Making games accessible to a broad range players has been a major goal for the industry over the past few years, helping players enjoy games even if they can’t hear or have a limited range of motion – just look at the Xbox Adaptive Controller launch for one example. You might think that it’s too big of a problem for someone without sight to get into videogames, but a player going by SightlessKombat is out to prove you wrong.
You might recall SightlessKombat from his fighting game videos, including an impressive rise up to the top Killer Instinct ranks back in 2016. These days, his YouTube channel includes a lot more shooters, and just today – as noted by ResetEra – he posted a demonstration of how to play Horde mode.
As you might expect, it involves following and orienting yourself around audio cues. SightlessKombat prefers the Juvie Madness mode, which sends a whole lot of melee foes after you – that lets him make use of melee strikes and shotgun blasts to take out the swarming enemies. But he also has a surprisingly effective time dashing around gun-wielding enemies, taking them down with well-timed shotgun blasts.
“Sometimes it’s good just to blind fire,” he quips. “Like literally blind fire.”
One of the key things that lets him play Horde without sight sight is a feature called Fabricator Ping. “This feature will help players who rely more heavily on audio to locate the Fabricator accurately through sound,” the official patch notes said. “This was inspired by feedback from our amazing fan SightlessKombat, who plays Gears without sight regularly using a variety of audio based cues.”
Read more: Check out the best FPS games on PC.
SightlessKombat spoke to Eurogamer a few years ago after his rise in Killer Instinct. If you want to know just how effective you can be in a game when you’re blind, that interview is well worth a read.