The return of Rebirth Island to Warzone generally been met with praise, but players are suffering from one major problem with the map, as the game’s audio system makes it impossible to hear where enemies are coming from, and often, to hear them at all.
In a post on the Warzone subreddit, one frustrated player labelled the audio as a “sick, sick joke,” claiming that it’s the “worst audio I’ve seen in my 25 years of gaming,” and that the sounds you do get are “completely useless.”
“This isn’t how FPS games are made [or] played,” they wrote. “I don’t understand what the confusion is over at Activision, but this isn’t how FPS audio is supposed to be. I’ve never in my life played an FPS with this bad audio… This is an embarrassment for anyone playing this game.
The original poster wasn’t the only one to say it, with one gamer labelling it the “worst audio in gaming history,” while another joked that they got new headphones right when the season dropped, and were glad to hear that their purchase “probably don’t suck, and it’s just the game.”
The biggest problem right now is that it’s impossible to tell where sounds are coming from, especially on Rebirth Island. The directional audio is all over the place, and the amount of times I’m asking my teammates “Do you know where that noise is coming from?” has skyrocketed. It makes the game needlessly more difficult, and exponentially more annoying.
Unfortunately, long-time Warzone players will know that poor audio is not an exception, but rather the rule when it comes to the battle royale. Back when Warzone first launched, I spent my days complaining about noises being muffled, making it impossible to know how far away an opponent was. After that came the notorious ‘silent footsteps’ era, which made the game almost unplayable.
Having played a lot of Counter-Strike over the last few years, audio has become one of the biggest tools in my arsenal, as listening for enemy cues in that game is vital to success. The difference when I switch from CS to Warzone is startling.
The game’s developers have tried to tweak audio multiple times, but four years on, we’re no closer to a fully functional audio system than we were back in 2020. No matter what sound settings I try, I still end up suffering, so it’s no surprise that players are begging for a fix.
At the moment, developers have yet to address the complaints, but we’ll keep you updated if they do.
