Far Cry 5 Deaf Accessibility
Playability-wise, Far Cry 5 is perfect for Deaf/HoH players. All of the visual cues are immensely helpful and you'll rarely find yourself ambushed just because you failed to hear an enemy nearby. It's in the story where the game fails Deaf/HoH players because we miss so much due to the game not being fully subtitled.
Score
8.3 out of 10Pros
- Legible subtitles,
- Very helpful visual cues
Cons
- No speaker labels,
- Not all dialogue is subtitled
Far Cry 5 could be a perfect game. It’s got everything needed to get us hooked and interested in exploring the world. Animal companions which you can pet, things that explode, an enemy that isn’t some bad representation of everyone’s favorite go-to enemy, the
The Deaf accessibility could be better.
To their credit, shortly after the game’s release, they patched in a fix that remedied the issue of Deaf console players being launched immediately into the opening cutscene without subtitles. Now, at the start of every new game, subtitles are on (and legible!) by default.
The first accessibility issue is the lack of speaker labels. Whether you can tell who is speaking due to the camera being on them is about 50/50. A moment later in the scene above, a woman begins speaking over the radio and since there’s no indication of this, Deaf players are left wondering who is speaking because nobody’s mouth is seen moving.
The other subtitle problem is that the only dialogue that is subtitled is that of people you’ve chosen to interact with and during cutscenes. There are instances of quests with NPCs talking, such as the one in the image above in which there’s a woman shouting from behind the closed door but Deaf players have no indication of this. There are also countless times in which your companion (except Boomer, of course) will chat with you or call out various things and they’re never subtitled. Deaf players miss out on this immersion (and good, often funny writing).
The visual cues are fantastic. There are little red enemy indicators up on the compass bar, as well as a whole host of other important markers, and when nearby an enemy, the bar displayed on screen increases as they become more aware of you and turns red when they’re actively shooting at you. This also serves as a directional indicator, as the subtle little bump in the bar points in the direction of the enemy.
Another helpful visual indication is the blue or red outline for obscured companions and enemies (companions are blue, enemies are red).
Playability-wise, Far Cry 5 is perfect for Deaf/HoH players. All of the visual cues are immensely helpful and you’ll rarely find yourself ambushed just because you failed to hear an enemy nearby. It’s in the story where the game fails Deaf/HoH players because we miss so much due to the game not being fully subtitled.
