I wanted to rant about the audio in modern games, I feel old games were vastly superior (especially RTS, TBS, SIM and Racing games):
Modern games do not forget the past by accident; they actively choose not to learn from it.
Older games understood that audio was a gameplay system, not decoration. Civilization changed its music by era and pacing, so progress was something you felt over time. Rise of Nations made aging up unmistakable; the music evolved with your civilization, instrumentation and tone shifted, and you immediately knew you had entered a new phase. Age of Empires I and II, before the remakes softened everything, treated sound as feedback. Being attacked had a sharp, urgent cue. Buildings had distinct construction sounds. Unit acknowledgements were short, dry, and readable. You could almost play blind with hotkeys and audio alone because sound carried meaning. AOE1 was such a backwards step when they remastered the audio in the DE.
Back in the day, audio was designed as a gameplay system. It carried information. You could hear escalation, danger, priority. Music knew when to shut up. Silence was allowed to exist. A big battle earned its soundtrack. A minor skirmish didn’t demand attention like a toddler on sugar.
This design philosophy was not limited to strategy games. Need for Speed Underground 2 and FlatOut 2 did the same thing in racing. Engines had character, not just loudness. You could hear rev ranges, gear changes, wheelspin, suspension stress, and surface differences clearly. Crashes in FlatOut 2 were brutal, readable, and satisfying because the audio sold mass and consequence. Music in NFSU2 blended with the driving without smothering it; it amplified adrenaline when things got intense but never erased the mechanical identity of the car. You knew what your vehicle was doing without staring at the HUD.
Compare that to many modern racing games and the contrast is painful. Engine sounds are often over-processed or over silenced, homogenized, and compressed into the same boring sound. Cars with wildly different drivetrains end up sounding suspiciously similar. Tire noise, gearbox whine, and mechanical detail are buried under constant music and cinematic effects. Crashes look spectacular but sound weightless. Everything is loud or silent, yet nothing is informative.
The same mistake repeats across genres. Modern audio design is obsessed with atmosphere and cinematic continuity. Music rarely stops. Ambience is always present. Dynamic range is crushed so nothing spikes too hard. The result sounds expensive, polished, and completely flat. There are no clear thresholds, no escalation logic, no respect for silence. Audio stops telling you what matters and becomes emotional wallpaper. Old games like Settlers 4 and Age of Mythology changed the music when in heavy combat.
The irony is that the lessons were already learned decades ago. From RTS games where you could react to danger purely by sound, to racing games where you drove by ear as much as by sight, audio once reduced cognitive load instead of adding to it. Modern design does not trust players to read subtle signals. It assumes constant stimulation is required, so audio becomes generic and interchangeable.
What was lost is not fidelity, budget, or technology. What was lost is restraint, hierarchy, and intent. And once you notice that, modern games do not just sound worse, they feel less playable. Why do modern games feel so flat, no dynamics at all in both music and sfx?
Modern games do not forget the past by accident; they actively choose not to learn from it.
Older games understood that audio was a gameplay system, not decoration. Civilization changed its music by era and pacing, so progress was something you felt over time. Rise of Nations made aging up unmistakable; the music evolved with your civilization, instrumentation and tone shifted, and you immediately knew you had entered a new phase. Age of Empires I and II, before the remakes softened everything, treated sound as feedback. Being attacked had a sharp, urgent cue. Buildings had distinct construction sounds. Unit acknowledgements were short, dry, and readable. You could almost play blind with hotkeys and audio alone because sound carried meaning. AOE1 was such a backwards step when they remastered the audio in the DE.
Back in the day, audio was designed as a gameplay system. It carried information. You could hear escalation, danger, priority. Music knew when to shut up. Silence was allowed to exist. A big battle earned its soundtrack. A minor skirmish didn’t demand attention like a toddler on sugar.
This design philosophy was not limited to strategy games. Need for Speed Underground 2 and FlatOut 2 did the same thing in racing. Engines had character, not just loudness. You could hear rev ranges, gear changes, wheelspin, suspension stress, and surface differences clearly. Crashes in FlatOut 2 were brutal, readable, and satisfying because the audio sold mass and consequence. Music in NFSU2 blended with the driving without smothering it; it amplified adrenaline when things got intense but never erased the mechanical identity of the car. You knew what your vehicle was doing without staring at the HUD.
Compare that to many modern racing games and the contrast is painful. Engine sounds are often over-processed or over silenced, homogenized, and compressed into the same boring sound. Cars with wildly different drivetrains end up sounding suspiciously similar. Tire noise, gearbox whine, and mechanical detail are buried under constant music and cinematic effects. Crashes look spectacular but sound weightless. Everything is loud or silent, yet nothing is informative.
The same mistake repeats across genres. Modern audio design is obsessed with atmosphere and cinematic continuity. Music rarely stops. Ambience is always present. Dynamic range is crushed so nothing spikes too hard. The result sounds expensive, polished, and completely flat. There are no clear thresholds, no escalation logic, no respect for silence. Audio stops telling you what matters and becomes emotional wallpaper. Old games like Settlers 4 and Age of Mythology changed the music when in heavy combat.
The irony is that the lessons were already learned decades ago. From RTS games where you could react to danger purely by sound, to racing games where you drove by ear as much as by sight, audio once reduced cognitive load instead of adding to it. Modern design does not trust players to read subtle signals. It assumes constant stimulation is required, so audio becomes generic and interchangeable.
What was lost is not fidelity, budget, or technology. What was lost is restraint, hierarchy, and intent. And once you notice that, modern games do not just sound worse, they feel less playable. Why do modern games feel so flat, no dynamics at all in both music and sfx?
Last edited:
