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Video game developer Naughty Dog has revealed that its highly anticipated The Last Of Us Part II, which releases this month, will be the most accessible title it has ever created.
- Read More: ‘The Last Of Us Part II’: all you need to know about the release date, plot, news, gameplay and more
In an interview with The Verge, lead gameplay designer Emilia Schatz and lead systems designer Matthew Gallant discussed the game’s varied accessibility options, which help players finish the game without getting stuck due to difficult quick time events or not knowing where to go.
“Accessibility for us is about removing barriers that are keeping players from completing a game. It’s not about dumbing down a game or making a game easy. What do our players need in order to play the game in parity with everyone else?” said Schatz.
Naughty Dog created “around 60” accessibility settings for the upcoming sequel, according to The Verge. These range from typical features like adjustable UI, subtitle colors and remappable controls to more fleshed-out features that include full text-to-speech support, a magnifying tool that uses the DualShock 4 touchpad, and a high-contrast mode designed for the visually impaired.
The high-contrast feature completely changes how the world is rendered, with environments being grayed out to make friendly NPCs and allies blue and enemies red so they easily pop out. “We absolutely had to plan these features early in production. It was absolutely critical,” Gallant said.
Part of why the studio decided to focus so heavily on accessibility for the upcoming game stems from a fan letter they received from a player who got stuck on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. “They were able to play all the way to that point and then they were blocked from finishing the game,” Schatz said.
The Last Of Us Part II will release exclusively on the PlayStation 4 on June 19. Naughty Dog and Sony interactive Entertainment showed off new gameplay footage last week during the latest broadcast of State Of Play, which features several new features and gameplay mechanics.
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