

@ubi-nacho Please be aware that I do not want to be disrespectful towards you or any member of the support team with this response.
How is the team "taking in additional reports to help with investigation and replication of the issue" ? There is no need for replication of the issue because the issue is always there. It's not like the audio issues only appear in certain situations, it is noticeable all the time because the audio as a whole is compromised.
If the problem was really investigated on, one should not have any difficulty to acknowledge it, as one only have to play the game with sound on to notice the problem.
After the game being out for more than 10 months and this thread open for 9, I truely believe that you guys can't even hear the problem we're discussing here. The only thing that Ubi knows is that hundreds of people are displeased with the state of the audio as it is now, but they will not or cannot do anything because for Ubi there is no problem.
I truely can't believe that you cannot find any audiophile or competent audio designer to acknowledge the problem and finally start working on a solution instead of "trying to replicate the issue".
I may sound harsh but I think that I own the right to be harsh as it has been almost a year since I've been shelving the game, that I paid full price on release, because the state of the audio as it is now makes it unplayable for me. Also, it seems that I've been losing my time checking this thread everyday, reviewing the issue and answering all of your questions, I'm kinda [censored] I admit.
By the next update the game will be out for a year or so and the issues will still not be corrected. I feel disrespected.
Hi @ubikobold,
I'd like to thank you for the support you provide to this thread, however I am a bit surprised by this new post of yours. Many people already gave their answers on the first main thread which was precisely about this issue of high compression/low bitrate/poor overall quality of the sound in this game. A lot of answers has already been provided and we are still waiting for a patch 8 months after the launch of the game.
I understand the questions you are asking are targeted towards people who didn't already answer them, but let me express my concerns about the last one : "Can you provide a video from your gameplay that shows the audio issue that you are experiencing? For a video, post it to YouTube as unlisted and provide the link."
Why is it asked in the first place ? Can't devs hear by themselves that this problem doesn't depend on the specs or the platfrom of the players but on the game itself ? It is crystal clear that this problem is linked to the high compression of the game audio files, it has been wonderfully demonstrated by the author of the main thread and I do not understand why it seems that we are currently beating around the bush like this. People only have to play the game or watch a non commentary youtube gameplay to understand how poor the sound design is and that it is directly linked to the game itself. It is not a bug, it is a design choice.
We can trace this tendency of reducing the audio files size back to Black Flag (and it was way less problematic), one good exemple of this trend is Origin who suffers high audio compression (still not corrected to this date) and Valhalla is the best example of this horrible trend.
I understand that we cannot put the blame on you and this message is not targeted at you personnaly, but I am deeply concerned about the involvement of Ubisoft on this matter. I am an Assassin's Creed fan since 2007, I own every single one of the games, I am involved in this thred as I want to help the game getting better, to finally enjoy it and finish it after shelving it for 8 months. Please do something.
Thank you
@astrocat I fear that if the audio issues are adressed (and that's far from being certain) it'll only be once the "game breaking" and most visible bugs are corrected.
To me the bad audio is the most annoying thing in the game but it seems like most of the people don't care about it (just look at how none of the major reviewers ever mentionned the poor audio quality).
Would be nice to soon have feedbacks from a Ubi official on this forum.
I would like to add my complaint to the existing ones in hope of an acknowledgement of the audio issues especially in the "known issues" log.
It has been crystal clear that the audio design suffered big loss since Origins where the sound was already very muffled and low quality (the voices in particular). But as the author said, Valhalla is a new milestone in the history of bad sound design in gaming.
As it is such a prominent problem I can't see why answering the questions might help as the solutions were already given by the author but here I go :
I started playing on release. All the updates installed and none of them improved the audio.
Operating System: Windows 10 Home
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME X 570-P
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Memory: 16 Gb RAM
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
HYPER X Cloud II. Sometimes stereo speakers where the issues are also very noticeable.
Both 7.1 surround sound turned on and turned off. I even tried mono which is kinda more bearable as it hides the issues by flattening the overall sound but it is far from being a solution.
Muffled sound
Inconsistent levels (dialogues can go from very loud to almost inaudible in a second, onomatopeia are very lound compared to the rest of the sounds etc)
sizzling on most of the sounds and voices (lots of compression artifacts in general)
flat sound
Lack of spacialization
Echoing
Very poor overall audio quality
Please do something about this problem as soon as possible. I stopped playing the game in the wait for a solution to those audio issues. Please keep us updated on the resolution of this problem, don't make it like Origins where the problem was mentionned many times without ever receiving a solution.
Thanks
@hieromalex I still have hopes for this game but it seems like this forum has been abandoned by the devs.
This game is flawed in so many ways that I don't think the audio will be fixed this soon (even tho it's been half a year since this problem was brought to the devs ears).
I think that we need to bring our complaints on REDDIT aswell as on this forum. Last time I saw a topic about broken stealth that received more that 2,6k likes (which is a lot compared to the other topics) and it's very likely that the devs heard about it.
We can only hope that by being publicly loud the devs will be obliged to do something about the state of the game as it is now.
Just read the 1.3.1 patch note... Another month, another patch and still nothing about an audio fix. This is depressing and enraging.
Hi all,
Just to inform you that on the thread "Eivor's voice is much louder than those of NPCs" (https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/97713/eivor-s-voice-is-much-louder-than-those-of-npcs/2?lang=en-US&_=1637318200299) which is about audio levels inconsistency, a Ubisoft offical said the following :
"Hello xxxx and everyone else who contributed to this thread, to let us know that Eivor's voice could appear louder in certain cutscenes and other environments.
Due to technical constraints and other priority issues, we have been informed we will not be implementing a fix for these specific cases. We recommend adjusting subtitles and other sound settings to help aid comprehension of the NPCs, in any situations where the sound is not perfectly balanced."
Basically Ubisoft is droping support on the audio levels issue and is admitting it.
I think that we should come to the conclusion that this will be the same for this particular thread issue.
I'll personaly do whatever I can to obtain a refund for AC Valhalla and will not buy any Assassin's Creed game at full price anymore (sad decision after 14 years of being a dedicated fan).
Good luck guys.
@ibarix2 yep let's not make the devs believe the problem has been solved when in reality it hasn't
As CaptainStarPaw stated in his orginal post, the game audio is still to this date very compressed and of horrible overall quality.
Artifactfs of compression are clearly audible on every of the plateforms. The audio sounds cheap and flat, mostly on the dialogues where the voices sound like if they were compressed in bad mp3 format.
Okay so I launched the game today after patching it and it is still clear that all the sounds (not only the voices, even tho it is more obvious on the voices) suffer terrible compression. The audio is muffled and sizzling/crackling it really is not clear and crisp. All is due to the terrible compression of the audio files. I'm sure that replacing the actual files with less compressed files should solve a lot of the problems people have with the audio.
The problem seems really obvious.
Hi all,
Just to inform you that on the thread "Eivor's voice is much louder than those of NPCs" (https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/97713/eivor-s-voice-is-much-louder-than-those-of-npcs/2?lang=en-US&_=1637318200299) which is about audio levels inconsistency, a Ubisoft offical said the following :
"Hello xxxx and everyone else who contributed to this thread, to let us know that Eivor's voice could appear louder in certain cutscenes and other environments.
Due to technical constraints and other priority issues, we have been informed we will not be implementing a fix for these specific cases. We recommend adjusting subtitles and other sound settings to help aid comprehension of the NPCs, in any situations where the sound is not perfectly balanced."
Basically Ubisoft is droping support on the audio levels issue and is admitting it.
I think that we should come to the conclusion that this will be the same for this particular thread issue.
I'll personaly do whatever I can to obtain a refund for AC Valhalla and will not buy any Assassin's Creed game at full price anymore (sad decision after 14 years of being a dedicated fan).
Good luck guys.
@ubi-nacho Can you please at least admit that the issue won't be fixed ?! The hope of a fix is preventing me from moving on.
Patch 1.3.2 is here and nothing about the audio ( https://www.ubisoft.com/fr-fr/game/assassins-creed/valhalla/news-updates/1xpuIUJm06avDf4hqBkBUG/assassins-creed-valhalla-mise-jour-du-jeu-132)
This is a joke... and not a very good one.
Your lack of consideration for your customers is appalling.
@ubi-nacho Please be aware that I do not want to be disrespectful towards you or any member of the support team with this response.
How is the team "taking in additional reports to help with investigation and replication of the issue" ? There is no need for replication of the issue because the issue is always there. It's not like the audio issues only appear in certain situations, it is noticeable all the time because the audio as a whole is compromised.
If the problem was really investigated on, one should not have any difficulty to acknowledge it, as one only have to play the game with sound on to notice the problem.
After the game being out for more than 10 months and this thread open for 9, I truely believe that you guys can't even hear the problem we're discussing here. The only thing that Ubi knows is that hundreds of people are displeased with the state of the audio as it is now, but they will not or cannot do anything because for Ubi there is no problem.
I truely can't believe that you cannot find any audiophile or competent audio designer to acknowledge the problem and finally start working on a solution instead of "trying to replicate the issue".
I may sound harsh but I think that I own the right to be harsh as it has been almost a year since I've been shelving the game, that I paid full price on release, because the state of the audio as it is now makes it unplayable for me. Also, it seems that I've been losing my time checking this thread everyday, reviewing the issue and answering all of your questions, I'm kinda [censored] I admit.
By the next update the game will be out for a year or so and the issues will still not be corrected. I feel disrespected.
Just read the 1.3.1 patch note... Another month, another patch and still nothing about an audio fix. This is depressing and enraging.
Hi @Ubi-Woofer
Don't hesitate to give us some insight on the way this problem is being adressed by the devs or even acknowledged by them.
The situation is really frustrating, especially since I filed a ticket through Ubisoft Support FB DMs (as asked by staff of this thread) and one of the support staff came back to me saying that there was no problem and that the audio of the game was "normal".
Hope some of you guys can really hear the problem we've been talking here for so long and that it'll be adressed at some point.
Thanks.
@caosck Dude, the problematic of audio compression we're discussing here concerns the audio of the game in general, this being the sound effects as well as the voices.
Hundreds of people share the same observations as the OP (this being on this thread or on Reddit) and dozens of comments on this thread carry the same complaints of bad audio quality.
I don't really understand why you try to diminish the validity of our complaints, but because you don't hear the problem doesn't mean that there is none (at this point even Ubi-Borealis hears it). If you don't have any problem with the sound that's fine but don't try to invalidate the people who have, this is not helping and we desperately need a fix.
Great work from @Isaac02444 I've been having the same issues with stealth in the game and I would love to see a fix (especially detection time and omniscient AI).
Hope you guys at Ubi will be prompt to correct these issues. Thanks.
@caosck well the purpose of this thread is not to say how the game audio used to be better or not with previous installments but more to say that AC: Valhalla's audio quality is very bad compared to industry's standards, that the source of this problematic is identifiable as well as identified and that it should be corrected.
The audio issues are horrendous and shall not be overlooked.
As for my personal set up I don't really understand how it will allow you to help me facing the audio issues, but so be it : I have a Hyper X cloud II 7.1 Headset.
There is like a veil on the audio, the whole thing sounds verry messy.