First and foremost, “Red Dead Redemption” has achieved the dubious accomplishment of having the worst subtitling in any game so far this year, including the widely publicized debacle of subtitling and text in “Mass Effect 2.”

“Mass Effect 2” at least had the excuse of making a technical design decision based on the adoption rate of high-definition televisions and monitors; “Red Dead Redemption” uses a font which is illegible and unreadable at any distance on a standard-definition television set.

Yes, I’ve checked with people who own high-definition television sets and they confirm it’s just as bad on their televisions.

And RDR appears to have done so because it is a font that mimics text on posters identifying wanted fugitives from the 1870s or so. In short, the font choice appears to have been an aesthetic decision which makes “Red Dead Redemption” completely inaccessible to the hearing impaired.

Furthermore, it yields a larger usability issue because all text in the game appears to use the same font, whether it’s a subtitle or gameplay tip. Finally, making an already catastrophically bad design decision worse, none of this text is letterboxed, meaning that it can often be difficult to even see the characters, regardless of whether they’re subtitles or game assistance.

In light of this, it doesn’t matter whether ambient noises are subtitled (they aren’t), or whether environmental character dialogue is subtitled (it usually isn’t), because the subtitling can’t be read anyway.

Frankly, the font choice and lack of letterboxing make the subtitles so bad that the game might have been more accessible if they were not included. For any gamer who needs subtitles, even considering how fantastic this game is, it is a game that you should avoid unless the subtitling is changed.

“Red Dead Redemption” is somewhat better when it comes to precision – although many parts of the game require a player to move the joystick in certain directions during a quick-time event (such as breaking a horse), the game includes an auto-aim feature that is activated when the player aims near the center of the screen at a target.

The auto-aim locks on to a target, allowing the player to more easily shoot that target.

However, with that said, “Red Dead Redemption” often requires using both triggers (in gunfights, lassoing a wild horse, etc.) and may present challenges for players with precision concerns and gamers with use of only one hand. Furthermore,

“Red Dead Redemption” doesn’t offer any options to change the controller scheme – not even a default southpaw configuration which is common in many games.

Gamers with any forms of color blindness may also face significant challenges with “Red Dead Redemption.”

The world map uses red crosshairs to set waypoints and the mini-map uses a red line to illustrate the best path to the waypoint. The game menu uses red, black, white and grey for its color scheme, potentially creating problems. Likewise, the target reticle is white which can present problems for all gamers when aiming, especially considering the relatively small size of the reticle and the frequently light background colors in the game.

All of these issues are incredibly unfortunate, because when viewed as a game, “Red Dead Redemption” is an extraordinary accomplishment in designing a believable, detailed open world, with incredibly immersive gameplay which, unlike the errand-running in the “Grand Theft Auto” games, actually feels like a game, even when doing jobs like herding cattle. It’s engrossing and addictive; it’s also tremendously unfortunate that it is so inaccessible.

At A Glance

Precision: This game requires a significant amount of precision. Some game features, like auto-aim, make targeting easier, but in many cases the player still needs to manually aim in duels, ride a horse to herd cattle or other animals, scale rocks and buildings, and use sticks to control balance in quick-time events. Recommend rating of 3 out 10 for single-player campaign, 0 out of 10 for online multiplayer.

Deaf Gamers: The game is almost completely inaccessible to deaf gamers. The opening cinematic is not subtitled, and the parts of the game that are subtitled use a Western-style font which is both illegible and unreadable on a standard-definition television set. This may have been intended to make the game a more immersive experience, but it results in significantly degraded usability for both the hearing impaired and gamers who like to have subtitles active. Furthermore, this font is used throughout the game, even when the game is providing mission instructions or tips to ease gameplay. Recommend rating of 0 out of 10.

One-handed: Gamers with use of one hand may experience challenges due to using the right and left triggers simultaneously for firing weapons. Moving may be difficult since the game uses the left stick to move and the right stick to control the camera, but requires holding the A button down to run or ride a horse at full speed, or tapping it to sprint or to spur a horse to a gallop. There is no option to remap the controls. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10 for single-player, 0 out of 10 for online multiplayer.

Subtitled: The subtitles are not letterboxed, can appear on a light background which is problematic since they are white text, and use a font which is both illegible and unreadable on a standard-definition television. Recommend rating of 0 out of 10.

Color Blind: Gamers with a form of color blindness may experience challenges due to the game’s significant use of red. The map uses red crosshairs to mark locations, setting waypoints will display a red line on a white background to reach the objective or location, and the game’s menus are typically in red, black, white and gray. Mission objectives are generally orange or blue. Recommend rating of 0 out of 10.