Well in terms of taking advantage of really good headphones. Senua's Sacrifice
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Headphones absolutely mandatory. Hellblade is the first title that came to mind seeing this thread.
Yeah, great experience with headphones!
That game HAS to be played with headphones or a super good surround sound. The directionality of the voices in Senua's head is next level.
I was walking while listening to the new trailer and it made me uncomfortable. Can't wait
This was the first thing I thought of too.
I haven't experienced anything quite like HuntShowdown. It's a slower-than-most extraction shooter with several objectives on each map.
Every sound matters. You can hear people shooting in the next compound over, but you can also hear someone crouch behind the wall next to you. You have to watch for sound traps like birds, horses, dogs, etc. Always be on the move because if you stop, someone might already be taking aim to shoot you through the wall.
Yeah it is without hyperbole the best sound engine / sound design of any game I’ve ever played.
Hellblade was already mentioned (prime example imho), so I'd give shoutout to the entire Supergiant's game catalogue. So much time and effort went into sound design and music in all their games, it's remarkable.
Oh yes! Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice was absolutely fantastic with headphones. Probably the best audio experience I ever had in a game.
Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have fantastic sound design. The environmental sounds of wind, water, trees and wildlife accompanied by that understated soundtrack makes you feel out in the wilds even though the graphics are minimal.
Not the gun sound effects, not the sound track, problably not a lot of things - but the atmosphere the sound effects in Control created, man it's like 50% of what makes the game what it is, and it's a truly great game.
I came here to say Control.
Love me some Brutalism so you might have convinced me to try it.
Oh, if you love Brutalism, Control is definitely THE game for you
I always thought of control as "that tech demo game with DLSS". It's actually a good game?
If you like action-adventures, the paranormal and strong audiovisuals, absolutely. If character development of the protagonist is important to you, definitely not. The storytelling is solid otherwise, though.
But the sound and visual design work just so well to create this atmosphere or mood that let me immerse deeply but that also let me sigh in relief when I quit the game. It gave me this almost constant sense of dread even though it's not terrifying like a horror game at all (and I really hate horror games or movies) that fit the story so well. It's hard to describe, it's weirdly different but not in a bad way.
If you have the HW power, I recommend playing with RT but without DLSS. Otherwise with RT and DLSS. DLSS does introduce some weird kind of artifacts or such sometimes. Not bad, just better without if you can.
Edit: I guess if you're looking for epic quests, this might also not be the right game - heck, it's hard to describe or say what's good or bad about this game, it's all kind of intertwined. All I can say that I think the package is an excellent game made with a lot of attention to detail.
I'll add on that the little notes, journals, and audio files you find throughout the game are some excellent world building.
Control is pretty great.
The sound designers at Bungie deserve double their pay.
Destiny has plenty of issues but sound design is not one of them. Some of those gun sounds are orgasmically good, and so satisfying to shoot.
The feeling of guns in general is the best in any game I've ever played
Agreed. The gunplay is magical.
Given that you asked for guns specifically I'll go out on a limb and say we are very different gamers!
But Subnautica would be my suggestion. Crazy good sound design.
Warframe has great sound design, and it's f2p. The Corinth shotgun sounds like God slamming a car door.
Hi-Fi Rush, Doom 2016 and Eternal, Hades, and Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus, off the top of my head. All very different games but all with exceptional music.
Doom 2016 - remake of a classic that everyone loved, with the soundtrack being a very large part of it.
STALKER (Shadow Of Chernobyl or Call Of Pripyat).
Music: off
Headphones: On
Good luck not getting spooked out of your mind by random industrial noises.
Well, there is a game that's been designed specifically for that. Metal Hellsinger, you can play a demo for free. It's a doom style shooter that rewards you for shooting and reloading to the beat of metal music, which is dynamic to how well you are doing and the situation. Really cool concept and really rewarding to get a combo going.
Hi-Fi rush.
Thank me later.
Absolutely magnificent game. I wish we got more mid sized games instead of every new game being a 100h+ second job.
I'm surprised no one here has mentioned Returnal. On the PS5 with a headset it uses the "3D Audio". It's pretty amazing.
Squad always got me with its sound design. Nothing too fancy, just guns and explosions. But they DO sound amazing.
I feel this way about Hell Let Loose sometimes
Hollow Knight! The orchestral sound design is an experience in itself!
Bad Company 2 always comes to mind for me whenever this question comes up
I highly recommend you check out scruffy on YouTube. His channel is dedicated to awesome sound design in video games.
Thanks so much. I'll definitely check him out.
While not the greatest games, I've found that the newer Star Wars Battlefront games have some of the best sound design in any game I've ever played. Especially the thermal imploder. Definitely a highlight of an otherwise alright game.
New World has its fair share of issues, but the sound of your pickaxe hitting a rock will make it seem like the best game ever made.
I really really really liked the theme music and all sound design in the Red Alert 2 and Generals Zero Hour games. Those were excellent, to the point I'd listen to the theme alone when working or driving.
Both of the new Star Wars Battlefronts had me feeling like lasers were actually flying past my head.
spoilers for the game hi fi rush but it has hands down the coolest transformation https://youtu.be/cU5utimmtkg?t=92
As much as I dislike them the gun audio on both the 2019+ call of duty modern warfare games is very well done.
From the top of my head: It might be mainstream, but I liked the gun sounds in battlefield 1 and 5. Also I enjoyed the slow motion gun sounds in Max Payne 2 a lot. Call of duty modern warfare was also great back in the day. Don’t know how the newer installations are holding up.
MW2019 and MW2022 have fantastic weapon sounds, but I think the MP soundscape is a bit of a tossup with the footstep sounds.
Never played it personally, but I remember being really satisfied with the sounds from Hawken watching the gameplay trailers. https://youtu.be/udEAEARD-Fo
Edit: reading up on it, the final game was pretty lame, and it’s apparently dead now.