accessibility Enhancements on Nov. 9

Game developer Santa Monica Studio has confirmed that God of War: Ragnarök will have more than 70 accessibility features upon its release next week on Nov. 9.

The video game maker has clearly put a lot of effort into ensuring that as many players as possible can enjoy the dystopian adventure in the game by including an impressive range of configuration options.

After all, God of War Ragnarok is expected to be one of the top contenders for the game of the year.

Some of the Significant Modifications

In a report by IGN, one example of the said features is the high contrast option, which paints interactive elements and non-player characters (NPCs) in primary colors for easier identification. There will be a plethora of resizable UI components, as well, that enable players to customize the size and type of text in the game.

The accessibility menu allows players to choose from four predefined access profiles, including visual accessibility, hearing accessibility, motion reduction, and motor accessibility. For each of these, players will be given the option to choose one of three settings, namely "off," "some," or "full," to determine the level of assistance the preset must provide.

When you choose a preset, some of the choices in the context menu will change, and you'll see them highlighted in blue. After that, users can access the menu and adjust the various presets to meet their specific requirements better.

In addition, IGN reported that there would be more settings for minimizing camera shaking, adding navigation hints and assists, activating auditory cues when Kratos approaches an interactive object, and various other combat and puzzle assistance options.

Many of these new features can be prompted by a swipe of the DualSense's touchpad. This gives an easy on-and-off system to eliminate the need for these settings to be permanently activated.

Choose from a Variety of Game Difficulty Levels

Moreover, players can completely remap button functions and choose from one of five different difficulty settings. These vary from "Give Me a Story" to "Give Me God of War" modes.

"Give Me a Story" offers the least emphasis on combat fighting, while "Give Me God of War" offers the most challenging degree of difficulty.

Elevating Accessibility in the Gaming Industry

In the blog post detailing these accessibility options, Mila Pavlin, the lead user experience designer at Santa Monica, remarked that "furthering accessibility in gaming is an industry-wide pursuit."

"What we have been able to implement in God of War Ragnarok would not be possible without the knowledge and guidance of our many partners," she stated. "We would like to recognize the worldwide PlayStation Studios whose knowledge has been invaluable and an inspiration - especially the teams at Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games."

Particular names of experts and consultants were also mentioned as a thank-you throughout the creation of the game. These include Joshua Straub, Paul Amadeus Lane, James Rath, Alanah Pearce, Jason Bolte, SightlessKombat, and Christopher Robinson.

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Written by Trisha Kae Andrada