audio is not bold enough.

[La Bourlingue]

Ok , I'm Having an absolute blast playing right now but I 've come to realise some specific things that could use revamp:

-The audio side of this game could use major improvements. while gun sounds are timber-wise subjective, they really could use more emphasis and presence, same with any combat sounds actually, they are weirdly mixed and at average camera distance all the subtle audio is inaudible aside from shooting and getting hit. the music is set too loud by default and completely drowns FX details.

The cam distance/volume could use some spacialization tweak or recepted also from the character's POV in the mix, honestly I think it's not a good idea to use the vertical axis this hard with the camera as receptor in calculating the audio in top down oblique games even if that's accurate simulation, because you hear things like if you were 40 feet in the air since that's were your camera is at. the result is you spend your time listening to lots of game effect audio as if you were easvesdropping it from yards away unless you zoom to max.
I didn't even realise some sounds until I zoomed and noticed audio was only camera/angle distance dependant.
The game lacks a lot in soundscape and relies a bit too much on the awesome ambiant music to convey ambiance. it needs bolder sound design, right now it's too tame and silent and doesn't have a real solid identity aside from the score. audio could be more supportive really, death anims are underwhelming, very few screams and impact/weapon sound render doesn't feel satisfying. I think it's to blame on that camera/volume thing mainly, because the audio is so much more vivid in close up camera and the game is more engaging with present audio.

the game feels mute many times,wind loops & layers need some more spark & detail, I really wouldn't mind more artsy & in your face audio. fallout had things like distant gun shot ambient effect, distant metal clanking, noises of godknowswhat noises of ambiant people, even if they are not super realistic in the implementation, they gave a strong identity to the game.

Could the camera/volume curve be tweaked in the future ? so that we can hear what's going loud and clear even zoomed out max with less of a volume drop. I can't grasp the audio identity of this game because we don't get to hear the sounds at intelligible volume most of the time.
don't laugh , it took 30 hours for me to realize this game had footstep sounds or fire sounds lol.