GOW Ragnarok’s Leviathan axe makes ingenious use of this DualSense feature
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God of War Ragnarok offers some of the most in-depth accessibility options of any major release of its kind, including a much-requested feature that the previous title lacked. The full list of more than 70 customizable accessibility settings has been revealed by Sony Santa Monica, although the one that stands out has to be the ‘Motion sensor feature Aiming Activation’. Motion Controlled Leviathan Axe? Yes please.
This switchable function for God of War Ragnarok on PS5 means players can use the Dualsense motion sensor to perform actions such as throwing Kratos’ Leviathan Axe. Not only is it a win for accessibility, but it also adds a new dimension to solving the game’s various challenges in a more engaging way than just aiming the sticks can deliver.
Giving you fine control over the feature, Sony offers advanced options to track your horizontal and vertical speed while aiming, with a sensitivity slider from 0.1 to 3.0. This measures in-game camera movements, with the lower numbers indicating a slower response from behind Kratos’ back. This also applies to acceleration; there’s a zero to 10 slider and the ability to reduce smaller movements with its own dedicated zero to 30 slider, which is calculated in degrees per second, which can help reduce unwanted accidental movements.
God of War Ragnarok contains many tricky puzzles that require Kratos to throw his ax at targets, chains and switches – many of which are time-tested. 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 don’t find the sticks ideal when time is of the essence.
This isn’t the first time motion-activated aiming has been made available in a first-party Sony game. We saw this feature available earlier on PS5 with Horizon: Forbidden West and earlier than with The Last of Us: Part 2 on PS4. It’s a much-requested feature of many of the company’s biggest releases to increase available precision. It won’t compete with a high DPI gaming mouse, but it’s significantly faster than your everyday twin-stick setup.
Aim Gyro faster to aim?
Gyro aiming has become widely used in the competitive world of eSports as an attractive alternative to your standard gamepad controls, as the sensors are more direct than moving both sticks. With fewer inputs, all you have to do is tilt the controller with the visor on the screen. With the right settings turned on and some practice, you can make faster movements than with a twin stick. Here’s a demonstration:
Outside of the PlayStation world, we’ve seen competitive titles, such as Splatoon 3 on Nintendo Switch, strongly lean towards gyro/motion targeting, with this control scheme widely regarded as not only a viable alternative to more traditional means, but even preferred. . Now God of War Ragnarok is the furthest from a Twitch-based title, but you can save a few precious seconds by making a change here.
There are lots of other accessibility features (opens in 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 tending to offer a wide range of features to make their games more accessible to players.