343 Industries has added improved accessibility features to Halo Infinite.
“343 Industries’ goal is to make the newest journey into the Halo universe more accessible to as many gamers as possible,” Xbox shared on its blog. “That includes those who are brand-new to the Halo franchise, as well as those who struggled to play due to barriers that hadn’t previously been accounted for.”
The features include accessibility standards like enhanced colorblind settings and the ability to rebind mouse, keyboard, and gamepad controls. 343 is also adding new innovations like the movement-assisted steering feature, which allows users to add more controls to help steer vehicles like the Warthog and Mongoose.
Here’s a list of Halo Infinite’s accessibility features:
For subtitles
- Adjust the font size
- Adjust the background opacity
- Enable color coding of dialogue per speaker
- Choose whether you’d like subtitles for all dialogue or just dialogue related to the narrative in campaign
General gameplay
- Customize menu and gameplay font size
- Menu narration with adjustable narration speed for those who commonly utilize screen readers
- A new mode called “Linear Navigation” that lets users navigate through the UI without the need to visually see how controls are positioned on-screen to access them
- Option of changing the friendly and enemy colors to include more options than just red versus blue
- More UI settings, such as HUD (Heads-up Display) and reticle opacity to make it easier to identify information in the HUD
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text options for players that want to participate in voice chat and either need to send synthesized voice or receive voice chat as synthesized text
- New customizations for players to control their sound experience with different volume sliders for a variety of sounds in the game
- Customizability for both controller and keyboard and mouse to rebind keys, adjust sensitivity, and change to taps and toggles versus holds
- A new Movement Assisted Steering feature, which lets you use additional controls to help steer wheeled vehicles rather than just the classic “look-to-steer” mechanic
Accessibility and inclusion in Halo Infinite aren’t limited to the game’s settings. 343 Industries partnered with disabled service member group Warfighter Engaged to design prosthetic customization options for players creating their own Spartans.
These new Halo Infinite features are a part of a greater push at Xbox and across the gaming industry to be more accessible to players of all abilities. Earlier this year, Microsoft launched a program in which developers can have their games tested and evaluated for their accessibility.
“Accessibility is a journey,” Xbox says. “And 343 Industries will continue to update Halo Infinite in ways that empower as many people as possible to battle alongside the Master Chief.”
Halo Infinite launches December 8th.
