We’re just a week out from the release of Sony’s The Last of Us remake for PS5, and on Friday, the company detailed the many accessibility options that will be available in the game.
For the remake, developer Naughty Dog used the suite of accessibility features included with The Last of Us Part II as a “baseline” and built upon those, according to a blog post from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Gillen McAllister. One useful new option is audio descriptions for cutscenes, which will work with “all our localized languages,” director Matthew Gallant said in the blog.
Another option that I’m particularly keen to try is feeling dialogue as haptic feedback in the DualSense controller. “That way a deaf player can feel the way a line is delivered, can feel the emphasis, along with the subtitles to give some sense of how that line is delivered,” Gallant said. The feature started as a prototype but proved to be popular, according to Gallant.
I’d highly suggest scrolling through Sony’s blog to get an idea of the many, many other features available. Personally, I look for options for subtitles and the ability to change certain button presses into holds, and it seems like there will be a lot of ways to adjust those. The game will also offer a hint system, which I appreciate — if I need a little help, I prefer to turn to in-game options instead of scouring the web.
Sony hasn’t just included substantial accessibility features with The Last of Us; it also offers sizable lists of accessibility tools in games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Horizon Forbidden West and has already previewed accessibility options coming to God of War Ragnarok.
The Last of Us Part I launches on September 2nd. The game is also in development for PC, though Sony hasn’t yet shared a release date.
