Accessibility in gaming has become more and more prevalent in gaming as technology has allowed it. EA and BioWare recognize that, having put out a detailed accessibility blog today, highlighting their plans to ensure everyone can enjoy the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard later this month.

BioWare seems to have gone above and beyond with their plans for accessibility, with everything from difficulty to changing the subtitles size and colours as well as visual effects to help with motion sickness.

Difficulty Options A Plenty

The main talking point of the blog was the difficulty scaling. This applies to both those who want an easier game as well as those who want the toughest experience the game has to offer. With 5 difficulties as well as a 6th fully customizable difficulty no player should feel like the game is too easy or hard.

• Storyteller
  • Here for the story.
• Keeper
  • A balanced combat experience that emphasizes party composition and equipment choices over reaction times.
• Adventurer
  • A balanced experience that places equal emphasis on combat, party composition, and equipment choices.
• Underdog
  • Here to be pushed to the limit, requiring strategic planning and tactical decisions.
• Nightmare
  • Overwhelming battles that give no quarter. Requires a mastery of combat, equipment, skills, and game mechanics to survive.
  • Selecting Nightmare cannot be undone without starting a new playthrough.
• Unbound
  • Customize all settings.
  • Settings impact numerous aspects of gameplay. If this is your first time, consider a curated preset instead.

BioWare notes that even after you select your difficulty you can change certain settings to fit the experience you want such as aim assist strength, how aggressive enemies are as well as help with parrying.

UI, HUD & Visual Settings

When it comes to visuals, again BioWare is making Dragon Age: The Veilguard as accessible as possible while also allowing those who want a more difficult experience to get that.

You will have the option to turn off many elements of the HUD including the mini map and objective markers. You can even turn off Rook's health bar from being visual if you'd like requiring you to learn the visual queue's of when Rook might be almost dead.

One of the more interesting options I noticed detailed was the subtitles and visual aids. The subtitles will be fully customizable, allowing you to change how big or small they are as well as the colour of the font. It will also allow you to show the speakers names or even change the opacity of the subtitles themselves.

When it comes to the audio aids they've added the option to add audio aid to certain gameplay elements such as incoming attack indicators. Also for anyone with visual deficiencies there are full-screen colour filters to help and improve visibility.

Finally for the actual gameplay there are many options to help all types of players. You can adjust camera shake from 0-100% as well as there being an adjustable Field Of View slider. Additionally there is a Persistent Dot Option for those who have motion sickness and Motion Blur can be turned on or off.

Full List Of Accessibility Options

Audio

• 3D Audio
• Accessibility SFX
• Glint Ping SFX
• Mono Audio
• Speaker Type
• Volume Sliders

Controls

• Ability Wheel Controller Activation (Hold or Tap)
• Disable UI Hold Inputs
• Input Remapping
• Invert Axis (X & Y available)
• Swap Left & Right Sticks
• Stick Deadzones
• Trigger Deadzones
• Vertical & Horizontal Sensitivity
• Vibration Intensity

Gameplay

Combat

• Aim Assist 
• Aim Snap 
• Combat Timing
• Enemy Aggression 
• Enemy Damage
• Enemy Health 
• Enemy Resistances 
• Enemy Vulnerability 
• Prevent Death

Exploration

• Frequent Auto-Saving
• Library (Codex, Glossary, Missives)
• Object Glint Distance
• Object Glint Visibility
• Objective Marker Visibility
• Pause at any time
• Waypoint Visibility
• World & Local Maps available at all times

Visual / UI

• Camera Shake
• Depth of Field
• Full-screen Colorblind Filters
• Hide-able HUD Elements
  • Abilities
  • Damage Numbers
  • Hints
  • Mini Map
  • Objective Tracker
  • Player Health
  • Tutorials
• Low Health Screen Effect
• Motion Blur
• Persist Dot Option
• Ranged & Melee Threat Indicators
• Subtitle Advanced Options
  • Background Opacity
  • Speaker Names
  • Speaker Name Color
  • Subtitle Size
• UI Text Size
• Vignette

With Dragon Age: The Veilguard launching on Halloween, October 31st, you won't have to wait much longer to slay those dragons.