Now this is something we don’t encounter everyday. We reported before about the wealth of accessibility options from Naughty Dog’s upcoming game The Last of Us Part II, even stretching as far the game to be completely playable for people who have vision impairments – to the point where you can even 100% platinum finish the game completely blind. The staggering number of options opens a whole new door for a lot of gamers and newcomers to the entertainment medium, something that they might not had the chance to fully experience previously… Until now.
A good case and point is this video uploaded by Steve Saylor (@stevesaylor), who is moved to tears in this inspiring Tweet:
I've been reluctant to post this.
I recorded my reaction when I saw the #accessibility settings in #TheLastofUsPartII for the first time thinking it would be a fun video for posterity. I…did not expect this.
This is why we do what we do. 😢
Thank you @Naughty_Dog. pic.twitter.com/D5Or2B9Tfw
— Steve Saylor (@stevesaylor) June 12, 2020
“This what myself and others in the accessibility community have been advocating for so long,” he says. “There’s so much here. This is why I do what I do. This is why I work so hard to promote accessibility. This is why, because this is important.”
This is taken from our interview from The Last of Us II co-director Anthony Newman:
“One of the things I’m really excited about is that for our blind players, we have, this blind accessibility mode where you can play the entire game completely blind. And not only play the entire game, you can also get the platinum trophy, you can explore all the optional content, and this includes puzzles and stuff.”
“There are some really interesting technical challenges in allowing blind players to navigate our very complex spaces, solve some of our very complicated puzzles, as well as get through combat and use stealth and be able to get around enemies and tackle them and dodge their attacks, and stuff like that,” added Newman.
I don’t know about you guys but I am really all for this. This is a great example of a game breaking barriers and making it accessible to everyone. I hope that future titles follow this revolutionary beat. Kudos to Naughty Dog for going the extra mile here.
The Last of Us Part II launches for the PlayStation 4 June 19.
Related:
How Naughty Dog balanced accessibility and difficulty in The Last of Us 2