Deathloop’s lack of accessibility options is disappointing gamers

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Arkane Studios’ Deathloop has received a lot of praise since its launch. However, its lack of accessibility options has become a major and disappointing factor for several players.

The accessibility issue was raised in a user-created tweet thread. @Cyclopedia, which further discussed some of the issues experienced by players in Deathloop: Cursor-based menus, lack of button remapping, small text sizes, difficult-to-read fonts, and the inability to customize display indicators were mentioned. the user interface. The thread also highlighted some of the possible changes Arkane could make to the game to make it easier for several of its players to access.

Defender of accessibility and YouTube reviewer Steve Saylor added to the argument about Deathloop’s level of accessibility by mentioning not only its lack of customization, but also its gameplay design. In an accessibility review, Saylor talked about how he thinks lack of accessibility is more ingrained within Deathloop.

After praising Arkane’s ingenuity and usual level design, Saylor says: “The problem with the design of this game is that this game forces you and depends on your ability to play first person shooter games. Now when I say I mean specifically that you have to have a specific skill level for first person shooter games to be able to make this game fun and enjoyable, otherwise it’s a struggle to get over it. “

The main problem for Saylor is the harsh penalties for failing the game, mainly the 3 life limit players receive before having to restart their current cycle without progressing. For those who have a hard time controlling the game, it adds a barrier to progress that many games don’t have. Saylor compares Deathloop to other FPS games and its contrasting approach to failure: “I play Destiny all the time. I play Halo all the time. I love those games, but those games allow me to make mistakes and reappear without feeling like it.” I’m losing something along the way. “

“So I hope this game will be accessible in the future? No, it isn’t.” Saylor sums up. “Because the problems I have cannot be fixed in a patch, they cannot be fixed in an update […] I desperately want to rack up credits on this. It’s fun and I feel like I’m missing it. I feel like I’m really missing out on an amazing experience that everyone loves, but I can’t play it. I cannot have the same experience; I and many other disabled players will not be able to play this game. “

Several other disabled players have shared similar thoughts to Saylor on their own social channels. As a person with motor problems, Dynamic YouTuber Reactions He argues that Deathloop’s aim assist options do little to help counter the difficulties that some community members experience when playing first-person shooter games. Although the game has a number of auto-aiming options, Dynamic Reactions argues that these don’t necessarily work as well as they should.

“The snap only really worked if the enemy was really getting close to you and by then you’re half dead,” says Dynamic Reactions. “There were several times when I wanted to be stealthy and use my silenced pistol and be happy and carefree and I couldn’t get those perfect shots that I needed.”

In the meantime, Steve Spohn, the director of operations and the director of community outreach for the charity AbleGamers He said it only took twelve minutes for him to realize that he couldn’t play Deathloop as a disabled gamer. The Spohn charity acts as a non-profit organization promoting accessibility and inclusive communities for disabled players throughout the gaming industry. Once he found that the game didn’t live up to expectations in terms of accessibility, Spohn said he tweeted about his experience as a warning to other players facing similar challenges as his.

It remains to be seen whether or not Arkane will look to patch some of the easier-to-fix issues players face in Deathloop. However, it certainly seems that for various players within the community, Deathloop will never really feel accessible.

Accessibility in games has come a long way in recent years, with The Last of Us Part 2 setting a new gold standard and Xbox Series X becoming much more accessible on its own. EA recently released five of its accessibility patents for free, allowing developers to use them in their own games. While Deathloop was primarily developed before Arkane became an Xbox studio, the developer now has access to Microsoft’s internal accessibility comment panel, which will hopefully help future games.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow it on Twitter.



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