Lamoine Williams
blindog83@gmail.com
Since
Sony has a summer sale on PlayStation games, I thought that now would be the
perfect time to try out a game I’ve been wanting to play and get it for 50% off
at the same time. The game is Call of Duty Cold War and it is not as bad as I
thought for accessibility. The bundle that I purchased is the cross-generation
bundle for $35 and contains the game for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
consoles. Since this is a cross platform game, playing with your friends who
have a PS5 or PS4 is no problem at all. I also want to mention that gamers who
play on PS5 get a bit more information when it comes to finding out stats like
score and kills, more on that later.
Now I
know that many of you are wondering exactly how accessible Cold War is and the
simplest answer is there are not many accessible features for gamers who are
totally blind. However, there are a few things that help blind gamers out and
we will be going over those here today. Cold War is one of those games that
although there are no specific accessibility features for the blind like menu narration,
it is still playable with a little time and effort. If you’re a gamer who is
interested in putting some time into a new game and learning the ropes then
this just might be the game for you. With games on average costing upwards to $70
for just base games with no extras, this sale price is an all-around win.
Menus
First
things first let’s talk about the menus in Cold War. Now if you are a gamer who
is blind then you know how much a pain it can be trying to navigate unfamiliar
screens and menus that wrap. If you don’t know what that means, it’s when
players can go from the top of a menu and when the final option is passed the
curser wraps back up to the top. This can be annoying for gamers who navigate
menus via clicks and sound cues since one never really knows what option they
are on because there really is no starting point once you start moving the curser.
In the past the way blind gamers have gotten passed this barrier is by
memorizing the number of options on a menu and also what function they perform.
In Cold
War none of the menus wrap so it is very easy to learn how to navigate the
screens with relative ease. This may seem like something very small to gamers
with sight, but it is one less barrier that can keep gamers with vision loss
from playing a game. Paired together with audio cues that are very clear and
distinct and you have a foundation that allows many more players to navigate the
game with little to no problems. Another thing that I find awesome about Cold
War is that the main menu is simple. In past Call of Duty games, the menus have
been literal nightmares to navigate for blind players.
Having
four options on the left of the main menu makes it easy to get around and find
what mode you’re looking for. From top to bottom you have campaign,
multiplayer, league, and zombies. There are more options to the right but those
are not really needed in order to get started playing Zombies or multiplayer. I
found that the clicks that can be heard when navigating the menu were easily
heard even over the menu music. With most navigation being up and down, right
to left getting around is a breeze.
PS5 3-d Tempest audio
One of
the biggest things that needs to be pointed out is the audio engine. Redesigned
from the ground up specifically for Cold War, the sounds are clear, dynamic,
and very detailed. With a decent pair of head phones this game sounds awesome.
However, I would like to say that compared to gears 5 on PC, the Cold War sound
engine on PS5 still has a bit to go in order to get on equal footing with the
Coalition sound engine. Now, the more I play Cold War I may change that opinion,
but as of right now the G5 engine for PC is more clear, detailed, and distinct
when aiming and finding targets in the middle of noisy battles.
Currently
I am using the Sony Pulse 3-d headset made specially to take advantage of the Sony
PlayStation 5 Tempest audio engine. I have noticed that hearing zombies from a
distance is a bit troubling. Now, this could be because my ears are not used to
all of the tiny sounds as of yet. For me ranging the distance that an enemy is
from me just isn’t there yet and can be frustrating when trying to perform a
melee kill in order to conserve ammo. But it just may be that more practice is
needed in order to master that attack.
I found
that when navigating in-game I can follow my sighted team mates simply by
listening for their movement and gunshots. This makes it much easier for me to
help out with combat. Although, when a teammate is firing their weapon close to
where my character is standing the noise tends to drown out the zombies from
time to time. I did however lower my music volume so that the game music was
not over powering the tiny sounds like enemy footsteps closing in. I found that
having the music volume set to around 35 is a perfect level for me.
Game Mechanics
There
are a few different game mechanics that should be tweaked in order to make Cold
War more playable for blind gamers. Most can be found in the options menu and
others are in-game to help with navigation. Like I mentioned before, this game
is not exactly what I would call accessible for the blind, but with a few work
arounds it is indeed possible to play and have a good time. Playing with friends
in a party is one of the best things about online gaming, sadly not many games
that are accessible for the blind have this feature. I would love to see menu
narration in the next Call of Duty game, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.
The
first place to go after booting up Cold War is the options menu. Here you will
find options for gameplay, controls, music, and tons of other things. One big
option to change is the vertical sensitivity for the right stick. This controls
where your character is looking and can have a huge impact on aiming. Setting
this to low means that your aiming curser or reticle will not move as much
during gameplay which will result in more shots being on target and less work
for the ADS.
Next is
lowering the music volume. This will help you hear tiny sounds like the humming
of machines, zombie footsteps, and scrap that is dropped by zombies. Lowering
the music volume will also help with navigating the menu as the click sound
cues will be easier to hear. When you lower the music volume instead of turning
it off, you will hear the music that the perk machines play and other similar
in-game sound cues. I also found that the dialog volume is too high so I
lowered that as well.
Final Thoughts
Overall,
I like playing Cold War. Do I wish that there were more accessibility options?
Hell yeah, but that won’t keep me from doing my best to play. Even without
options for accessibility it’s still a fun game to play. I can see the more
that I play how easy it would be to add menu narration and in-game narration to
make this game and future games in this franchise more accessible for gamers
who are blind and looking for a multiplayer game to play with their sighted friends
and family, it really wouldn’t take much.
