God of War Ragnarok offers some of the most extensive accessibility features of any big-budget game of its type, including one much-requested feature that was missing from the previous title. The full list of more than 70 customizable accessibility settings has been revealed by Sony Santa Monica, though “Motion Sensor Feature Aiming Activation” stands out. Motion-controlled Leviathan Ax? Yes please.
This switchable function for God of War Ragnarok on PS5 means players will be able to use the Dualsense motion sensor to perform actions such as throwing Kratos’ Leviathan axe. Not only is this an accessibility win, but it also adds a new dimension to solving various in-game challenges in a more immersive way than simply aiming your chopsticks.
Sony gives you fine control over this feature, giving you advanced horizontal and vertical speed tracking options when aiming, with a sensitivity slider ranging from 0.1 to 3.0. This will measure the in-game camera movement, with lower numbers indicating slower reaction from behind Kratos. This also applies to acceleration; there is a zero-to-10 slider and the ability to reduce smaller movements with its own dedicated zero-to-30 slider that is calculated in degrees per second, which can help mitigate unwanted random movements.
God of War Ragnarok features plenty of tricky puzzles that require Kratos to throw his ax at targets, chains, and switches – many of which are time trials. It may take more than a few tries to get it right. If you’re looking for a new way to interact with the game world, or if you think sticks aren’t ideal when time is of the essence.
This isn’t the first instance of motion-controlled aiming available in Sony’s first game. We’ve previously seen this feature available on PS5 in Horizon: Forbidden West, and previously in The Last of Us: Part 2 on PS4. This has been a highly requested feature in many of the company’s biggest releases to increase the precision available. It’s not a rival to gaming mice with high DPI settings, but it’s much faster than your everyday dual-stick setup.
Is gyro aiming faster when aiming?
Gyro aiming has seen widespread adoption in the competitive world of esports as an attractive alternative to standard gamepad controls, as the sensors are faster than moving two sticks. With less input, all you have to do is tilt the controller with the crosshair on the screen. With the right settings and a bit of practice, you’ll be able to move faster than with a twin-stick. Here is a demonstration:
Beyond the world of PlayStation, we’ve seen rival titles like Splatoon 3 on Nintendo Switch leaning heavily towards gyro/motion aiming, with this control scheme widely regarded as not only a viable alternative to more traditional means, but even better. Now God of War Ragnarok is the furthest away from a Twitch-based title, but you can save a few precious seconds by making a change here.
Are lots of other accessibility features (opens in a new tab) available in God of War Ragnarok, including the ability to scale UI text size, increase puzzle timing, and disable visual effects such as film grain and motion blur.
It’s great to see big-name developers finally digging into providing a wide variety of features to make their games more accessible to gamers.