Gears 5 developer The Coalition has outlined accessibility options the upcoming third-person shooter will have. The stated aim is to provide "a usable experience for as many players as possible".
The full list of accessibility options can be read over on the official Gears 5 website. It's a pretty comprehensive list; it's clear The Coalition doesn't want to leave anyone behind. Three colorblind modes accommodate players with protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia. You can turn off camera shake, toggle target lock, and change the movement so you control the game with only one stick. The Coalition is also making changes to subtitles; they've now got backdrops and speakers are clearly identified. Additionally, you'll be able to modify the size of subtitles making them easier to read.
There are also a host of multiplayer improvements for accessibility. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text functions allow you to receive voice chat as text in the chat window or to read text aloud to other players. You can increase the duration of the text chat window remaining on-screen and add a profanity filter for text chat. You can alter some gameplay stuff too; there's a Fabricator Ping option that causes the fabricator in Horde mode to emit a ping that increases in volume as you draw nearer.
Finally, there's the Narrator. This feature helps players navigate to crucial parts of the Gears 5 experience. It doesn't cover every screen or UI element, but The Coalition says it'll cover all the essentials. Gears 5 has three levels of narration: Full, Partial, and None. They're pretty self-explanatory. You can access the Narrator on Xbox One, as well as PCs running Windows 10. To enable it on Xbox, just head over to Settings > Ease of Access > Game Transcription > Let Games Read To Me. On Windows 10, hit your Windows key and type "Narrator" in the search box, then hit Enter.
Gears 5 will launch for Xbox One and PC on September 10th. If you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, you can play the game starting tomorrow.
Do you think The Coalition has done a good job with accessibility options in Gears 5? Let us know in the comments below!
