Shadow of the Tomb Raider Allows Separate Difficulty Settings for Different Features

The Shadow of the Tomb Raider official website has received a fascinating update, which goes into explicit detail on the game’s various accessibility and difficulty settings. Accessibility is an ever-evolving point of focus in video games, and seeing developers more publicly point to that is always cool. But this update does something in particular that few games of its kind have done. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a big game with disparate activities, including combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. So in this game, the last of a trilogy, players will be able to set separate difficulty options for those specific categories.

Here are the official bullet points for each of the difficulty settings, which are Combat, Exploration, and Puzzle:

Combat

Easy

• Aim assist enabled
• Enemies have lower health and do less damage
• Ammunition boxes are plentiful
• Enemies have illuminated silhouettes

Normal

• Enemies have normal health and damage
• Ammunition boxes are rare
• Enemies have illuminated silhouettes

Hard

• Enemies have increased health, do more damage and locate Lara more quickly.
• No health regeneration in combat
• Ammunition boxes are rare
• No hit markers on the reticle
• Enemies are not highlighted in Survival Instincts

Deadly Obsession

• Same as hard
• No HUD icon when Lara is being detected by an enemy

Exploration

Easy

• Obvious white paint on critical path
• Longer saving grab timer
• Base camps are lit

Normal

• Discreet white paint on critical path
• Normal saving grab timer
• Base camps are unlit

Hard

• No white paint on critical path
• Reduced saving grab timer
• No Survival Instincts during exploration
• Base camps are unlit

Deadly Obsession

• Same as Hard
• Base camps are unlit and require resources to light
• Game only saves at Base camps

Puzzles

Easy

• Lara gives direct hints on next action to perform
• Interactable objects are highlighted in Survival Instincts
• Objects necessary to progress highlighted in blue during Survival Instincts
• Longer window of opportunity for timed mechanics

Normal

• Lara gives general hints on the next action to perform
• Interactable objects are highlighted in Survival Instincts
• Normal window of opportunity for timed mechanics

Hard/Deadly Obsession

• No hints are given by Lara

• No Survival Instincts

• Shorter window of opportunity for timer mechanics

Cool, right? Also, here’s a sample of the various accessibility options, which go far beyond the simpler choices you may be used to:

• Optional Y Axis Inversion

• Toggling on and off Vibration

• Reducing Camera Shake

• The option to center the camera horizontally so that it is ‘soft locked’ on Lara’s back, requiring the use of only one stick for movement. The other stick can still be used to move the camera if desired.

• The option to tap rather than hold left trigger to aim down the sights

• The option to use right (default) or left stick to aim, when looking down sights (left trigger)

• The option to hold button press prompts rather than repeated tapping

• The option to push the stick directionally for crank control prompts rather than rotate

• Adjustable aim sensitivity

Our Audio accessibility options include:

• Subtitles: Off, On with Color, On without Color

• Environmental Subtitles: Display subtitles for all conversations taking place nearby, or only for critical conversations

• Closed Captioning: Display additional or interpretive information such as sound effects, musical cues, and other relevant audio information

Eidos Montreal is going the extra mile here, to make sure anyone who wants to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider has an extra chance to do so.

[Source: Shadow of the Tomb Raider Official Website]