Naughty Dog has shared the full list of accessibility features that will be present in The Last of Us Part I. These changes will allow blind or deaf players, as well as players with motor accessibility needs, to fully enjoy the game. Players can also customize controls and remap commands as they wish. These accessibility features were also in The Last of Us Part II.
Game Director Matthew Gallant specifically notes that there will be audio descriptions for cutscenes. Naughty Dog worked with Descriptive Video Works to put the descriptions in the game and they are available in all localized languages. For players with vision impairments, the game will include magnification tools and visual aids. For example, you can change the color, contrast, and size of UI and gameplay elements. As well, you will be able to adjust the camera to avoid motion sickness.
For those who are hard of hearing, there is a feature that will have dialogue play through the controller as haptic feedback. Haptic feedback can let the player feel what words a voice actor emphasized to get a better understanding of how they delivered a line.
The Last of Us Part I will also include options to make the combat easier. These are settings separate from the innate difficulty setting. You can set it so that enemies you grab don’t break free, for example. Aside from setting enemy AI, you can customize the game’s difficulty. There are six difficulty levels overall. But you can adjust things such as stealth, resources, and ally AI.
The Last of Us Part I will come out on September 2, 2022 for the PS5. A PC version is reportedly in development.
