Sounding an honest complaint

Games Other Halo
#1

For those who got curious, I am talking about the sound of the game.

Most people have problems with weapons, specialisations and what not else that gives them a disadvantage. Although I can understand that those things may bother you, I am more concerned about another thing. I am really disappointed by the sound of the game. I am not talking about the Warthog as that thing sounds fine, just like all the other vehicles and weapons. This thread is definitely not about that, no, it is about the volume.

What about it then?

Let us take a look at how the volume is divided now. A lot of games have a manual control system for this. Halo has not got such an option, never needed it, but we could use one right now. If we had the option to tune volume, this is what the default settings would look like.

Speech Volume: 70%
Music Volume: 65%
FX sound Volume: 100%

Now I have not seen many people on here compaining about this and that bothers me. A game, especially Halo, gets its vibe out of its music. I could barely here the track 117, which is an awesome track, on the final mission when flying my broadsword.

In Spartan Ops I can barely follow anything that is said because of all the FX sounds. Not during missions nor the episodes.

In Multiplayer I get baffled by the sound of a kill camera. The Supressor for example sounds either way too loud or is not heard at all during a kill camera view.

I do not know about you guys but this annoys me, by far, more than a DMR that seems too powerful. You can always train yourself, adjust your strategy, in order to dominate DMR users. We cannot adjust the sound volumes though.

I would like to ask 343 to either adjust the volume so it is more balanced OR give us the option to modify it ourselves.

What do you think?

#2

Agree 100%, Reach where allso realy bad when it came to sound volume. Custom Volume is the way it should be.

#3

Also; The Halo 3 music gets really loud too. Especially if you’re playing off the Mythic map pack disk that came with Halo 3 ODST.

It’s hard to hear the music over the dialogue in Spartan OPs and when the Didact is leaving Requiem, the sound quality takes a dive when Awakening starts playing.

I have had no problems hearing the epic 117 theme during the Star Fo…i mean Broadsword section :wink:

#4

I had a difficult time understanding a lot of the dialog during the campaign. The audio, like many other aspects of the game, was simply poorly implemented. It’s very clear that they didn’t do much testing before release.

#5

It seems I’m having the opposite problem, then. There were one or two times that I would have liked to lower the music volume. Either way, some more control options would be nice.

Also, has anyone else noticed the music in the Spartan Ops sometimes transitions rather abruptly from one track to the next? I notice it regularly Ep 1, Ch. 2 (the Sniper Alley map).

#6

> I had a difficult time understanding a lot of the dialog during the campaign. The audio, like many other aspects of the game, was simply poorly implemented. It’s very clear that they didn’t do much testing before release.

I seem to notice the lack of polish on Reclaimer. First sign of trouble is that Spartan IV with the Sniper Rifle that keeps running into the wall on the left shortly after you get to the mammoth staging area (past the drop zone with the saluting marines). The other Spartan IV smartly jetpacks up but the other one doesn’t unless you nade him with a frag.

Then, after the Mammoth starts moving, Commander Lasky disappears while typing on his terminal (follow him and you’ll see what i mean. Happens every time).

I have had this wierd experience of being warped to a checkpoint rather than watch the intro cutscene/first part of the level by turning one skull (IWBYD). It happened until i turned it off, switched difficulties and level.

The Litch explosion could have been better.

#7

I’m all for a volume adjustment option. Campaign is particularly bad in this regard (Cortana is soooo loud!)

#8

I remember when I was particularly obsessed with the music in Halo 2 and 3. I listened to the OST of Halo 4 as well, which was not bad or some of it pretty good. For some reason though, I rarely or barely even noticed any of the music while playing the game. As OP mentioned, 117 is a great track, probably my favorite of Halo 4 but I didn’t notice it myself until I watched a video on youtube of it and noticed… hey, why is the volume for the music so low?

There has also been a case where the music seemed too loud, specifically during a custom game with my friends when suddenly the music changed in the middle of the match. It became more “energetic” as we reached a certain point in the game progress, but felt rather out of place tbh and too loud at that too compared to everything else.

Can’t say for sure yet, but I believe that the general agreement seems to be that the music is generally not loud enough. There may also be other factors involved such as your speakers, headphones, or whatever output you’re using.

I don’t think 343 would really bother taking a look at the sound to see if it needs a fix anytime soon, or ever, at all. So I’m just sharing my experiences.

#9

I actually liked the sounds. The UNSC weapons sound amazing. It gives the feeling when im shooting them how powerful they feel. Covie weapons sound alien like usual but familiar. Forunner weapons feel awkward and different sounding.

The only sound i don’t like is the worthog. My face sunk into my head in aggony. I deal with it now but. Just…ew.