In Need Of An Overhaul... Sound 2.0?

[PeregrineSolaris]

In most shooters you can rely on hearing as much as sight in your gameplay.

 

When it comes to Warframe, you just can't.

 

Now don't get me wrong I like many aspects of Warframe - especially its graphics. My intention is not to say sound design is all bad. I just want to take a few minutes here to sum up what I think is probably an impediment to Warframe being a truly great experience.

 

The fact that volume levels as well as the quality of sound effects themselves are usually inconsistent has been the topic of a lot of threads in this section. As a work in progress no one expects WF to always sound perfect.

 

But.

 

Most of the time - sounds are confusing. Things seems to be at a certain distance when they are not. By and large a lot of sound effects sound like they are 'wall ignore'.

 

Moreover sounds are sometimes absent. For example, ancients - who certainly do not look like stealthy creatures - can surprise you and slap you from behind without you even hearing a sound. When this happens and you know as well as I do that it happens more often than not when playing against high-level infested I always have this feeling that it is somewhat unfair that ancients would be strong, fast and silent and that you should be able to hear them coming. That puts too much strain on the player who has to constantly look around to check if anyone or anything is not coming in his back.

 

I feel this makes my experience as a Warframe player less pleasant than it could be and since there was a lot of talk lately about Melee 2.0 I was thinking maybe it was Sound 2.0 that we really needed.

 

What does everybody else think? Have at it.

 

 

[RustyNaps]

+1

 

Walk sounds do need to be louder imo for enemies. Everyone's just about silent until they are 8 meters away.

[latarzanla]

I agree that sound should accompany most of the enemies, for us to effectively use both our sight and hearing, but i wouldn't call for a greater urgency toward the sound aspect instead of the melee 2.0. A change in the general sounds, to be useful, would of course be welcomed, at least to be able to judge the orientation of the threat. As an extra though on the subject why not implement different sound for footsteps according to the surface that is being walked upon? Sand should sound different than a metal walkway.
My two cents :D

[genclaymore]

I had a Ancient sound like he was right there in my face, but no where near me with it growl, and yea i had that happen to me many times. I be walking and one slap me across the room without me even knowing it was there.

[Xriborg]

I agree that, in a few places, the volume could use some tweaking.

 

However, I have to say that Warframe's sound design is one of the strongest parts of the game. The SFX are very evocative. There are so many elements of this game that need an overhaul, and sound isn't one of them.

 

Music could do with some serious variety though.

[Egg_Chen]

There are some issues with location of some sounds, but yeah, overall the sound is excellent and the team do a great job (I still miss U7 Gorgon).

I have been playing other games more often lately, and Warframe is much better aurally.

[Equivalent_Exchange]

Yeah, I was talking about sound telegraph in another thread and how the new Corpus deathcry is the most threatening sound in the Corpus fights and that's bad. I don't get why death is the most threatening sound and that just has me turning off the noise because I'm hearing it too much.

[genclaymore]

In most shooters you can rely on hearing as much as sight in your gameplay.

 

When it comes to Warframe, you just can't.

 

Now don't get me wrong I like many aspects of Warframe - especially its graphics. My intention is not to say sound design is all bad. I just want to take a few minutes here to sum up what I think is probably an impediment to Warframe being a truly great experience.

 

The fact that volume levels as well as the quality of sound effects themselves are usually inconsistent has been the topic of a lot of threads in this section. As a work in progress no one expects WF to always sound perfect.

 

But.

 

Most of the time - sounds are confusing. Things seems to be at a certain distance when they are not. By and large a lot of sound effects sound like they are 'wall ignore'.

 

Moreover sounds are sometimes absent. For example, ancients - who certainly do not look like stealthy creatures - can surprise you and slap you from behind without you even hearing a sound. When this happens and you know as well as I do that it happens more often than not when playing against high-level infested I always have this feeling that it is somewhat unfair that ancients would be strong, fast and silent and that you should be able to hear them coming. That puts too much strain on the player who has to constantly look around to check if anyone or anything is not coming in his back.

 

I feel this makes my experience as a Warframe player less pleasant than it could be and since there was a lot of talk lately about Melee 2.0 I was thinking maybe it was Sound 2.0 that we really needed.

 

What does everybody else think? Have at it.

I agree alot of games does it very where, but in warframe its like the sounds are 2D and have no depth and immersion, and make stuff seem like there in your face when in fact they are not. Improving this will really improve the gameplay of the game, since I also relie on sounds to hear where the targets are located or coming from, as right now, I always get the attack from behind because I don't hear them sneaking up or they  closer then what they really are etc.

 

 

Edit: I just realize I already posted in this thread 7 days ago woops

Edited March 21, 2014 by genclaymore