Aiming to be “the most accessible God of War ever”
Last we heard, the team at Santa Monica Studio was “heads down, hard at work” on God of War Ragnarok, with nothing new to show just yet. Today, the developers had something fresh to share about the sequel’s expanded accessibility features — including better controller remapping and “more customization to our combat and interaction system.”
According to lead UX designer Mila Pavlin, God of War Ragnarok will bring back accessibility features that players saw in the PC version of God of War (2018): auto sprint, an always-on reticle, and a “hold” or “toggle on/off” option for the aim stance and shield stance.
Those are just some returning options. In a PlayStation Blog post outlining some of the new features (with image and video examples included in the article), Pavlin said that there will be “more than 60 ways to adjust gameplay to best suit your style and needs.”
Here’s an example of an audio cue in action (and it’ll have its own volume slider):
Expanded accessibility features in Ragnarok
More thoughtful subtitles and captions, directional indicators for sound cues, text size and UI scaling options, high contrast settings, navigation and traversal assists, and controller remapping are among the new accessibility features for Ragnarok. About those buttons:
“There will be a wide range of preset layouts, as well as custom controller remapping support. Individual buttons can be swapped and, for select complex actions, you can choose alternate configurations from a preset list.”
“We offer multiple ways for you to customize your experience for certain actions that require more than one button, including Touch Pad Shortcuts for things like Spartan Rage, Navigation Assist, and Quick Turn.”
Santa Monica Studio is aiming for Ragnarok to be the “most accessible God of War ever.”
To that end, today’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day preview wasn’t exhaustive — players can also expect “other categories of accessibility features like combat/aim assists, puzzle/minigame assists, HUD adjustments, camera tuning, auto pick up, and much more.”
Much like The Last of Us Part II, it’ll be worth spending some time — okay, maybe a lot of time — looking through the options and tailoring them to form your ideal experience.
God of War Ragnarok is planning a 2022 release on PS4 and PS5. It’s gonna be big.
