‘Deathloop’ currently doesn’t have proper accessibility options

The game doesn't cater to players who need these options to experience it properly

Arkane Studios newest title Deathloop released today (September 14) and whilst it’s receiving rave review scores from most critics, some are highlighting the games lack of accessibility options.

Owner of CanIPlayThat.com, a website that focuses on video game accessibility news and reviews, Courtney Craven, wrote up a Twitter thread highlighting some of the issues. They mentioned problems like a lack of a text size previews, text sizes being limited to too small a size, and plenty of occasions where the game isn’t as clear as it could be when communicating information.

“Frustratingly, menu navigation is cursor only and the menu items have no stickiness or snap so you’ll have to be very precise when choosing your options. D-pad doesn’t function for menu navigation either,” they add.

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Deathloop
Deathloop. Credit: Bethesda Softworks

“And the last important menu bit: there is no remapping or control scheme options. Just the ability to view the one scheme.”

The thread goes on to highlight how many of the in-game texts are incredibly small and have no option to be resized, and how sprinting and kicking are bound to clicking in the thumb sticks, which Craven says “will prove to be a big problem for everyone like me who injure their thumbs with stick clicks.”

It appears as though the PC version of Deathloop has options not in the PS5 one. Such as the ability to turn camera motion blur on or off, alongside standard depth of field options.

Deathloop
Deathloop. Credit: Arkane Studios

Speaking with NME Craven said that “the biggest thing that stands out is the lack of customisation allowed by players, from UI text size to the lack of controller remapping or even different control schemes. Solving those two would make the game more inclusive of a LOT of people.”

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They also said that accessibility teams and disabled consultants can help early in development to avoid these problems from appearing at launch. “The most accessible games have both because no one person can know all the things and speak for every experience or disability.”

Deathloop. Image credit: Arcane Studios
Deathloop. Image credit: Arcane Studios

“So reading accessibility reviews and threads and being open to post-launch feedback is a good start to be in a better place for your next game, but accessibility needs to be included in the entire development process to truly address and remove barriers,” they continue.

Craven added that they would love for accessibility review copies to become the norm, as they said “we got so many messages asking if we’d have a pre-launch accessibility review for Deathloop and having to say no, Arkane missed a major market by denying that consumer group the info they needed.”

We’ve reached out to Bethesda for comment.

In other news, the Driver franchise is set to return, except not in a new video game but a live-action TV series from Ubisoft Film and Television.

 

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