Halo Reach is almost with us and I’ve been playing my review code of the game. I can’t talk about the game in detail at this point but below I’ve put a couple of paragraphs from my review which talks exclusively about how suitable the game is for deaf gamers. I hope you find this information useful.
So we have the last Halo game developed by Bungie and the real question is whether they have finally created a game that’s deaf gamer friendly. The answer, unfortunately, is that they have not! The game is no better for deaf gamers than Halo 3. The game does provide subtitles but these are for the cut scenes only. The cut scene dialogue displays the speaker’s name next to the speech so you’ll be aware of who is saying what. The in-game dialogue is not subtitled and deaf gamers will yet again miss out on a lot of dialogue as a result. The team members of Noble Team converse frequently with your character and each other and deaf gamers will not be aware of any of this dialogue.
Most objectives are shown in text and can be recalled if you press the start button to access the in-game menu. There are a few times however, when an objective will be given during a communication and for deaf gamers it will not be immediately obvious what needs to be done because the text objectives will not have been updated. You’re notified in text when challenges have been completed, checkpoints have been reached and when your shields are running low (warning you to find cover until your shields have recharged). Tutorial messages are shown in text. Your radar will also alert you to enemies (shown as red dots) that are within your vicinity. Red arrowhead icons indicate the general direction from which an off-screen enemy is firing upon you. However, there are no grenade icons to alert you when an explosive has been thrown in your direction from an unsighted enemy and this can add to the frustration factor. The HUD also displays how much ammo and grenades you have in addition to alerting you to new objectives you have received. Essentially then playing Halo Reach is far from being impossible for deaf gamers but once again it’s a much poorer experience than what hearing gamers will be able to appreciate and that’s not satisfactory.
Well that’s all I can talk about for now. Expect the Deaf Gamers’ review of Halo Reach sometime next week.
What a grossly disappointing news on Halo Reach!
I have ALWAYS wanted to play Halo game series but won’t buy it ‘cos Bungie NEVER put proper subtitles/captions on Halo game series.
It’s obvious that they NEVER learn or understand Deaf Gamers’s problems/ issues on Halo games. I think they didn’t bother read your reviews on Halo games!
I’d like to see a subtitles/caption patch for Halo game series in nearest future. I’m sure it won’t cost them a penny to produce subtitles/caption patch!