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Xbox X|SWe've documented 29 accessibility features for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), Select Difficulty, Play Without Hearing, Colour Blind Friendly and Audio Cues. Its accessibility is strongest in Navigation and Controls but it also has features in Visual, Getting Started, Reading, Difficulty and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
External examiner, Angela Hickman Newnham, first checked The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt accessibility 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Angela Hickman Newnham and updated 2 years ago.
Accessibility Notes
The Witcher Sense has a Colorblind-friendly setting. The Witcher Sense "fish-eye" effect can be turned off and the motion blur and blur can be disabled to reduce motion sickness.
By disabling the option to make enemies grow in strength alongside you, you can practice attacks on easier enemies.
Game Details
Release Date: 19/05/2015
Price: 60% off
Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Adventure (Action, Communication, Fighting, Narrative, Role-Play, Stealth and Traversal)
Accessibility: 29 features
Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather
Developer: CD Projekt Red (@CDProjektRed)
Costs: Purchase cost, In-Game Purchases and In-Game Pass
Controls
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Controls in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.
Remap Controls
Can customise the controls for the game as follows:
Remap Game Menu Access: Can remap buttons to pause, access and navigate the game menu. This enables you to specify which buttons pop-up the game menu.Whether you can remap menu navigation buttons isn't considered here.
Invert X/Y Axis: Can invert the direction required to control looking and aiming. This enables you to match your instinctive orientation when looking.
Controller Vibration
Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.
Informative Vibration: Controller vibration indicates events or interactions in the game, echoing visual and audio cues. This can provide additional information about progress, approaching enemies or hitting a target.
Sensitivity
You can adjust
Adjust Mouse/Stick/Touch Sensitivity: Adjust how sensitive touch/mouse/stick controls are.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- Far Cry 6 (14 Controls Features)
- Watch Dogs Legion (13 Controls Features)
- Starfield (12 Controls Features)
- 1428: Shadows over Silesia (11 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Difficulty in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.
Difficulty Options
Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.
Adjust After Setting
Adjustable Anytime: You can adjust the difficulty while playing, without having to restart the level you are on. This enables you to quickly adjust the game to suit your needs and see the difference immediately.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Difficulty
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Difficulty accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Difficulty accessibility:
- Baldur's Gate 3 (3 Difficulty Features)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (3 Difficulty Features)
Getting Started
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Getting Started in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Practice Area: You can practice freely without opponents or time pressures. This can be a specific practice option, or the ability to play levels with the easiest opponents to improve understanding and skill.
View Control Mapping: You can view a map of controls during play. This clearly displays the mappings of actions to buttons/keys/mouse/keyboard without having to leave the game. This includes games that always display buttons to press during play.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Save Progress Anytime: The game automatically saves progress or you can save any time. This doesn’t mean you never lose progress, but it does mean you can stop whenever you want (without having to get to a save point) without losing progress.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Baldur's Gate 3 (9 Getting Started Features)
- 1428: Shadows over Silesia (8 Getting Started Features)
- Hogwarts Legacy (7 Getting Started Features)
- Watch Dogs Legion (6 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Reading in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.
Subtitles
All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.
Captions
Speaker Indicator: Textual captions indicate who is speaking (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or placing text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.
Voice Acted
All Dialogue is Voice Acted (Or No Speech In Game): All of the game dialogue and narrative can be voiced, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to read the dialogue and narrative text to play the game.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Fallout 4 (7 Reading Features)
- Watch Dogs Legion (7 Reading Features)
- Baldur's Gate 3 (6 Reading Features)
- Gotham Knights (6 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 8 accessibility features for Navigation in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Clear Mission Objectives: The game provides clear, structured missions with directional guidance and advice on which can be attempted next. This also indicates (ideally on maps where they are provided) which missions can't be attempted because you do not have the appropriate items yet.
Visual Directional Cues: Additional in-game visual cues that signpost where to go next and how close you are to arriving. This can be with camera movement to focus on your destination or important items. It can use light, breadcrumb trails, in-world pointers to identify your mission's target location.
Head-Up Display
Head-Up Display Navigation: Indication of where to go next with overlaid arrows, minimaps and waypoint markers. This supplements in-game visual and audible cues with additional guidance about where you are and where you need to go.
Adjust Head-Up Display: Resize and adjust the content of the head-up display. This enables it to be made more visible. It can also enable the removal of too much information that can be distracting or confusing.
Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.
Menu Navigation
Menu Audio Cues: Navigating menus provide an audio cue for each selection.
Menus Don't Wrap: Menus don't wrap and stop the cursor at the bottom of the list if you press down. Or menus do wrap but make it clear that you are back at the top of the list with sound or narration.
Remap Game Menu Access: Can remap buttons to pause, access and navigate the game menu. This enables you to specify which buttons pop-up the game menu.Whether you can remap menu navigation buttons isn't considered here.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:
- 1428: Shadows over Silesia (10 Navigation Features)
- Baldur's Gate 3 (9 Navigation Features)
- Far Cry 6 (9 Navigation Features)
- Watch Dogs Legion (9 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Visual in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Interactive Elements
Outline Interactive Elements: Characters, platforms and enemies can be outlined or highlighted for visibility. This can be with a large border around the character or a special visual mode that adjust the colour to make characters more visible.
Audio Cues for Visual Events
Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.
Menu Audio Cues: Navigating menus provide an audio cue for each selection.
Motion Sickness Friendly
Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.
Colour Options
Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- Watch Dogs Legion (7 Visual Features)
- Baldur's Gate 3 (6 Visual Features)
- 1428: Shadows over Silesia (6 Visual Features)
- Foretales (6 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Audio in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Adjustable Audio
Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.
Play Without Hearing
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Far Cry 6 (4 Audio Features)
- Watch Dogs Legion (4 Audio Features)
- Hogwarts Legacy (4 Audio Features)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (4 Audio Features)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.
PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 has a range of accessibility settings. Some are system only, some work in games (invert colours and button mapping).
Xbox One
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Andy Robertson and @growingupgamers
