Dead Cells, the majestic rogue-like action-platformer from developers Motion Twin and subsidiary Evil Empire, is expanding again, this time introducing a range of new accessibility features – including an adjustable Assist Mode – in a PC and console update the studios are calling Breaking Barriers.
Evil Empire first discussed improving Dead Cells’ accessibility back in January, when it began canvassing players for feedback on how it could expand the game to better suit a wider range of needs. It then shared an update on its progress in May, detailing some of the accessibility options that were on the way.
After a round of beta testing, all that work has now been moved to the live game with the official launch of Breaking Barriers. The update brings a huge range of new accessibility features – tested by a panel of players with various disabilities at AbleGamers – all of which have been detailed in a lengthy new blog post and nine-minute video breakdown.
“Hopefully we don’t need to justify adding accessibility options,” Evil Empire wrote in its post, “but we’d had quite a lot of feedback that the game can be inaccessible for a wide range of reasons. Dead Cells is intended to be ‘tough but fair’ [but] we realise that the way the game is designed can put up barriers to reaching this experience for some players. These new options are designed to allow tailored, specific adjustments of the game for those who need it, to make this ‘tough but fair’ gameplay accessible, instead of adding arbitrary difficulty levels which don’t actually address players’ needs.”