Summary
While binaural audio is almost a standard in almost all modern and triple-A games, few truly rely on it to craft an immersive experience that greatly enhances the gameplay. Other than simply telling you the direction of a talking character, 3D audio that is implemented carefully can help you forget you are even watching a screen.
Some titles take the concept of binaural audio to the extreme and focus gameplay around this tech to craft new experiences, which are getting harder and harder to come by in gaming. While most games have some level of binaural audio, only some games can claim they employ it best.
Escape From Tarkov is a hardcore extraction shooter that prides itself on its unforgiving gameplay that requires focus, planning, and a bit of luck. Especially in indoor environments during intense stand-offs, recognizing and acting on specific sound cues can be the difference between extracting or losing all your gear and loot.
Since every action, movement, and object interaction has its own specific sound, it means there is ahigh skill ceilingfor using audio to make strategic decisions. This also means you have to be careful not to reveal your position or your equipment status when reloading, switching off a flashlight, or pulling the pin from a grenade.
Set in a fictional universe filled with horror and death, Hunt: Showdown is another extraction shooter where teams race to defeat a number of boss enemies hidden around the map with clues leading the way. Since each boss only drops enough bounty tokens for the team that defeated it, you’re also encouraged to hunt other players.
To enhance this cat-and-mouse style of gameplay, there are environmental sound triggers meant to punish less-than-careful players who reveal their position to anybody nearby. These sound cues, along with sounds specific to almost any type of interaction and enemy, can be used to help you improvise new strategies and extract alive.
In the not-so-distant future, where megacorporations have transformed both the environment and the human body into ruthless machines, Cyberpunk 2077 takes you on an immersive adventure in and around Night City. Not only does binaural audio play a role in maximizing the immersive atmosphere, but it is also necessary for gameplay.
In stealth missions especially, sound cues can reveal enemy locations and allow you to overhear conversations that can lead you to secrets and loot. When traveling through the city or entering into live cutscenes, the passing of cars, distant gunshots, and certain dialogue sequences make use of 3D sound thatgreatly enhances the atmosphere.
Rainbow Six: Siege is a tactical, multiplayer FPS that relies on teamwork, planning, and most importantly, sound. Since in each round, you only get one chance to defuse the bomb or extract the hostage, you can’t go in guns blazing and expect to succeed.
This means that you are required to listen for audio that gives away enemy positions, such as going from prone to standing, footsteps on another floor, or when any number of gadgets using unique sounds are deployed. In this way, 3D audio is built into the tactical gameplay, and mastering it is required to climb ranks.
4The Vale
The Vale is an entirely audio-based RPG where you rely on 3D audio to navigate the world, make decisions, and even engage in combat. While the game provides a visual interface and even helpful diagrams and maps, it isn’t required to get a full experience.
The sound design doesn’t feel gimmicky, either. It is carefully constructed and allows you to experience a surprisingly immersive adventure despite the lack of sight. By sneakily combining the narrative and audio calibration, the game tricks your brain into quickly learning an entirely new style of gameplay that almost no other games have replicated.
In possibly one of the best game titles for the Aliens franchise, Alien: Isolation focuses on first-person gameplay and linear exploration while constantly being stalked by a killer xenomorph. Unlike the movies, Isolation uses binaural audio to enhance the horror atmosphere while being an essential tool to survive.
By being forced to carefully listen for when the xenomorph is nearby, environmental jumpscares are twice as effective and really crank up the tension to 11. These sound cues can also be informative, telling you exactly what surface the xenomorph is crawling on or when it has entered into a vent.
One of the most psychologically horrifying games that focuses on audio, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice consulted with real mental health professionals and sound engineers to use binaural audio to create a realistic and immersive portrayal of psychosis. In game, this is represented with Senua’s inner voices carried across your headset, which makes it feel authentic.
This use of binaural audio is essential for every aspect of the game, from gameplay, narrative, immersion, and even ties in with music. The way this 3D sound is implemented is so effective that it allows you to connect to Senua in a way that few games can even attempt to match.
A direct sequelto Senua’s Sacrifice, Hellblade follows Senua’s journey into the unknown, fighting forces she can barely control. This sequel triples down on the binaural audio and the expression of Senua’s psychosis through sound, no doubt using data from the first Hellblade to optimize the experience.
This aided in making this experience feel more than just a redundant sequel where the magic is already lost, especially with the addition of more open exploration. The binaural audio also plays well with the increased number of NPCs that you interact with either in cutscenes or gameplay, which encourages you to listen to every story beat carefully.
