Ubisoft's Greek mythology adventure is a game for everyone thanks to its numerous accessibility options that come right from the start, not patches down the line. More game designers and companies recognize the need to add options for those with disabilities, and more games are releasing with those needs in mind. Immortals Fenyx Rising is just one of many new games with these features, and it's nice to see next-gen really move in a new direction with more than just graphics.
According to Ubisoft's website, Immortals Fenyx Rising has more than 20 accessibility features out of the box, or more likely download -- that's a lot! Some are more common, or a given thought like having different difficulty levels, so we'll be sticking to the more important ones like options for sound and visuals. There are still some things missing, too, like the ability to re-watch cutscenes, which can contain important information or just interesting lore.
Sound
It's important to include ways for players to experience stories and characters, especially in a game about mythology. That's why subtitles are not only included, as they usually are, but can be customized. With higher resolutions, text can sometimes be too small or, worse, appear in a similar shade to the background, making them difficult to read. Ubisoft included options to change the text size and add a background to it. Players can also choose to show the speaker's name, making it easy to tell who's saying what. Captions for puzzles are also available for instructions and hints, as well as for elements that may use sound cues. As with many games now, there are also options to change individual volumes for sound effects, music, speech and menu. Menu sounds aren't just for those little blips when selecting things; they're also meant to go along with the Menu Narration option. This is incredibly helpful for navigating menus quickly with visual impairment, and RPGs tend to have some big menus.
Controls
Being able to play the game is probably the most important part. Luckily, Ubisoft included one of the most important features for accessibility – button remapping for mouse, keyboard and controllers. While its supported peripherals page is sorely lacking, listing only basic options, it's good to know they can at least be adapted. However, it does say there are no eye-tracking features and that the game can't be played mouse only, meaning it likely requires the use of more than one or two-button controllers. Different inputs can be combined, though. There's also an auto-move option, so buttons or control-sticks don't need to be continuously held.
Visuals
Graphics are the thing people get most excited about, and there are some great features here, but it could be better. First, there are three color-blind modes, which is great; it used to be (and sometimes still is) a single mode for the most common type, Deuteranomaly. Providing more options means Ubisoft has been educating itself. Some options more common to PC games are also included in console versions, like the ability to adjust brightness and contrast rather than fiddling with TV settings every time. Field of View can also be adjusted to reduce the amount of background and focus on the important stuff near the player.
Other
Some other accessibility features included are aim assist for fighting enemies or just hitting a target for a puzzle. Text prompts can be read or forwarded at the player's own pace, so there's little worry about missing something when talking to an NPC or interacting with a puzzle. The game doesn't have button mashing or Quick-Time-Events, so there's no need to worry about multiple buttons pressing or fast reaction times. There's a good number of options to optimize gameplay here, making Immortals Fenyx Rising a great triple-A adventure game.