For anyone thinking of buying the cardboard skin bundle, I wanted to offer some thoughts on them. I already had the cardboard Rein skin and wanted to get the bundle for if my stack wanted to be silly and go full cardboard so I bought the pack, but have some things to point out.
Primarily, the post will be about the audio for them, but I do want to acknowledge that I love the look of the skins and the amount of thought and detail that went into every one of them. The designers did a great job on every aspect of them, as well as the corresponding highlight intros and combat actions, which will be pointed out.
Iâm a Brig main, and the first thing I noticed was a âwhoooshâ sound while in the ship waiting for a match to start. I thought it was a teammate that hadnât fully rendered for me that was dancing around me, but I quickly realized that it was the cardboard flapping. I hadnât noticed it out of spawn but it might be because of all the action going on around me. I noticed that the impact sounds were different, like the flail, the whipshot, and shield bash all sounded softer. Donât get me wrong, it definitely sounds like youâre covered in cardboard and hitting them with a cardboard mace and shield. Itâs really immersive. But at the same time, as Iâve heard the regular sounds for so long, it really threw me off.
Also with Brig, I got POTG and have the highlight intro where she jumps and swings her mace to the ground. Usually, the whip hitting the ground is super loud, louder than the highlight intro in the skin selection screen (I think this might be an audio bug but I donât care enough to report it), but with the cardboard skin, it was actually more of a soft âfumpâ, like you would expect a cardboard box hitting the ground to sound. Nice detail there. Another funny detail was once when I died, I ragdolled and I joked to my duo that the sounds of the cardboard hitting the ground sounded exactly like if you threw a box down the stairs.
Next I tried the Bastion skin. THIS is the one where I REALLY noticed the differences. I noticed the flapping and cardboard-on-cardboard sounds more, like when youâre walking. Your footsteps are quieter, and your primary fire is reminiscent of the Lego skin fire (quieter, less metallic, and more of a âthunk thunk thunkâ than a âpow pow powâ. The grenade and ultimate missiles are more of a âfooâ and definitely quieter and less noticeable for the enemy team. The grenade reminded me of the âfooâ of a spitball that was lodged in a straw and finally made it out (maybe not THAT quiet, but similar in concept). It really messed with me how quiet everything felt as Bastion.
As Reaper, the gunshots sounded like normal. I felt like the footsteps were quieter, but maybe because I donât play as Reaper as much. As with Bastion, I noticed the cardboard-on-cardboard sounds when walking.
I didnât get a chance to try out the DVA but I imagine it is similar.
All-in-all, I have to give the designers credit where itâs due: the skins are really creative, look great, sound great, and most importantly, the little details not in the match like the highlight intros being changed to match just mean so much to me. However, I feel they did TOO WELL of a job. The combat audio messed me up a little, since Iâm so used to how the default sound cues are.
What are your thoughts on the skins?