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Xbox X|SWe've documented 22 accessibility features for The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), Low Pressure, No Quick Reactions, No Button Combos and No Repeated Pressing. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Reading but it also has features in Getting Started, Visual, Navigation and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
Our accessibility examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked The Excavation of Hob's Barrow accessibility 6 months ago.
Accessibility Notes
Text throughout the game is high in contrast and generally quite large, but the pixellated font can make it hard to read at times. Dialogue is both fully voiced and captioned, with different colours of text appearing next to each speaker in a scene. There is an option to enable colour-blind-friendly text, but some items in the game still blend into their surroundings well and can be difficult to see, especially for players with colourblindness. You can make it so that dialogue only advances when you click.
All interactable elements in a scene can be highlighted with the press of a button, but figuring out how to use different items to advance can still be tricky. As a part of this, figuring out exactly where to go and what to do isn't always obvious.
Although contrast is low at times and some items can be hard to see, you can press a button to make every interactive item in a location glow, letting you easily see what there is to do.
Game Details
Release Date: 28/09/2022, updated in 2023
Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch
Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Adventure, Point-and-Click (Communication, Narrative, Puzzle and Role-Play)
Accessibility: 22 features
Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels
Developer: Cloak and Dagger G (@CloakAndDaggerG)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Controls in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.
Mouse And Keyboard
Can play with the following:
Mouse and Keys: Can play with mouse and multiple keys.
Button Combinations
Specific button operation required to play
Holding Down Buttons Optional: Holding down buttons for prolonged periods (a second or more) is not required or can be switched to toggling the action on and off. This is in addition to the movement stick/button which is not considered a hold for this purpose.
Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.
No Simultaneous Buttons: Only one button or key required at a time, in addition to direction stick(s).
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- Shadows Over Loathing (12 Controls Features)
- Brok the Investigator (8 Controls Features)
- The Good Life (8 Controls Features)
- Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (6 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play. The following games are similar to The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:
- Brok the Investigator (2 Difficulty Features)
- Shadows Over Loathing (2 Difficulty Features)
- Roadwarden (1 Difficulty Feature)
- Return to Monkey Island (1 Difficulty Feature)
Getting Started
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Getting Started in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Reaction-Time Not Critical: Individual game actions don’t need quick reactions, or there are settings to lower the requirement for quick reactions. This means you don't need to quickly press a button in response to an on-screen prompt, target a fast-moving target or skillfully complete a scenario against the clock.
Low Pressure: Game tasks aren't time-limited or there's a low-pressure mode. This avoids the pressure of being put on the clock for overarching missions, or failing tasks because you didn't reach a destination in time.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Save Progress Anytime: The game automatically saves progress or you can save any time. This doesn’t mean you never lose progress, but it does mean you can stop whenever you want (without having to get to a save point) without losing progress.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Brok the Investigator (12 Getting Started Features)
- Shadows Over Loathing (8 Getting Started Features)
- Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (7 Getting Started Features)
- Frequency Missing (7 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Reading in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.
Text Visibility
High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.
Subtitles
All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.
Captions
Speaker Indicator: Textual captions indicate who is speaking (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or placing text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.
Voice Acted
All Dialogue is Voice Acted (Or No Speech In Game): All of the game dialogue and narrative can be voiced, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to read the dialogue and narrative text to play the game.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Brok the Investigator (7 Reading Features)
- Return to Monkey Island (7 Reading Features)
- Rusty Lake Hotel (7 Reading Features)
- Röki (7 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Navigation in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Clear Mission Objectives: The game provides clear, structured missions with directional guidance and advice on which can be attempted next. This also indicates (ideally on maps where they are provided) which missions can't be attempted because you do not have the appropriate items yet.
Head-Up Display
Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:
- Brok the Investigator (7 Navigation Features)
- The Good Life (7 Navigation Features)
- Shadows Over Loathing (5 Navigation Features)
- Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (4 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Visual in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Interactive Elements
Outline Interactive Elements: Characters, platforms and enemies can be outlined or highlighted for visibility. This can be with a large border around the character or a special visual mode that adjust the colour to make characters more visible.
Visual Distractions
No Busy Backgrounds: No distracting backgrounds or you can make them static or blank. This includes the absence of other movement elements in the background that might distract or confuse the action. Where foreground contrast is high, this includes games with some movement in the background that doesn't make it overly difficult to distinguish what is happening.
Motion Sickness Friendly
Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.
Colour Options
Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- Brok the Investigator (9 Visual Features)
- The White Door (8 Visual Features)
- Frequency Missing (8 Visual Features)
- Röki (8 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Audio in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Adjustable Audio
Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.
Play Without Hearing
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Roadwarden (3 Audio Features)
- Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (3 Audio Features)
- Röki (3 Audio Features)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.
PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Ben Kendall
