SOUNDS LIKE TROUBLE

Okay, so it looks good – in a ‘Wow, look at all the pretty orbs… oh damn I’m dead again’ way – but it sounds just as impressive. Perhaps even better, when you take advantage of the 3D audio. If you have the speakers or headset for this extra layer, the alien world blossoms into something truly strange and wonderful.

From the moment you leave your ship and hear the door close gently but firmly behind you, it’s hard to imagine going back to a standard audio experience. The storm around you, which you might have heard a hundred times before, takes on a life of its own. Thunder rolls at a distance you can only perceive in 3D, while there’s a realistic depth to the rainfall around you.

3D audio even gives you an advantage in battle, making it easier to identify where unseen enemies are before they can get the jump on you. In a game as unforgiving as this, that’s a very welcome perk. It won’t stop you from suffering a heartbreaking hit that resets your adrenaline level, but it should at least make such incidents less likely.

It’s in the quieter moments, though, that the feature truly shines. Away from the cacophony of gunshots, explosions, and screams, there’s a living environment to be heard. What are those strangely organic sounds, near but unidentifiable? Enemies past the next door? Sometimes, yes; at other times, something else entirely, something it’s perhaps best you never see.

“3D AUDIO EVEN GIVES YOU AN ADVANTAGE DURING BATTLE.”