Controllers and accessibility options
The store lists full controller support including DualShock and DualSense, plus Camera Comfort, Color Alternatives, subtitle options and custom volume controls; the local co-op second-pad problem is fixed by enabling Steam Input and assigning devices in the pause menu.
Escape Academy 2 has one of the longer accessibility blocks on the Steam store, and it is worth reading item by item because several of the tags mean something narrower than they sound. The list below is the store's category set for appid 3296060, verbatim, with a plain-English note on each.
There is also one input bug to know about before you set up local co-op, and it has a fix.
What the store actually promises
| Store tag | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Full controller support | The whole game is playable on a pad, including menus |
| DualShock Controller Support | PlayStation 4-era pads are recognised |
| DualSense Controller Support | PlayStation 5 pads are recognised, with their own profile |
| Camera Comfort | Camera behaviour options for motion sensitivity |
| Color Alternatives | Colour-dependent puzzles have non-colour-dependent alternatives |
| Adjustable Difficulty | The help level of rooms is configurable |
| Subtitle Options | Subtitles can be configured separately from audio |
| Custom Volume Controls | Separate sliders rather than one master |
| Stereo Sound / Surround Sound | Both mix profiles are supported |
| Playable at your own pace | No-Timer Mode exists |
| Playable without Timed Input | No prompt requires twitch reaction |
| Steam Cloud | Saves sync across machines |
Twelve rows, and the two that matter most to accessibility are the two least understood. "Color Alternatives" is the one that decides whether a colour-lit room is playable for a colour-blind player, and "Playable without Timed Input" is the one that decides whether a reaction prompt is a wall.
The controller side, honestly
The store says full controller support and lists both PlayStation pad families, but publishes no layout diagram or remapping story. The game's own UI prompt set - Hint, Inventory and Journal on triggers and bumpers, bottom-left of screen - shows the pad layout is fixed rather than incidental. Practical points: the pad is the intended input, keyboard and mouse work, and Steam Input matters specifically for local co-op, covered next.
The local co-op second-controller bug, and both halves of the fix
This is the most concrete input problem of launch week and it has two reported fixes that should be applied together.
The report: in local co-op the second player is completely inert inside a level. Both pads work in the menu, one pads works in the level, and the second does nothing. It reproduces constantly, survives power cycling, and also happens with keyboard for player one and pad for player two.
The reporter's own update names the first fix: explicitly enable Steam Input for the game. A community reply names the second: open the pause menu once you are in a level and manually assign which device drives which player, because the game defaults to automatic detection and misreads some setups.
| Step | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steam, game properties, controller | Enables Steam Input so both devices are visible to the game |
| 2 | In-game pause menu | Overrides automatic detection with an explicit assignment |
| 3 | Reload the level | Applies the assignment to an active session |
Doing only step 2 fixes it for the session; doing only step 1 sometimes leaves the automatic assignment wrong. Both, then reload.
Colour: what "Color Alternatives" is protecting
At least two puzzle families are colour-dependent: mixture puzzles where a target colour is the answer, and the colour-coded room in the first chamber players reported on day two. The store's "Color Alternatives" tag is the promise that those rooms have a non-colour route. Nobody has published how each room implements it; what is verifiable is the tag's existence, listed separately from Camera Comfort and Adjustable Difficulty, which suggests a per-room design decision rather than a global filter. If you are colour-blind and want one concrete answer before buying, the free demo is the cheapest test.
Subtitles, volume and what the tags distinguish
The store lists "Subtitle Options" and "Custom Volume Controls" as distinct from "Stereo Sound" and "Surround Sound", which implies more than an on/off toggle - typically size or background for subtitles, and separate music, effects and voice sliders. Both mixes ship. None of that is unusual for a 2026 release; what is worth noting is that the game is dialogue-heavy and story-delivered through conversation, so subtitle configuration matters more here than in a puzzle game with no speaking characters.
Motion and camera
"Camera Comfort" is the studio's tag for camera accessibility. Around it sits a small body of player feedback about how the game moves: traversal stutter going into the toilets, frame drops in open campus areas, and the AMD glass artefact visible on trophy cabinets upstairs. Those are performance and rendering issues rather than camera options, and they live on the known issues page. What "Camera Comfort" itself covers - FOV, shake, motion blur - is not enumerated anywhere official, and guessing at the list would help nobody.
The realistic setup checklist
If you are setting up a session tonight, four steps:
- Turn on Steam Input before launching, if you plan local co-op.
- Assign controllers in the in-game pause menu once the level loads, rather than trusting automatic detection.
- Look through the options for camera, colour and subtitle settings before the first room, because the rooms that depend on them are early.
- Turn on No-Timer Mode if the clock is the thing that would ruin your evening - see that page for how it interacts with difficulty.
Next: co-op and multiplayer for the player-count rules, or known issues for the rendering and launch problems that settings cannot fix.