MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Yes yes, another Overwatch thread but this is something that has really stood out to me as exemplary in it. I NEED to talk about this. The longer I play this game the more I am noticing it and the more impressed I become. I have thought about it and talked about it with other people enough that I am content in saying Overwatch is the game with the best sound design of all time. Even above DICE's exemplarily efforts in games like Miror's Edge, Bad Company 2, Battlefield 4 or Battlefront or Valve with Left 4 Dead, Portal and Half Life 2, or even other games with notably good sound design like Alien Isolation, Dead Space, Resident Evil 5 or Silent Hill 2. Even Thief. EVEN THIEF! Overwatch beats them all. Blizzard even did an hourlong GDC presentation just on their sound design philosophy. Their goal was to make sounds give the player a Pavlovian response, where they will instantly recognize what has happened, even if they aren't seeing it, can't see it yet or have yet to see it.
I'm going to do my best to explain it so that even people who have never played Overwatch can understand where I am coming from and just how much impressive work was put into something that many may haven't even thought about, but have certainly noticed.
HEROES NEVER DIE - ULTIMATES
To start simple, Overwatch is strong with audio queues (especially and most notably for ultimates, which I'll be shortening to just ults.) Ultimates are the strongest ability of a hero that turn the tide of battle - but you have to charge them up by doing your role as they charge extremely slow on their own - are all excellent and also have lots of flavor and personality. You only need to here "It's High Noon..." and be blasted to death once to know that the next time you hear that it is High Noon then you should probably hide. McCree's ult puts him into a slow moving state where he glows with a red aura and says as I'm sure everyone knows "It's High Noon" and if an enemy is in his line of sight he can pop them and kill them instantly once he is locked to them, and he can do this to all six enemies on the team, which would make Revolver Ocelot very proud. You can tell this is effective because the quotes that come with the ults have already become popular phrases, and you cannot associate most ults without their lines. Without D.Va's "NERF THIS" or Reinhardt's "HAMMER DOWN" or Torbjorn's "MOLTEN COOOOORE" half the fun of the ultimates would be gone. Even without the voice lines, you can still tell what ult it is, along with even more queues. Soldier 76's tactical visor gives off a loud whirring noise, letting you know when it is active and when it has ended along with just how close he is to gunning you down, as he gains auto aim and a fast reload that makes him someone you should not attempt to fight alone. D.Va's ultimate has her jump out of her mech and self destruct it, and it makes a loud warping and charging noise until it explodes in a huge range for massive damage, enough to kill anyone caught in the blast in normal circumstances. Roadhog's ultimate allows him to transform his weapon into an automatic weapon that continues to fire until his ultimate ends that does huge damage and pushes people back. You can tell if he has it by the loud CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK the weapon makes when firing, and when it stops you know he lost it because the weapon never stops firing when the ultimate is on. Junkrat's Riptire is EXTREMELY loud, which is important for his ult. He lets lose a controllable tire strapped with explosives and spikes that can climb up walls, but it has the loud noise of an engine running. Think of it like an RC-XD in Call of Duty Black Ops if it helps. You can hear this ult coming, and most importantly you can shoot the tire to stop it, because if it gets close and he detonates it, you are dead because it does enough damage to kill any hero in the game under regular circumstances.
The fact that the sounds can be heard regardless of your position on the map also helps a lot for ults like Solider 76, Hanzo, Bastion, Pharah and McCree that have obvious effects and avoidable effects so you can plan immediate counterplays without the need to tell someone that x just used their ult, because you already know that. You don't need to ask your team if they just used an ult because you can hear it, and enemy ult lines are much louder then friendly ones. Soldier 76 gains auto aim and fast reload, Bastion turns into a tank that does massive damage, Hanzo fires a twin dragon arrow that moves through walls, Pharah unloads a payload of rockets (usually from the sky as she can boost upwards.) Even though enemy ults are louder, it is also worth noting that for certain characters, friendly ults and enemy ones sound entirely different. Examples -
As you can probably tell, hearing a foreign language is bad news for you. It's worth noting that some ultimates sound the same regardless, like Winston (goes into a fury, doubling his health and making his attacks fling enemies back) Reinhardt (slams his hammer onto the ground, knocking enemies affected on their ass) or Reaper (spins slowly while firing his weapons, dealing massive damage in an AoE.)
LISTEN MY CHILDREN AND YOU SHALL HEAR THE SOUNDS OF OVERWATCH ARE QUITE CLEAR
Allied characters will also shout "Behind you!" automatically, and I think only the player it is directed to will hear it. I think.There's also just the general design of sounds, it is everywhere, instantly giving you insight and information into the scenario at hand by sound alone and I can think of at least one example for each character despite there being multiple. Genji's deflect. McCree's reload. Pharah's rocket boost. Reaper's phase and teleport. Tracer's leaps and rewind. Bastion’s self-repair. Hanzo’s bowstring being pulled back. Junkrat’s traps hitting the ground. Mei’s ice block. Winston's leaps. Torbjorm’s wrench whacking his turrets. Widowmaker’s grappling hook. D.Va’s charging boost. Reinhardt's charge. Winston landing from his leap. Zarya’s shield charges. Lucio’s wall riding. Mercy’s glide. Symmetra’s turrets. Zendatta’s attack. For people who have played the game for over 4 hours, I am sure you can recall most of these in your head, except for maybe Symmetra's, Tjorborns or Zarya's as they do not get played as often. Everything sounds exactly like you would expect it. That's another thing extremely impressive about Overwatch's sound design - it doesn't take that long to pick up on it, even if you didn't notice it.
Furthermore, perhaps the most commendable aspect is that you can even tell who, how close and in what direction someone is moving via footsteps. Overwatch has quite the quirky cast of characters, ranging from a scientist gorilla, a rollerskating DJ, a StarCraft pro in a mecha and a cyborg ninja. Think of how silly this would be if everyone sounded the same. The sound design of the characters themselves, even when not in combat compliments their aesthetically pleasing designs, no doubt a large factor in the rapid success and fanart explosion of the game. Just look at a few of the characters and imagine how they sound when walking, jumping, being hit by enemy fire and so on and be sure to take notice of the intricacies of their design.
Everything you thought of and things you didn't think of Blizzard accounted for. You could never have seen the game or played it, be shown a picture of these 4 characters and then be shown the in-game footage of them walking around a corner out of sight and most likely be able to still tell who it is if you looked hard enough. I picked these four because they are the most noticeable transitions from design to sound design,
Widowmaker is the best example because of her high heels - You will instantly know it is her because of the loud click-clacks, Mercy and Symettra are similair and even with them all wearing heels, you can tell the difference between who's who. Widowmaker as a sniper is a very large threat, so if you can hear the sound of her footsteps you will know she is probably above you. McCree wears spurs - and you can hear them! Junkrat has a peg leg, you can ALSO hear that! Roadhog's chains rattle as he walks and you can hear his heavy breathing, Winston sounds somewhat like a horse galloping as he moves on three appendages. All the tanks are instantly noticeable, as they should be because they are humongous. Reinhardt is wearing a massive suit of power armor carrying a hammer that must weigh a ton while D.VA is in a mech, you should be able to know they are coming and them in specific and you can. They are quite loud! Even Zarya, the smallest of the tanks has very heavy footsteps. You can even tell what Lucio is boosting by the sound of it. Lucio is a DJ, so he also has plenty of other sound queues, you can tell if he is amping, speed boosting, healing, and you can hear how long his ult will last if he is friendly by listening to the beat fizzle out. It's all implemented very well in a way where you will react even if you don't realize it. As with ultimates and voice lines, enemy footsteps are far louder then friendly ones, as to not dilute the audio with unimportant things. Like ultimates, hearing Roadhog hurl his hook, Reinhardt swing his hammer's ranged attack or Mei use her ice block indicates you to an obvious and important effect - If they just used that, it means they can't use it if I were to flank them right now! People even sound different in extremely minuscule ways, from the way you are slightly quieter when crouching from jumping and landing, although most is an extension of their regular walking. It isn't hard to tell that Roadhog's walk and his jump belong to the same guy. On a further note, Zenyatta is completely silent when moving...because he floats. It is really quite the challenge to mix together so many different sounds and have the important ones take priority, but I have never once felt like I wasn't hearing the most important thing at the time in Overwatch, and this is because Blizzard apparently has a system that designates what sound is the most important at the current time. Cool.
From the collector's edition, Sound Designer Paul Lackey explains where they got the sound for the most important sound of all -
Overwatch is an excellent game all around, but it is worth pointing at the sound design as a masterfully crafted aspect in an already extremely well crafted game. It's something you may not even know you noticed. This isn't even going into the visual design or gameplay design which is impressive and noticeable on its own and could pump out a post of this size as well. Turns out Blizzard are still master class designers, and have only improved over time with Overwatch (their first FPS, ever) as proof. Of course if you are playing without sound you are at a pretty large disadvantage! It's not a stretch to say that someone playing with sound on will be far more useful then someone who is not because of the sheer amount of queues that exist in the game solely created to foster better players. So play with sound.
I'm going to do my best to explain it so that even people who have never played Overwatch can understand where I am coming from and just how much impressive work was put into something that many may haven't even thought about, but have certainly noticed.
HEROES NEVER DIE - ULTIMATES
To start simple, Overwatch is strong with audio queues (especially and most notably for ultimates, which I'll be shortening to just ults.) Ultimates are the strongest ability of a hero that turn the tide of battle - but you have to charge them up by doing your role as they charge extremely slow on their own - are all excellent and also have lots of flavor and personality. You only need to here "It's High Noon..." and be blasted to death once to know that the next time you hear that it is High Noon then you should probably hide. McCree's ult puts him into a slow moving state where he glows with a red aura and says as I'm sure everyone knows "It's High Noon" and if an enemy is in his line of sight he can pop them and kill them instantly once he is locked to them, and he can do this to all six enemies on the team, which would make Revolver Ocelot very proud. You can tell this is effective because the quotes that come with the ults have already become popular phrases, and you cannot associate most ults without their lines. Without D.Va's "NERF THIS" or Reinhardt's "HAMMER DOWN" or Torbjorn's "MOLTEN COOOOORE" half the fun of the ultimates would be gone. Even without the voice lines, you can still tell what ult it is, along with even more queues. Soldier 76's tactical visor gives off a loud whirring noise, letting you know when it is active and when it has ended along with just how close he is to gunning you down, as he gains auto aim and a fast reload that makes him someone you should not attempt to fight alone. D.Va's ultimate has her jump out of her mech and self destruct it, and it makes a loud warping and charging noise until it explodes in a huge range for massive damage, enough to kill anyone caught in the blast in normal circumstances. Roadhog's ultimate allows him to transform his weapon into an automatic weapon that continues to fire until his ultimate ends that does huge damage and pushes people back. You can tell if he has it by the loud CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK-CLUNK the weapon makes when firing, and when it stops you know he lost it because the weapon never stops firing when the ultimate is on. Junkrat's Riptire is EXTREMELY loud, which is important for his ult. He lets lose a controllable tire strapped with explosives and spikes that can climb up walls, but it has the loud noise of an engine running. Think of it like an RC-XD in Call of Duty Black Ops if it helps. You can hear this ult coming, and most importantly you can shoot the tire to stop it, because if it gets close and he detonates it, you are dead because it does enough damage to kill any hero in the game under regular circumstances.
The fact that the sounds can be heard regardless of your position on the map also helps a lot for ults like Solider 76, Hanzo, Bastion, Pharah and McCree that have obvious effects and avoidable effects so you can plan immediate counterplays without the need to tell someone that x just used their ult, because you already know that. You don't need to ask your team if they just used an ult because you can hear it, and enemy ult lines are much louder then friendly ones. Soldier 76 gains auto aim and fast reload, Bastion turns into a tank that does massive damage, Hanzo fires a twin dragon arrow that moves through walls, Pharah unloads a payload of rockets (usually from the sky as she can boost upwards.) Even though enemy ults are louder, it is also worth noting that for certain characters, friendly ults and enemy ones sound entirely different. Examples -
As you can probably tell, hearing a foreign language is bad news for you. It's worth noting that some ultimates sound the same regardless, like Winston (goes into a fury, doubling his health and making his attacks fling enemies back) Reinhardt (slams his hammer onto the ground, knocking enemies affected on their ass) or Reaper (spins slowly while firing his weapons, dealing massive damage in an AoE.)
LISTEN MY CHILDREN AND YOU SHALL HEAR THE SOUNDS OF OVERWATCH ARE QUITE CLEAR
Allied characters will also shout "Behind you!" automatically, and I think only the player it is directed to will hear it. I think.There's also just the general design of sounds, it is everywhere, instantly giving you insight and information into the scenario at hand by sound alone and I can think of at least one example for each character despite there being multiple. Genji's deflect. McCree's reload. Pharah's rocket boost. Reaper's phase and teleport. Tracer's leaps and rewind. Bastion’s self-repair. Hanzo’s bowstring being pulled back. Junkrat’s traps hitting the ground. Mei’s ice block. Winston's leaps. Torbjorm’s wrench whacking his turrets. Widowmaker’s grappling hook. D.Va’s charging boost. Reinhardt's charge. Winston landing from his leap. Zarya’s shield charges. Lucio’s wall riding. Mercy’s glide. Symmetra’s turrets. Zendatta’s attack. For people who have played the game for over 4 hours, I am sure you can recall most of these in your head, except for maybe Symmetra's, Tjorborns or Zarya's as they do not get played as often. Everything sounds exactly like you would expect it. That's another thing extremely impressive about Overwatch's sound design - it doesn't take that long to pick up on it, even if you didn't notice it.
Furthermore, perhaps the most commendable aspect is that you can even tell who, how close and in what direction someone is moving via footsteps. Overwatch has quite the quirky cast of characters, ranging from a scientist gorilla, a rollerskating DJ, a StarCraft pro in a mecha and a cyborg ninja. Think of how silly this would be if everyone sounded the same. The sound design of the characters themselves, even when not in combat compliments their aesthetically pleasing designs, no doubt a large factor in the rapid success and fanart explosion of the game. Just look at a few of the characters and imagine how they sound when walking, jumping, being hit by enemy fire and so on and be sure to take notice of the intricacies of their design.
Roadhog - Tank
McCree - Damage
Winston - Tank
Lucio - Support
Everything you thought of and things you didn't think of Blizzard accounted for. You could never have seen the game or played it, be shown a picture of these 4 characters and then be shown the in-game footage of them walking around a corner out of sight and most likely be able to still tell who it is if you looked hard enough. I picked these four because they are the most noticeable transitions from design to sound design,
Widowmaker is the best example because of her high heels - You will instantly know it is her because of the loud click-clacks, Mercy and Symettra are similair and even with them all wearing heels, you can tell the difference between who's who. Widowmaker as a sniper is a very large threat, so if you can hear the sound of her footsteps you will know she is probably above you. McCree wears spurs - and you can hear them! Junkrat has a peg leg, you can ALSO hear that! Roadhog's chains rattle as he walks and you can hear his heavy breathing, Winston sounds somewhat like a horse galloping as he moves on three appendages. All the tanks are instantly noticeable, as they should be because they are humongous. Reinhardt is wearing a massive suit of power armor carrying a hammer that must weigh a ton while D.VA is in a mech, you should be able to know they are coming and them in specific and you can. They are quite loud! Even Zarya, the smallest of the tanks has very heavy footsteps. You can even tell what Lucio is boosting by the sound of it. Lucio is a DJ, so he also has plenty of other sound queues, you can tell if he is amping, speed boosting, healing, and you can hear how long his ult will last if he is friendly by listening to the beat fizzle out. It's all implemented very well in a way where you will react even if you don't realize it. As with ultimates and voice lines, enemy footsteps are far louder then friendly ones, as to not dilute the audio with unimportant things. Like ultimates, hearing Roadhog hurl his hook, Reinhardt swing his hammer's ranged attack or Mei use her ice block indicates you to an obvious and important effect - If they just used that, it means they can't use it if I were to flank them right now! People even sound different in extremely minuscule ways, from the way you are slightly quieter when crouching from jumping and landing, although most is an extension of their regular walking. It isn't hard to tell that Roadhog's walk and his jump belong to the same guy. On a further note, Zenyatta is completely silent when moving...because he floats. It is really quite the challenge to mix together so many different sounds and have the important ones take priority, but I have never once felt like I wasn't hearing the most important thing at the time in Overwatch, and this is because Blizzard apparently has a system that designates what sound is the most important at the current time. Cool.
From the collector's edition, Sound Designer Paul Lackey explains where they got the sound for the most important sound of all -
Overwatch is an excellent game all around, but it is worth pointing at the sound design as a masterfully crafted aspect in an already extremely well crafted game. It's something you may not even know you noticed. This isn't even going into the visual design or gameplay design which is impressive and noticeable on its own and could pump out a post of this size as well. Turns out Blizzard are still master class designers, and have only improved over time with Overwatch (their first FPS, ever) as proof. Of course if you are playing without sound you are at a pretty large disadvantage! It's not a stretch to say that someone playing with sound on will be far more useful then someone who is not because of the sheer amount of queues that exist in the game solely created to foster better players. So play with sound.
