Watch Dogs: Legion will have a wide range of accessibility options

London in Watch Dogs: Legion
London in Watch Dogs: Legion (Image credit: Ubisoft)

What you need to know

  • Ubisoft has detailed a list of accessibility options that will be included in Watch Dogs: Legion.
  • These can aid in a variety of ways, from motor and cognitive functions to motion sickness.
  • Watch Dogs: Legion is set to be released on October 29.

Today, Ubisoft revealed several new accessibility options that will be included in Watch Dogs: Legion. This isn't an entirely comprehensive list, as Ubisoft notes more will be added by the time the game launches. With that said, it's a good idea of what to expect overall.

On Consoles and PC:

  • Gamepad controls are fully customizable, including the analog stick sensitivity and inversion across both axes. (Motor, Cognitive)

On PC:

  • Mouse and Keyboard controls are fully customizable, including mouse sensitivity.
  • There's support for third-party hardware, including Microsoft Xbox Adaptive controller and co-pilot via the Xbox Accessories App.(Motor, Cognitive)
  • Toggle/hold options for actions such as walking, aiming, hacking, wheel weapon mode, climbing, sprinting, and emote wheel for any input device. (Motor)

Gameplay:

  • Aim-Assist and Aim-Magnetism are customizable. (Motor, Cognitive)
  • Aim Lock-On – an enhanced aim-assist feature enabling locked-on gameplay targeting for all selectable objects in the world, and for a variety of actions (combat/shooting, hacking, driving).(Motor, Vision, Cognitive)
  • Puzzles are always accompanied by hints, and there is a new simplified puzzle feature that assists with barriers relating to hacking puzzles. (Cognitive, Vision, Motor)
  • A player-activated Ping feature that scans and highlights all interactive elements around the player in-game. (Vision, Cognitive, Motor, Hearing) An intuitive auto-drive feature that follows GPS markers to the active mission. (Motor, Cognitive, Vision) Options to limit motion effects, such as screen shake. (Motion Sickness/Headaches, Cognitive)

HUD and UI:

  • HUD customisation options allow players to toggle which elements are visible, either to reduce on-screen information or to provide more, depending on preference and need. (Vision, Cognitive)
  • Three colorblind presets for the most common forms of colorblindness, which affect most of the HUD and UI elements, as well as some gameplay elements such as laser alarms. (Vision, Cognitive)
  • Contrast options for the overall colors of the HUD. (Vision, Cognitive)
  • By default, there is high contrast between text/UI elements and backgrounds.(Vision, Cognitive)
  • In-game visual assistance options such as GPS path, waypoint/interaction markers, and hints. (Vision, Cognitive, Motor)
  • The reticle is fully customizable for color (three different modes), style, and size. (Vision, Cognitive)
  • A persistent reticle is optional.(Motion Sickness, Cognitive, Vision)
  • A menu narration mode (with male and female voices) to easily guide the player throughout the in-game menus. (Vision, Cognitive)

Subtitles:

  • Subtitles display the speaker name. (Hearing, Cognitive)
  • Subtitles are resizable with optional colors and background. (Hearing, Cognitive, Vision)
  • Closed Captions option for world events and NPCs/AI characters scattered throughout London. (Hearing, Cognitive)
  • Audio Captions for important gameplay information, such as explosions, sirens or shooting. These can be customized to display up to two or four events at the same time. (Hearing, Cognitive)
  • Audio Captions have cool directional arrows to show where something is happening within the radius of the player. (Hearing, Cognitive)

Onboarding/Tutorials/Reminders:

  • There are many in-game tutorial helpers, and tutorials are readable at any time from the menus. (Cognitive)
  • Most of the game mechanics are taught through gameplay, like recruiting, fighting, gear, and hacking techniques (Cognitive)
  • The game displays any important tutorial information until the required action(s) are performed. (Cognitive, Vision)
  • Control helpers are displayed when driving/entering a car, or equipping a drone/spider bot. (Cognitive, Motor, Vision)
  • Mission objectives are shown on the screen (left side), and more information can be found in the in-game apps menu about missions and side quests, without having to exit the current session. (Cognitive, Vision)

Audio:

  • Volume sliders for various types of sound and music. (Hearing, Vision, Cognitive)

Watch Dogs: Legion is set to release on October 29. It'll be available on Xbox One, PC, PS4 and Stadia, with free Xbox Series X and PS5 upgrades coming when the consoles release. Carli Velocci, one of our editors, got to try a preview of Watch Dogs: Legion. She wrote that "London feels like a real city filled with normal people with their own problems, which is why the game works at least on a mechanical level. Whether it'll all come together is another question entirely."

Samuel Tolbert

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on PlayStation on Android Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert