Before you even start It Takes Two proper, there are quite a number of accessible options that players can configure in the main menu. From there, players can choose from several options that range from text-to-speech, subtitles, and camera configurations.
The first set of options offer menu narration, subtitles, closed captioning, and subtitle backgrounds. The menu narration is solid, using the standard computerized voices to read out all menu text in the game. Having both subtitles and closed captioning is something often overlooked in gaming, but both types serve very different purposes. For those not aware, subtitles transcribe the spoken word in a given media while close captioning transcribes both dialogue and all relevant audio — so a title with both options to chose from is a pretty big deal.
The next set of options are primarily for text and voice chat: text-to-speech and speech-to-text. The first choice enables text messages to be read aloud in voice chat and the second enables incoming voice chat to be displayed as text on screen. Having these two options are great ways to give players with visual and auditory impairments ways to effectively understand incoming communication and communicate with their partners in turn, which is vital for a title that requires so much cooperation to succeed.
Finally, we have character-specific options, letting players toggle between controller vibrations and gameplay subtitles for either Cody or May, both of which have their own separate options to cater to the needs of each player. Considering how much banter the pair throughout in between cutscenes, allowing for subtitles for these gives players the ability to engage with that charming bonus content. That’s not to mention that vibration options are important for those who may need tactile cues during gameplay.
There are also some additional camera control options to toggle that can be useful to any gamer. For instance, you can control how tightly the camera follows you, as well as the overall horizontal and vertical camera sensitivity for both normal gameplay and when you’re aiming with cross-hairs. And these are options that can be individually set for Cody and May, so players with different needs can be uniquely catered to.
Hazelight studio director Josef Fares also spoke with Gamebyte about how much he liked that accessibility has become more normalized. Fares extrapolated on other accessibility features interwoven into It Takes Two. “…we’ve made accessibility part of the design, like we don’t have any gameplay that relies on having to read-only colors, in those cases we’ve also backed it up with symbols as well.”
