Over 30 improvements and options have been added in this latest update, including - at last! - the option to navigate menus using directional buttons instead of a cursor. Also included are gameplay settings to customise combat difficulty and game speed, and new HUD and subtitle options, which can be found in a new accessibility category in the options menu.
“One of the things we didn’t expect when starting on accessibility features was how some of these options can be useful and fun for everyone,” said studio director Dinga Bakaba, stating the bleeding obvious. “Accessibility in games is a complex subject,” said lead UI/UX designer Yoann Bazoge. “We estimate that over 400 million players need some additional assistance when playing. That’s a lot of people that can feel left out without some of these options. When we began discussing it with our teams, people were very motivated about the idea of developing all of this. “We are truly grateful to the players and the ally community who gave us so much feedback when Deathloop was released,” Bazoge adds. “We took the time to read all of the accessibility reviews and watch the videos of players explaining why they couldn’t play Deathloop. We then worked on a document listing all of the feedback and drew up a roadmap of what the additions would be for Game Update 3.”
The update is also adding a photo mode, available only in single-player mode. Players can select filters and angles, swap between characters, outfits and weapons, and tweak poses. “This Photo Mode is such a great way to allow our players to get creative by using the unique art and levels of Deathloop,” said producer Jeremy Leulier. “The only creative limitations are defined by our players’ imaginations. We’re very excited at Arkane to see how deep the players will dig into all of the different options and what they will come up with.” Lastly, free Deathloop avatars are available on PlayStation 5. Details on how to redeem are on the PlayStation Blog. Deathloop received a rare Essential in our review.
