How Accessible Were 2019’s Biggest Games?

Around this time last year, I made a series of videos called Designing for Disability, where I looked at the options and design decisions that developers could employ, to make their games more accessible to players living with disabilities. So I looked at colourblind palettes, audio visualisers, customisable controls, and optional assist modes. It was fascinating to see the ways that games could be tweaked to be more approachable - but also sad to see when games dropped the ball and shut certain players out.

But now, 12 months on, I thought it was a good time to check back in and see how the industry was doing. So, over the last few weeks, I played 50 of the most noteworthy games that were released in 2019 - from massive new blockbusters like Death Stranding and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, to indie titles like Overland and Untitled Goose Game. I wanted to see where they succeeded, and where they struggled in terms of accessibility.

And this is what I found out. Part 1 - Auditory The first huge game of 2019 was Capcom’s terrifying remake of Resident Evil 2 - which spooked a whole new generation of players, with the aid of this bulky bloke in a Brony’s hat: Mr. X. You’ll spend the majority of the game on the run from this unstoppable, unkillable nightmare - only able to predict his position by listening out for his clonking great footsteps. Unless, of course, you’re deaf or hard of hearing.

That’s because Resident Evil 2 offers no visual reinforcement of Mr. X’s footsteps, making him near impossible to track for those living with some auditory disabilities. CanIPlayThat.com dubbed the game “virtually unplayable very early on for deaf/hoh players,” and a “complete failure in accessibility”. Other games this year went some way to help convey sound effects to those who can’t hear them. Far Cry: New Dawn offers sound subtitles for things like gunfire and explosions, with little arrows that point to the sound’s source.

And in Gears 5, that iconic musical sting that symbolises that all enemies are dead, is subtitled as “music settles”. Plus, in that game, enemy bullet trails are - by default - shown as clearly visible yellow lines to help you see where shots are coming from. Another game worth mentioning is Apex Legends, and its clever ping system. This lets you highlight areas, enemies, and objects to team mates through both a subtitled voice line and a visual indicator - allowing players to communicate important info in a multiplayer game, but without audio.

Of course, a really important feature for deaf and hard of hearing players is subtitles for spoken dialogue. And this year saw some really good examples with nice big fonts, speaker names, and high contrast backgrounds. Remedy’s mind-melting shooter Control has very readable subtitles. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order offers massive great subtitles if you want them. And Metro Exodus also employs black backgrounds and speaker names.

Most of these let you customise the subtitles yourself, through a menu of different options. Also this year, Ubisoft experimented with having subtitles on by default. And discovered that, in Far Cry New Dawn, a whopping great 97% of players kept them on. Other games offer subtitles as an option before the game even begins. It’s also of note that every game I played this year actually has subtitles. Which shouldn’t be noteworthy, but at the tail end of 2018, Activision released the Spyro Reignited Trilogy without any subtitles at all in its major cutscenes.

Thankfully, they were added in a patch this year. But still, there’s plenty of examples of less-than-ideal subtitles. Many games fail to include the speaker’s name through labels or colour coding. Games like Borderlands 3 and Rage 2 put way too much text on one line, forcing you to scan across the entire screen to read the subtitles. Some games mismatch the text and audio, like in Planet Zoo where the actor says “Trade Center”, but the subtitle says “Animal Storage”.

Games still fail to include subtitles for every part of the game. In FIFA 20, the commentators aren’t subtitled, this opening cutscene in RAGE 2 has no subtitles, and Breakpoint doesn’t transcribe certain enemy barks, which lets them get the drop on you. Also, some games still use on-brand fonts instead of plain, sans serif text. And while games like Devil May Cry 5 and Sekiro aren’t bad, Blasphemous’s pixelated gothic font is, well, blasphemous.

And finally, there’s the all-too-familar, too-small subtitles. Crackdown 3 has teeny tiny text to read while punching up bad guys, and The Surge 2 has microscopic subtitles. But subtitles aren’t the only place where you’ll find small text. Which brings us onto part two. Part 2 - Visual Text size is the area where games most frequently fail, in terms of accessibility. Not just in subtitles, but across user interfaces, in collectible documents, and on your heads-up display.

So The Outer Worlds continues to be a squint ‘em up, thanks to minute words all across its user interface. The text in Fire Emblem: Three Houses is small on your TV, but minuscule on your Switch. And Death Stranding tries to look cool with its sleek UI, but it’s a struggle to parse at a distance. The worst perp of 2019, though, is the tactical Baba Yaga simulator John Wick Hex, which writes some critical information in text that’s only 12 points big.

Luckily, other games use a far more readable font size. In Outer Wilds, the rumours on the computer are nice and legible from most distances - and it’s the same with the user interface in Kingdom Hearts III, and the translation screens in Heaven’s Vault. Other games offer the option to choose your own text size: such as the existential detective drama Disco Elysium, and the gothic horror adventure Sunless Skies. Planet Zoo, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Borderlands 3 let you scale the entire user interface, making both text and icons easier to see.

And this isn’t just important for accessibility - because as we move into a future where the same game can be steamed to your big TV or your tiny phone screen, scaleable user interfaces are going to have to become the norm. Another area where some games have shined, is in offering players the option to switch out special fonts for plain, easy-to-read text: Untitled Goose Game lets you change its cursive to-do list to a more basic font.

And Overland is one of the only games this year to offer a font choice that’s designed to aid those with dyslexia. A number of games this year also use built-in screen reader tech, to have the game speak its text to you. Here’s how Eagle Island sounds when clicking through the menu SCREEN READER: "Controls. Save. Game. Use right stick." And Apex Legends can turn text chat messages into voice, and voice chat messages into text, so you won’t miss people talking about your low level profile SCREEN READER: "TADEthePRO says 'Level 2' 'omg' 'why'."

And finally, more games are giving players the chance to read text at their own speed. Bloodstained won’t go to the next line until you press a button, and Tangle Tower lets you pause the dialogue at any moment. Time’s always ticking by in the clockwork space sim Outer Wilds, but you can have the game pause while reading text. And Kingdom Hearts III lets you slow down time when clicking through menus. Another key area for visual accessibility is colourblindness.

And this year saw some great approaches to the problem. The Color Dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX wasn’t much fun for those with Deuteranopia - but this year's Switch remake adds things like distinct shapes on the enemies and unique cracks in the floor tiles, to help distinguish between the different colours. Far Cry New Dawn has another simple colourblind mode, which makes key on-screen elements become pink and yellow.

Total War: Three Kingdoms lets you switch the colour scheme of the game’s different factions. And Resident Evil 2 lets you pick the laser dot colour of your weapons, to help it stand out from the background. Apex Legends has one of the better features, with three distinct palettes, and a preview of what those new colours will look like right there on the menu. And The Outer Worlds doesn’t confer information solely through colour by design, because one of the company’s directors is colourblind.

Some games, though, are still using these full-screen filters, which often don’t work as intended and only really have the affect of making the game look ugly and gross. The full screen Protanopia filter in Modern Warfare, for example, doesn’t stop red enemy names from blending into the background at key moments. Thankfully, the Call of Duty series has long since switched from red and green teams, to red and blue ones.

And some games do still use colour as the exclusive way to convey information. In Death Stranding, the labels on your packages go from yellow to red to indicate how beaten up they are - plus some tiny scuffs and scratches. Those labels are practically identical to those with certain types of colourblindness. Thanks to Twitter user RazorBeamz for pointing that one out. Providing more visual clarity is a good way to alleviate the problems of colourblindness - and help with other visual disabilities.

In Eagle Island, you can dim the background to make the foreground layer easier to see - plus, you can put outlines around enemies and objects to help them pop out. In FIFA 20, you can boost the size of the player indicators. And in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, you can not only boost the size of the user interface - but you can put shadows behind indicators and markers to ensure they stand out from the background. Part 3 - Motor One of the most requested features, when it comes to accessibility, is the option to remap a game’s controls.

This lets players with motor disabilities put all of the key functions in easy-to-reach places, or avoid using difficult inputs like touchpads or the buttons under the analogue sticks. Unfortunately, some games still don’t offer any controller options whatsoever, including the Zelda remake, the avant-garde Postman Pat episode Death Stranding, and the zombie biker game Days Gone. Other games make do with presets. Crackdown 3, The Outer Worlds, Resident Evil 2, and Wolfenstein Youngblood just have you pick between a few developer-made layouts.

Not bad, but not good enough. But I’m really pleased to see just how many games this year let you pick your own button placement. The Surge 2, Team Sonic Racing, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice have full remapping. And Devil May Cry 5 shows how it’s important to provide this on a game level, rather than relying on the system-level remapping, by letting you independently wire up the inputs for the game’s three distinct characters, Nero, Dante, and V.

Apex Legends and Borderlands 3 go a step further, and don’t just let you pick your own buttons, but give you really in-depth control over things like camera sensitivity and dead zone options. Plus, there are aim assist and aim snap options to help you pick out targets. Also of note is Overland, where the entire game can be played with just a mouse. Or just a controller. Or just a keyboard. Those are really strong options that should open the game up to a wide range of players.

This year’s MVP, though, is Gears 5. Between controller remapping, the ability to make the camera follow behind your character, and the option to use the left stick for aiming when your gun is raised, you can basically play the game with one hand. Tricky, but possible, thanks to a wide range of accessibility options. Pokémon Sword and Shield is notable, too, for its casual control scheme that maps all important buttons onto one Switch joy-con, making it possible to play the game with just one hand.

This thoughtful option is especially welcome after the disastrously inaccessible Pokémon Let’s Go, which forced players to use cumbersome waggle gestures to throw Pokeballs. Toggles are key, too - as seen in Crackdown 3’s lock-on mode. In Borderlands 3’s aim, sprint, and crouch options. And in Yoshi’s Crafted World, where hasty and patient egg throwing is basically just about toggling or holding the aim button. These stop players from needing to hold a button down for great periods of time, which can be impossible with some motor disabilities.

Unfortunately not every game got the memo: you need to hold down the lock-on button in DMC 5, and Team Sonic Racing should have just nicked Mario Kart 8’s generous auto-drive option. Most games also let you turn off these button-bashy quick time events these days, but there’s sadly no such option in Jedi: Fallen Order. Part 4 - Difficulty Finally, let’s take a moment to talk about difficulty settings in games. Offering more lenient challenge levels can give players with disabilities more time to deal with threats - but also allows players with all sorts of skill levels to get into games.

This year we saw lots of games with plenty of difficulty options to pick from, and the language used on these options is much better. Instead of patronising players who choose to play on easy, this year’s games talk about wanting to feel like a badass - or just focus on the storyline. The exact nature of these difficulty modes is often described to the player - Astral Chain’s Unchained mode will do the hard combos for you, but won’t give you a letter ranking.

And Resident Evil 2’s assisted difficulty mode replenishes your health. Some developers note which difficulty level is intended by the designers, which is great. Super Mario Maker 2 continues Nintendo’s campaign for assist modes, with the option to bring up a palette of blocks and items that you can place inside levels to help you out. And Yoshi’s Mallow mode gives you infinite flight to breeze through stages, which is perfect for really young players.

And also on Switch, there’s the rhythm action roguelike Cadence of Hyrule which typically expects players to move to the beat of the music. I don’t know if having no sense of rhythm counts as a disability, but I personally really appreciated the game’s fixed beat mode, which lets you move without conforming to the beat of the song. But then there’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Yeah, you saw it coming. I don’t want to replay the conversation that the internet had back at the game’s launch because there’s more than enough articles, videos, and tweetstorms out there about easy modes and whatnot.

But it is worth noting that From Software’s latest game is actually less accessible than the notoriously tough Dark Souls and Bloodborne. And that’s because it takes out key features like the ability to level up your character, or invite a friend into your game to help out with bosses. Sekiro does offer some accessibility options, like full controller remapping and toggles, but there’s nothing to make the game less gruelling.

And I think that makes Sekiro stand out in a year where developers have typically tried to make their games as approachable and accessible as possible - and often through completely optional tweaks and modes that don’t affect the experience for the able-bodied or hardcore player. That’s not to say there aren’t missteps. It’s clear that games still have a long way to go with accessibility, with annoying oversights like too-small text, features that don’t work if you’re colourblind, and silly stuff like how boosting both the UI and the subtitles in Borderlands 3 makes the text fall off the side of the screen.

Whoops. And it’s especially aggravating when a game makes big strides in one area, but stumbles in others - like Control with its huge subtitles, but small UI text. Or publishers that aren’t consistent across their games - most notably Nintendo, which has great features in some games, but a complete lack of options in others. Plus: we’re seeing a number of games where important accessibility options are being added to the game months after release in downloadable patches.

Better late than never, of course, but it’s not a good look when players with certain disabilities have to wait ages to play a huge Sony game like Days Gone. But still, I’m actually really impressed by the strides we’ve seen in 2019. Ubisoft continues to be the industry leader in this space with amazing features across Far Cry New Dawn, The Division 2, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Microsoft’s doing great too: Gears 5 has an enormous selection of options, from colourblind settings to controller remapping to button toggles to gore and language filters, making it one of the most feature-packed games of the year.

Respawn works really hard, with great options in both Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Borderlands 3 has lots of thoughtful options, which is good for a series that has struggled with this stuff in the past. Overland and Eagle Island are jam packed with accessibility features, despite being made by tiny indie teams. And hardcore, ultra-challenging games like Devil May Cry 5 and Astral Chain want everyone to join in - and so offer practice areas, assisted combos, and easy difficulty settings.

But those looking for a challenge will not struggle to find it. But most of all, it’s just impressive to see how almost every major game this year includes some kind of accessibility option - or a full accessibility menu. And how studios like Microsoft, Ubisoft, and EA are publishing info on their accessibility options online so players can make better purchasing decisions. How Microsoft dedicated its 2019 Superbowl commercial to its adaptive Xbox controller.

And how the Fortnite clan FaZe enlisted the deaf player Ewok - who can tear up the competition thanks to the game’s clever audio visualiser. Because games are for everyone. It’s just that developers might need to provide a few extra options. Hey, thanks so much for watching! And cheers to accessibility specialist Ian Hamilton, once again, for his assistance and wisdom. This was probably the most expensive video I’ve ever made - and it’s about... accessibility options?

What is wrong with me? But this is totally possible thanks to GMTK supporters who back me on Patreon, or buy GMTK merch from my Teespring store. Details on both can be found in the description below.