Cyberpunk 2077 is a refreshing take on how accessibility should be modelled for the video game industry. It uses the best in-game assist mechanism that I have seen in a first-person shooter throughout my whole life, and in fact, it is the first ever FPS game that I have been physically able to play - as a lifelong gamer, that’s quite a surprising statement. The game’s accessibility standards are so high, that I have been able to play and complete the game without many issues, something that I have not been able to do in any other FPS game.
This is so refreshing to write positively about, because FPS games dominate the market so much, yet they are the least accessible games and the most difficult to adapt, but CD Projekt Red have done a stellar job of making this game as accessible as possible.
The player follows protagonist ‘V’ in a journey of discovery for who controls their mind in a dystopian futuristic city. The story centres around a chip that was forcefully implanted into V at the beginning of the game.
My setup uses buddy buttons, focusing on my hands being able to hit a moderately large surface area to complete an input. I've used this setup for about 8 years, and it has helped me broaden my gaming abilities and drastically improve my physical health and hand coordination. Recently, I put a small button on the back of my joystick, which was originally intended to act as a boost button for racing games, when I realised that this was an adept position for a shoot input, and this allowed me to shoot without taking my hand off the joystick, but as the joystick was only the left one, it meant that I mostly was aiming across the X axis, by moving the character horizontally, and hoping that my opponent fell in a specific area. It was an enlightening experience because, to adjust the camera, I had to be careful about how high it was. To get around this, I planned my next moves and determined the exact vertical axis where I wanted my camera. This is a method of gaming that I have been using forever, I have found this to be an effective solution to eliminating enemies, although, when I find myself walking up stairs, it does leave me a little blind!
Due to the way that my set-up is made, there were a few inputs that I had to sacrifice to make the game work for me, namely, the ability to crouch. This did not impact the way that I was able to play the game which was pleasing, but it did limit my tactical options during a shootout. Well, I say that I had to sacrifice it, but the way that I had to create inputs was to move that input to another part of the button layout. It was pleasing that I was able to succeed without having to use a crouch input, thanks to the aforementioned offset in health between the player and the enemy. Traditionally, crouching does not work for me anyway, because of the increased technical ability required to aim and shoot while crouching behind a wall. I instead mapped this to a sprint input, which worked better for me.
The way that the world is built within the game leans into accessibility as well, with ramps everywhere and minimal need to jump, which is an input that you surprisingly don’t need that much. It is so refreshing to see a world where jumping isn't needed, and there are multiple routes to get to a destination. Night City is where the player can truly feel alive, and the environment, despite appearing futuristic and striking a juxtaposition between a traditionalist view of what a future looks like, is unseemingly natural to the player and is innately what we are used to.
There are some points in the game that I am struggling with, such as when you encounter a boss that is jumping around the screen; any disabled player will have a hard time defeating it. This could be resolved by figuring out where the enemy recovers and trying to camp there, but let’s be honest, by the time you have worked it out, you are probably dead.
I struggle to succeed in fights like these because of how fast the enemy moves, and it all comes down to how I use the sticks; I have two joysticks that resemble classic, arcade-style analogue input. I can normally only use one stick at a time, which is why strong aim assist was vital to completing the game. If a boss is constantly moving across the screen, namely in the section of the game where V and Judy are breaking into Arasaka during the festival in Japantown, it means that it takes so long for me to find and hit my target and, on top of that, he was re-gaining health if I wasn’t consistent in shooting the boss, so I always felt that I was fighting a battle that I knew that I was always losing.
The aim assist was vital for my completion of the game. It was a ground-breaking addition, it worked so well, that it basically took away the need for the player to aim, which in my case, was a problem as I am not physically able to move the joystick with the same speed and precision that is required. The game has a ‘story’ difficulty, which is an option that I have been seeing more and more in modern games, and it slows the game down to a crawl, and offsets the enemy’s health so that they can be killed with far greater ease, whilst also reducing the amount of damage that they inflict on the player. The introduction of smart weaponry is a welcome one, but one that I felt that I did not need to endeavour upon - which is another testament to Cyberpunk’s aim assist options. In opposition, I actually found that these hindered my gameplay, because the gun had to be certain close distance to the AI, and the playstyle that I developed was to walk back, trusting the aim assist, whilst I was shooting, which also came for crouching, a mechanic that I also find challenging.
After completing the main story, I am finding some of the side missions difficult. Specifically, I was having issues with one of the Delamain missions that requires platforming. This specific side mission is a challenge for me because I have to navigate tight areas and jump from one platform to another - one jump which is causing issues starts when the car is pushed into the electrified floor, and the player has to jump from the car to the other side in a rapid amount of time. Even though I unlocked the ability to jump farther by holding down the jump button, I still struggled to do what was asked of me because of the consequences. In this case, I was disappointed that the game didn't have more regular checkpoints that would have let me reset my progress further along, instead of sending me back to the beginning.
Overall, I am blown away by the accessibility of Cyberpunk; it is unusual that, as a gamer my whole life, this is the only and first game of this genre which I have been able to play and feel rewarded, instead of being frustrated by the inherent controls of the game. The game does include Smart Weapons, but the fact that I didn’t need them is a testament to the game’s accessibility and should serve as an excellent standard for developers going forward. As a gamer with physical disabilities, Cyberpunk has been revitalising, and it sets a standard developers must match if they want to create a positive impact.