Assassin's Creed Audio - What the Hell ?

[Arsic]

I recently started going into Valhalla and Origins, and noticed immediately how bad the audio in these games is.

Everything sounds like it was recorded in a cave. When Eivor or Bayek speak even in the vast open world their voices sound like they are bouncing off cave walls. This must be a bug, right?

I noticed this on PS5 Valhalla and PC Origins, so it can't possibly be a platform specific issue, and I tested both with TV audio and two separate headsets.

On Google fu search this comes up often across all of the 3 latest releases as a common issue.

This leads me to believe without a shadow of a doubt that Ubisoft 100% pays off review outlets to not bring up and ignore this issue in reviews. There is no way anyone playing these games could not only notice these problems but be completely taken out of the game. I even have other audio issues like walking in water puddles but no audio sounds for footsteps let alone wet plop ones. I've had no music play for hours even when set to high frequency.

Has anyone ever found a fix for this or a mod ?

How is a AAA franchise able to get away with such a glaring issue ? This isn't even a nitpicking thing. It's like watching a Marvel movie but through a tin can with a string.

 

[Dest]

I've played 1/2/4/Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla, and it's been shit in all of the. I don't understand. It's always been noticeably bad.

 

[Arsic]

I've played 1/2/4/Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla, and it's been shit in all of the. I don't understand. It's always been noticeably bad.

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I can't recall back to older ones but never noticed it then. I completed 1,2, black flag and I would've immediately noticed this level of awful audio.

How can a company be so willing to ignore something so in your face...or well ears ?

 

[squeaky]

Huh. Never noticed it in Origins, or any of the entries that came before. In fact I remember booting up AC2 as the first game I played with 5.1 and being blown away by the crowd sounds, but it's been a long time.

Edit: I just realized you used "cave walls" as an example. I don't think I've ever heard realistic "dry" sound in an open world game before.

 

[ghibli99]

Blasphemy to many here, but I got the plat for both Origins and Odyssey playing through my TV speakers at low volume with subtitles. LOL Sorry that I'm part of the problem. I used to care deeply about audio in games though. In a way I still do, but mostly in terms of music quality/composition. When I'm listening to OSTs outside of games, I have an amp and nice headphones (and in my 'previous life', I had expensive floorstanding speakers and gear), but playing games these days, the audio portion is probably lowest on my 'sensory priority' list.

 

[Deleted member 18106]

A lot of the voice work sounds compressed to hell and back, especially in these last three games.

 

[Karish]

It's unforgivable and makes me not want to play Valhalla any more.

 

[red731]

Yeah it sucks..
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/jx8lpc/analysis_assassins_creed_highlights_a_very

 

[Aztechnology]

Pretty bad, I'm Valhalla I turned off 3D audio immediately. It's a vast improvement, but a vast improvement over crap isn't saying much.

 

[NeoBob688]

Yeah it sucks..
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/jx8lpc/analysis_assassins_creed_highlights_a_very

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that Reddit post is great. Indeed it is ridiculous what they got away with

 

[GaussianMultivariate]

Yeah it sucks..
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/jx8lpc/analysis_assassins_creed_highlights_a_very

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Wow I don't understand Jack shit about sound but this is a great read! It's a pity that the reddit OP suggest that Ubisoft could reexport sound without such an aggressive compression and have it as an optional downloadable. If they're really limiting themselves because of physical distribution, why didn't they make it an optional and even possibly post launch pack?

 

[Ocirus]

There were many noticeably bad audio instances in Valhalla for me.

 

[Smash-It Stan]

Wow I don't understand Jack shit about sound but this is a great read! It's a pity that the reddit OP suggest that Ubisoft could reexport sound without such an aggressive compression and have it as an optional downloadable. If they're really limiting themselves because of physical distribution, why didn't they make it an optional and even possibly post launch pack?

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99% use tv speakers just like 99% have airpods or whatever, its the farthest thing from a priority and it can be easily cheaped out on. Ive personally never seen a complaint thread on this until Valhalla came out.

 

[GJ]

As a reviewer it always bugs me how almost no reviews talk about this. The vocal recordings in the most recent Assassin's Creed games are compressed to hell and back which makes them sound awful and low quality. But seeing as hardly anyone talks about it I keep thinking it's a me-problem and maybe I shouldn't mention it again in my reviews, lol. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.

 

[Vic20]

AC Valhalla had the best soundtrack last year but you won't know it from playing the game.

 

[leng jai]

It's dismal and the fact that most people don't seem to care or even notice is part of the problem.

 

[RoKKeR]

Yeah it was noticeably awful in Valhalla, I was pretty shocked when I first started it up.

 

[rashbeep]

inexcusable for a AAA game

 

[8bit]

Its as if the audio dudes only get 700 Mb or so for their entire output per game and as they balloon in size the audio gets even more compressed.

 

[Lys Skygge]

I went from Demons Souls to Valhalla and the drop in sound quality was instantly noticeable. I felt like there was something wrong with my headphones and soundbar. I played with different settings and it just always sounded like shit.

Try going from Valhalla to Returnal. It sounds like Returnal is at least 2 generations ahead 😂

 

[NewDust]

Beggar Woman from AC1 is the prime example that the audio compression has always been terrible in AC.

 

[Crystal Spire]

AC Valhalla had the best soundtrack last year but you won't know it from playing the game.

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So fucking true! they brought back Jesper Kyd only to kill his music in-game. The soundtrack is mixed so poorly in the game and it doesn't even play properly because it's bugged since launch and Ubi$oft won't fix it.




The best track in the game is sooo compressed, it's unreal how bad it sounds

 

[Deleted member 20831]

Quite a few games spend a considerable amount of effort to get game audio right and especially at the highest possible fidelity/reproduction quality.
It's insanely shameful to be able to play processing heavy games like Valhalla and end up having a horrible audio experience.

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

So fucking true! they brought back Jesper Kyd only to kill his music in-game. The soundtrack is mixed so poorly in the game and it doesn't even play properly because it's bugged since launch and Ubi$oft won't fix it.




The best track in the game is sooo compressed, it's unreal how bad it sounds

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What the fuck is the point in hiring one of the best composers in the business if you're going to butcher their music? Kyd's music in particular really needs room to breath.

 

[drewfonse]

Valhalla has terrible audio. The ditties that are sung on the boat sound not even remotely like someone singing outdoors in that environment. I thought Odyssey sounded much better.

 

[elenarie]

The audio of the game definitely feels mastered for TV speakers that mostly work in mono-like setup.

So unfortunatel, but it is what it is.

 

[Hystzen]

I assume the audio is compressed to reduce file size but man Valhalla is where I really notice it. They got some solid voice acting muffled and the soundtrack is hilarious how much it messed up

 

[Dphex]

The newer games sound like recorded in a hobby booth set up in a bathroom, it is really bad.

The audio of the game definitely feels mastered for TV speakers that mostly work in mono-like setup.

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its just bad audio quality imo

 

[APizzaPie]

This leads me to believe without a shadow of a doubt that Ubisoft 100% pays off review outlets to not bring up and ignore this issue in reviews.

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I really doubt they're getting paid to ignore this issue. I assume most of them aren't playing on a high end setup or they don't have a discerning ear for this stuff.

 

[Deleted member 20831]

I really doubt they're getting paid to ignore this issue. I assume most of them aren't playing on a high end setup or they don't have a discerning ear for this stuff.

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Fun part would be if reviewers are not even using any audio while checking the games, ha!.

 

[BoxScar]

I care about audio quality a lot in media, probably too much tbh, and it was hell for me playing all 3 "new" AC games. I remember it being pretty bad in the older games too. It butchers the hard work the composer's and audio people do for the game.

 

[Starlatine]

thought the thread would be about how often dialogue cuts into each other, audio desyncs, voices from far sound too close or the contrary and all that sort of stuff which is very noticeable on the new trilogy and upsets me too. sadly my poor ass still uses an old tv and its speakers so cant talk much about what op wants

 

[jkk411]

I wholeheartedly agree, the audio in these games has become terrible and Ubi should frankly be embarrassed by it. I was Googling this exact issue when Valhalla came out thinking there was a problem with my settings. I can't believe they just let it slide and I agree that current game reviewers failing to mention this are giving them a free pass. This isn't an audiophile nerd issue only as the Reddit post breaks down.

It speaks to a larger issue I see with Ubi's output in general which I personally feel has become pretty soulless. It's like they figured out every corner they could cut to still get the 80 on Metacritic and the sale to the customer.

 

[Arsic]

The audio of the game definitely feels mastered for TV speakers that mostly work in mono-like setup.

So unfortunatel, but it is what it is.

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This and the compression I think is the ticket. It would be why old AC games I never noticed it because I used console/TV speakers. These days I'm normally PC/using a headset. Mind you not cheap ones either with 5.1/7.1 Dolby headsets.

An added issue is there is no sound customization options except the bare minimum. No way to pick a surround sound or headphones options.

I have numerous instances where one headset cup feels like it's blasting 10/10 volume where it can hurt my ear when peaking. This is with volume options turned down a shit ton. The other cup will sound very distant and soft/barely playing audio.

Again, tried a variety of headsets, and other games. Only occurred with Origins and Valhalla for me. I plan to try Odyssey this week to see if it does it too.

For the audio guys in here is there a way to run the PC version of the game but have it use my TV speakers for audio out ? Unsure if this is even possible. Could maybe fix the problem somewhat.

I agree with the posts above that a simple optional audio DLC, no matter the GB size, I would download if it fixed this.

 

[leng jai]

The audio of the game definitely feels mastered for TV speakers that mostly work in mono-like setup.

So unfortunatel, but it is what it is.

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It's so bad you can hear the quality drop off even on built in TV sleakers.

 

[Son of Sparda]

AC Valhalla had the best soundtrack last year but you won't know it from playing the game.

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So fucking true! they brought back Jesper Kyd only to kill his music in-game. The soundtrack is mixed so poorly in the game and it doesn't even play properly because it's bugged since launch and Ubi$oft won't fix it.




The best track in the game is sooo compressed, it's unreal how bad it sounds

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I've played over 75 hours of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and if you told me the game only has 2-3 tracks I would've easily believed you. I don't even remember hearing music while playing the game. It's barely used.

 

[Metalmucil]

Whoa, "...24,000 Hz sample rate, with a variable bitrate that peaks at around 70 kbps." That's atrocious.

 

[FairFight]

It legitimately is pretty bad. With such a beautiful world it's a shame the audio wasn't given more attention.

 

[Hong]

Yeah it sounds compressed as fuck. Awful.

 

[Overflow]

It's atrocious, it actually made me stop playing Valhalla after just a few hours because it was distractingly bad - 3D audio on and off.

 

[RiZ IV]

Yeah.. glad other people notice this too. It sounds like it was recorded with really poor recording devices, but I imagine that it's just the compression.

 

[GS_Dan]

For what it's worth, Ubisoft have a thread on their support forums where they're actively collecting info about this issue.

 

[Zedelima]

Well, since assasins 1 the series have a VERY questionable audio quality
I think is something up with their engine or idk

 

[herbchamberz]

make sure you turn off 3d audio if you're playing on ps5. for me, that helped a lot.

 

[wbloop]

The bad audio is the one thing I immediately noticed when I fired up the PC version of Valhalla over my surround system last year. It's ridiculous considering the budget of these games.

On a similar note, if I recall correctly I also noticed similarly bad audio with Immortals Fenix Rising when I played the PS5 demo earlier this year. I might've mixed something up though.

 

[Dyno]

For what it's worth, Ubisoft have a thread on their support forums where they're actively collecting info about this issue.

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I hope they get comfy then cause this has been an issue in the game since as long as I can remember and I've played since the first. They just have shit audio in many areas

 

[ElMexiMerican]

I didn't really notice how bad it was until I upgraded my sound system. I honestly thought something was wrong with my setup until I looked into it more.

 

[Arsic]

I fired up Odyssey today and it wasn't AS bad as Origins and Valhalla. Granted I only got to play for about 10 minutes but it seemed better.

Also it is less crappy on my Arctis headset than my Logitech one.

The fact Ubi has been "collecting data" is horse shit. They know the issue is there, it's recreatable by anyone firing up the games on any version.

The flat out truth is they don't want to invest time and money to do proper audio work for their games. It's just that simple.

I took off 2 points off my own personal review of Origins because of it. Bayeks smile kept me around to the end.