EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to show additional information the developers provided on August 24, 2024.

Atomfall is a survival action game set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster that took place in 1957 Northern England.

While playing the game, the player will explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight, and talk their way through the countryside. It is filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies that will create a varied and captivating gaming experience.

But what do we have in store for accessibility?

A Focus on Accessibility in Atomfall

The Atomfall team has released a list of the accessibility features that will be offered at launch. Listed below is a list of the features and a short explanation of how they assist players in enjoying the Atomfall experience. (This information is taken from the accessibility page of their website).

Motor Control

Auto Move & Traversal

Atomfall will feature robust automatic forward movement and automatic traversal. This can be useful for those individuals who find it difficult to constantly push forward on the thumbstick.

Snap Aiming

Atomfall will be the first game to feature Snap Aiming. When hovering over targets with Snap Aiming turned on, the camera will snap to that target and follow their movement. The aim can be snapped off by using the mouse/thumbstick or exiting aim-down sights. This allows more players to be able to engage in the accuracy elements of our combat.

<NEW> Melee & Aim Assistance

Aim assistance is provided independently for both aim down sights and hip fire. We also provide melee assistance, to help reduce the accuracy needed to land melee hits. We have four options for melee assistance, ranging from moving and rotating the player, down to landing the hit when in range without any moving or rotating of the player.

Controller Remapping

Full controller remapping will also support rebinding to multiple devices. For example, you could use both a gamepad and a keyboard together.

Controls (Accessibility By Design)

We’re thrilled to say that through the amazing work of the design team, and the involvement of awesome charities like SpecialEffect, Atomfall’s default control scheme supports no holds, or simultaneous inputs, with no need for a specific preset. This means with just a single toggle you can remove all the holds in the game, without any of the controls moving!

Visual

Audio Assisted Aiming

Atomfall features audio-assisted aim. This exciting new feature will allow players without sight, or with limited vision, to be able to more fully experience gunplay and combat. The audio-assisted aim is made up of a three-layer system; the first of which goes hand in hand with our new Snap Aiming.

Snap Aiming will feature the options Off, On, and On with Cues. On with Cues means that unique audio cues are played when snapping on and off an enemy. This helps to give players an audio indication to let them know whether they’re snapped on a target.

The second element of aim-assisted audio will be Aiming Cues. Specifically, Aiming Cues are a sound, which will be played at different pitches and frequencies depending on how close to the target you are aiming. This allows players to better judge how close they are to a target using audio feedback. The system uses frequency (how often the sound is played) to show horizontal proximity and uses pitch to show vertical proximity. Moreover, these cues also change to give you an indication of when you are over your target.

Finally, the last element of audio-assisted aim consists of persistent enemy audio. When activated, a player can attach a looping piece of audio to every enemy in the game. This means players can tell where the enemies are around them through sound alone. Naturally, this allows them to engage in melee combat through audio. Each of these three features can be enabled independently of each other, or all together. No doubt this will allow the player to fine-tune the experience to their specific needs.

Text Scaling & Contrast

Atomfall will feature better text scaling than Rebellion has featured in their previous titles. They have also introduced HUD and UI backplates across many areas within the game. More specifically, this allows for greater contrast.

Color Blindness (Accessibility By Design)

The UI elements have been designed using iconography and shapes, as well as color. This ensures menus and important information are accessible to anyone with any level of color vision by default.

<NEW> Colour Customisation

We’ve reused and expanded our color picker to allow you to customize the colors of certain UI elements. The elements include the crosshair, ‘helpful’ elements like navigation hints, and ‘warning’ elements like being out of ammo. Each of these three categories can be set independently, and we provide a few presets to choose from.

<NEW> Interaction Cues

To give players with low or no vision more agency, we have introduced an option to have audio cues for basic interactions in the game, such as opening doors and stealth takedowns.

Cognitive

Navigation Assistance

For players who could use extra assistance or guidance in knowing where they are going or where they have been, accessibility options to toggle the visibility of Waypoint Markers and Compass on the HUD have been included.

Lead Hints

One of Atomfall’s most interesting features is its lead system. Within this, you collect stories and clues as you piece together information that can lead the player to their next location. One of the features is a hint system for these leads. When activated, the hint gives the player a short and clear reference for what the lead is talking about. Naturally, this will hint at where the player is to go. This is intended for players who might find the detective nature of the game overwhelming. Including those who want to reduce the reading in the game.

<NEW> Motion Sickness Support

Atomfall will feature a suite of options to help support players who experience motion sickness, including Camera Bob, Camera Shake, and Camera Sensitivity. We also provide an FOV slider from 50 to 120 degrees, and an option to set an FPS cap at 30, 60, 90, or 120 frames, and a toggle for Motion Blur. We’ve introduced an option to adjust the Recoil & Sway of ranged weapons, to help steady the player camera if needed.

Audio

Active & Background SFX Sliders

Atomfall will be the first Rebellion title to feature separate sliders for active sound effects and background sound effects. This will allow players who are hard of hearing to prioritise important sound effects over less important ones. This ensures they are better equipped to receive the feedback they need to play the game.

Sound Effects (Accessibility By Design)

The Atomfall audio team has worked hard to create different audio cues. This includes cues for each unique pick-up, action, and enemy. Wherein providing distinct and unique sounds helps players to more clearly gain information through audio, and build a richer and more immersive soundscape.

<NEW> Enemy Icons

As standard, Atomfall features threat bars that show in a radial on screen how threatened an enemy is by you, which gives you an idea of how quickly an encounter could escalate to combat. We’ve also introduced enemy icons as an optional feature which displays icons above enemy heads when they are in different states of threat. These icons hug the edges of the screen when enemies are behind or to the side of you, to give extra visual feedback of enemy positions.

In Closing on the Accessibility Features in Atomfall

Rebellion looks to have taken great strides to make sure that Atomfall is playable by a wide range of gamers by including a strong accessibility suite.

Atomfall was featured at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024.