Assassin's Creed Shadows accessibility features

Feature check at a glance

Of the ten features we track, the official information for Assassin's Creed Shadows documents 8 in full and 1 in part.

• SubtitlesYes
• Subtitle size optionsYes
• Colour-blind modesYes
• Full control remappingYes
• Hold-to-toggle optionsYes
• Difficulty and assist optionsYes
• Audio cues for navigationYes
• Text-to-speech or menu narrationYes
• Motion and camera-shake reductionPartly
• High-contrast modeNot stated

Notes on each feature

• Subtitles: Subtitles with speaker direction and emotion indicators; gameplay captions.
• Subtitle size options: Tagged Large Subtitles and Large Captions by PlayStation.
• Colour-blind modes: Colourblind presets for gameplay elements.
• Full control remapping: Input remapping, including choosing hold, press or double-press per action.
• Hold-to-toggle options: Each remapped action can be hold, press or double-press.
• Difficulty and assist options: Separate stealth and combat difficulty (four levels each), aim assist, simplified QTEs, Guided mode.
• Audio cues for navigation: Audio cues with a glossary; directional audio indicators.
• Text-to-speech or menu narration: Screen narration of most menus and many HUD modules.
• Motion and camera-shake reduction: Screen shake toggle; tagged 'Visual Comfort (Basic)'.
• High-contrast mode: Not described in the official sources we checked.

Separate stealth and combat difficulty

Shadows splits difficulty in two: stealth and combat each have four levels, so you can make fights easier without making guards blind, or the reverse. A Guided mode streamlines some systems, Canon mode makes narrative choices automatically for players who find decisions tiring, and a melee attack mode reduces combat to a single input.

Quick-time events can be simplified or skipped, aim assistance has four levels, and tutorials can be revisited at any time. A conversation log lets you re-read every line of dialogue, which helps with memory and processing. Our cognitive access guide explains why these kinds of options matter.

Ubisoft spoke to UX director Jonathan Bedard about the team's approach, which centres on giving players several ways to reach the same outcome. Auto movement and a lock-on camera can reduce the number of inputs needed to travel and fight, which matters in a large open world where players may spend hours moving between locations.

Narration that reaches the HUD

Many games narrate menus but go silent once play starts. Ubisoft says screen narration in Shadows covers most menu items and many HUD modules as well. Audio cues, with a glossary, support navigation, and PlayStation tags directional audio indicators.

Cinematics have audio description, which tells blind and low-vision players what is happening on screen between lines of dialogue. The HUD itself can be customised: elements toggled, opacity adjusted, text and icons resized and backgrounds added.

Separate audio sliders let players balance dialogue, music and effects. For Deaf and hard-of-hearing players, the combination of speaker direction in subtitles and gameplay captions that show where sounds come from addresses one of the most common problems in stealth games: knowing a guard is nearby without hearing them.

Remapping each action as hold, press or double-press

Input remapping goes beyond swapping buttons. For each action you can choose whether it is triggered by a hold, a press or a double-press, which lets you remove long holds that cause fatigue. Controllers, keyboard and mouse, or a combination can be used, and there are axis and stick inversion options plus a lock-on camera and auto movement.

Subtitles can show speaker direction and emotion, and gameplay captions surface where sounds and other stimuli are coming from. Colourblind presets change the colours of gameplay elements, and a screen shake toggle is available; we found no full high contrast mode in the official sources. The PEGI 18 rating covers violence and in-game purchases.

A practical starting point for a player with limited hand use is to set combat difficulty low, switch melee to the simplified single-input mode, set QTEs to skip, and then remap any remaining long holds to a press. For a blind or low-vision player, start with screen narration, audio cues and audio description, and set HUD text and icons to their largest size for any useful vision.

Where Shadows is available and what PlayStation's tags add

Ubisoft lists Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Ubisoft Store, Steam and Epic Games Store), Amazon Luna and Macs with Apple silicon via the Mac App Store, with an iPad version planned for later. Accessibility options may differ slightly between platforms, particularly where controls are concerned, so check the menu on the version you have.

PlayStation's store page lists 28 accessibility features, including Clear Text, Large Text, Visual Comfort (Basic), Audio Cue Alternatives, Directional Audio Indicators, Subtitles (Advanced), Clear Subtitles, Large Subtitles, Captions (Advanced), Clear Captions and Large Captions. It also tags the game as playable without rapid button presses, motion controls or vibration, and lists Game Pausing, Manual Saving and a Practice Mode.

In our editorial view, the separate stealth and combat difficulties, the conversation log and Canon mode make Shadows worth a look for players who find long open-world games tiring to follow. Our cognitive guide covers more ways to manage that load.