the sound in OW1 was perfect in ow its too basey like everything sounds the same? Is there any way to fix this with ow2?
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I’d recommend turning on dolby atmos for headphones, and setting your audio mix to headphones as well
done that and it did make it better but it still too much base and doesnt sound as good as it did in OW1
To make OW2 feel like it has “punch” to its audio, the devs apparently felt they had to re-record new samples that purposely upped the distortion and bass so that we’d think the game now sounds “cooler.” So long as its louder and more obnoxious, it’s gotta be better. (Right?) Plus it stands out more for being so different, which I think was the idea behind upselling OW2 as a “proper” sequel. At the same time, not-so-complicated or high tech positional audio has taken a backseat. We’ve seen plenty of map specific audio issues, internal engine issues that gave us that lovely issue where random ult callouts were played w/o using the positional filter, and even integration issues using software Atmos itself, all of which lasted for months without fixes.
I think the reasoning behind the decision to do so was a combination of:
- management enforcing new development direction meant to cater to Gen Z mobile phone kids who they assumed either don’t know or don’t really care about good-sounding audio,
– and – - devs feeling they could use the excuse that their bad overly distorted new audio samples were the side effects of being made to sound louder, which itself was purposely done to compensate for hearing damage suffered over the years by veteran OW1 players who cranked up their audio for that extra competitive edge—all because listened for hours/day on cheaper gear (think leaky audio kind that lets in background noise).
But you’re right, OP, I whole-heartedly agree: OW2 audio sucks, and I’m afraid it’s going to continue to stay that way for quite some time due to current company priorities. Blizzard practices over the past year has made it clear that skin shop monetization must be front and center. All forms of MTX take top priority with everything else taking a backseat, and needing to be only minimally passable so as to not impede you from buying the all-important cosmetics.
the audio in ow1 was literally crystal clear, even in team fights, it sucks that it will never be fixed!
I have this issue! The tldr answer is that an EQ will fix almost anything to a point like this if you learn how to, and also different headphones with their different tunes are a potentially expensive way of fixing that if you don’t want to EQ. But if you learn EQ you’ll be able to make your own custom gaming presets that can elevate important information like footsteps and other details you desire over others so that you can basically echo locate through lots of terrain to the point of feeling sus.
What audio equipment are you using? I have a pair of unpopular headphones (Senn HD579) that I fell in love with because after I eqed them I could pick out everything going on through walls and multiple explosions etc. so they were amazing for gaming. Its silly but the reason they work for OW is because they lack low bass, but still have mid bass so everything still sounds punchy, and is what the nerds call mid scooped so less middle frequencies but you still could hear all the higher details. Basically they suck for enjoyment but are perfect for information critical listening without getting overwhelmed. I also made a mistake, I have an AMP/DAC and all these years had it on high gain settings, which caused bass to heavily distort worsening the problem. So lowering it was part of the fix for me.
But this year I decided to upgrade and… omg I couldn’t hear anything that was going on in OW2 on all these different expensive headphones I was trying. Other games would sound fine, but yes OW2 would sound over-bassy, so much low rumbling from anything that it makes it impossible to even hear a Rein charging up right behind me! I was literally dumbfounded how thousands of other players could function with that audio, or how they could release the game sounding like that thinking its fine…
Unfortunately my solution was just to keep trying headphones until I found another with a similar tune to my old ones but higher quality (Ananda Nanos). I say unfortunately because, if you learn how to EQ you can fix what bothers you without having to spend any money (reducing the too loud frequencies and bringing the other ones up). But still, I shouldn’t have had to go through a headphone selection process to find OW compatible headphones.
check to see if the drivers and software for your soundcard are up to date if you have a certain sound card you can edit bass levels with an equalizer built into the software
my headphones are fine, I played LOL before and the sound in that game is just as good as OW1 was. 1 example is that, i was in the jungle and i moved my camera away from my character but in the bottom of my ear i could hear the monsters hitting me! just like u could in ow1!