Review copy provided by Playstation Spain.
Introduction
Astro Bot is the new game developed by Team ASOBI for Playstation. Astro and the BOT crew are scattered across the cosmos after the PS5 mothership’s destruction. This beloved 3D platformer adventure returns in a game filled with intuitive platforming, hidden secrets, diverse ecosystems and cute characters. Platformers can be very challenging, so I wanted to check what this game offers in terms of accessibility. This is my Low Vision review.
Settings
When we start Astro Bot for the first time, a text saying “Press Any Button” is displayed in the middle of the screen. There is no initial setup in this game. After pressing a button, we can select one slot for our save game, from a group of 3. Once done the game starts immediately.
Once in the game we can access the options menu. At first, I didn’t know how to access this menu, so I asked for sighted assistance. I asked for help since the Save Game file screen, because I cannot read, and the game doesn’t have a menu narration feature. To access the options menu, we must press Pause and then Square. This game has only three tabs and a few options so this part will be short. But before that, when the game starts, the DualSense controller appears, and we must do something. What exactly? I don’t know really what I did, I just shook the controller and followed the visual and audio feedback while trying. At the end it was easy thanks to that.
The first category tab is Camera Controls, and we have two options there; Horizontal and Vertical Controls. We can choose if we want them set to Normal or Inverted.
The second tab is Accessibility. Here we have three options. Enable or disable the Controller Tilt Assist, that when turned off, it replaces the motion controls with the left sticks. Enable or disable Visual Aid will increase UI elements’ size and add visual cues for the buttons or actions we must perform when the controller is displayed on screen. The last one is Camera Assist that once enabled, allows the player to move the camera by holding the Circle button and moving the left stick. It basically acts as a center camera to where you are facing, which can also make the game playable with just one stick.
The last tab is HDR Settings. We can choose between Default and Brighter. To be honest, my favorite is the default because it feels like the contrast helps more than the brighter preset.
Like I said, this is it, only a few settings. We don’t have anything special here, especially basic and important features like controller remapping, volume adjustments or any colorblindness support features.
Gameplay
When the game starts, we see this huge exclamation mark in front of us. This is the objective / important element that we must get to. When we get there, a tutorial screen pops up in the top left corner showing a controller and highlighting the square button, but I could not see that in the game. Luckily, as we don’t have many buttons to use in this game, this was too easy to figure out by trial and error.
Following this, we are now in space. It is like a lobby where we choose the levels. The cool thing about it is that the galaxy you must travel to is signaled with a huge exclamation point.
If we press square, it sends a sonar wave that highlights it even more. When entering a galaxy, there are multiple planets to visit, and each planet you haven’t visited yet is highlighted with a circular visual effect. Once you beat a level, it shows a large flag on the right side of that same planet. I loved this because I usually have a hard time knowing if I have been to a level or not.
Also, when touching any of these planets, it shows how icons with how many objectives we have completed. We must collect / save bots and puzzle pieces to complete that galaxy’s picture. When completing objectives, these icons become brighter, so we know how many we’ve completed and still need to complete on that level.
I loved the first impression I got on the first level. The contrast, colors, sounds and all the cues I was having through my controller were making exploration effortless. But this stands for every single level I’ve played, and I’ve played a lot of them! This is a casual game, and the overall difficulty is low with a few challenges when progressing further.
On top of that, there are tons of automatic save points, so it is very hard to get stuck in one place for more than a couple minutes, and not much more in challenging parts. You kill two or three enemies, jump one platform, it saves, you jump a few more platforms, it saves.
Knowing where to go is also very easy though, because Astro Bot is very linear, and it’s hard to get lost. The only thing I still don’t know if I’m doing it right or not is when rescuing some bots and it shows the DualSense controller. I always press the Cross button and seems to work. I don’t know if I must perform a combination of buttons to do something better though.
After playing a bunch of levels, and never having problems finishing them, it was obvious that this game would be relatively easy to beat. Not only because the game isn’t hard, but because it is accessible. Personally, this was all about relaxing, having fun, and laughing sometimes when I mess up in a funny way.
Visuals
As I’ve mentioned just now, the overall contrast is excellent. This game is very colorful, and every important element to interact with, stands out. Enemies, platforms, boxes to destroy, coins, ladders, save points, etc. All of them are designed in a way that makes them easy to distinguish.
The only thing that visually is a challenge is the tutorial prompts and when it shows the controller on screen, even being very large, they are difficult to see. But like I said, we don’t have many buttons, so, a couple of tries should do the job.
One of the most useful features is a bot we have that starts lighting up when near important collectables. When near a bot, it blinks, when near a value item, it blinks. It helps so much not to miss these precious collectables. The only problem is that we don’t always have this bot with us, so, in many levels we got to find things without it. I wish I could always have it to assist me all the time. To be honest, there isn’t much to complain with the visuals.
Even those interactable objects that you must pull / push are quite good to spot, thanks to the contrast and shape.
But don’t get me wrong, not everything is obvious. There are many secrets in Astro Bot. Those puzzle pieces aren’t highlighted. We must find a way to them, and that’s good. Makes exploration more fun, and for me personally, I always check every corner to find those.
Audio
If I had so little to address regarding the visuals, I have even less about audio. Everything is on point. Attacks, incoming attacks, the auditory feedback when performing any type of successful action, triggering a save point, collecting coins, rescuing bots, collecting coins from killing enemies… all excellent. Even the music doesn’t get in the way. Even if we can’t customize sound levels and we must play as it is, it didn’t affect me at all. Still, I think adjusting volumes could be helpful for many players.
We get special abilities for different levels, and the sound feedback we get from using them in the right place is always present so I always know if I’m doing it right. Like in visuals, the audio feedback from the bot companion is also incredible. It beeps faster while we get closer to a bot we must save. I can see the visual effects fine, but the audio feedback is a great second channel of information, much easier for me to hear.
DualSense
Well, Astro Playroom is known for using all DualSense’s capabilities, and here is not different. I thought at first that I would disable the Controller Tilt Assist to replace the motion controls for the sticks, but honestly, I like it. Still it’s good to know that if we found it harder to play with the sensors, we can simply disable them.
The haptic feedback is very good. Although I feel like it doesn’t help immensely, having that type of feedback for everything is cool. When walking, jumping, attacking, pulling, pushing, something explodes, collisions, collecting coins and bots, all this makes the controller rumble. It is extra feedback, and that is very welcome.
Final thoughts
Astro Bot is a game that is very accessible by design. Many things were done right here. Thanks to the colorful visuals with great contrast and the amount of visual, audio and controller vibrational feedback, it consistently provides so much clear information that turn every level into a great and fun experience. Also having visual markers indicating if we played a certain level or not is extremely important in games like this where we can replay levels at any time and all the things I’ve pointed out.
The biggest criticism I must make about this game is the fact that it doesn’t have a menu narration feature. It would be much easier to read those numbers like how many bots we need to unlock the final level of a galaxy or to read the prompts. Not having the bot companion to highlight items and bots all the time is a shame in my opinion. This could make Astro Bot even more fun to play.
Taking these two factors out of the equation, it is hard to point out bad things about this lovely game. This is one of those that I will always recommend to low vision folks if they like this genre. And this is what makes Astro Bot different from other games of the same genre I’ve played.
BEST FEATURES
- Excellent contrast.
- Visual, Audio and Vibration cues.
- Very intuitive design and gameplay.
- Easy to navigate.
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
- Lack of Menu Narration feature.
- No audio mix customization.
- No colorblind features.
Overall Score
8.6/10
Victor is a gamer with very low vision who is passionate about game accessibility. When he is not glued to the PC, he spends his days with his dog on long walks in green and beautiful places. Trying to improve every day in order to contribute as much as possible with the accessibility community. You can contact him on Twitter at @VictorAndre87