Video games with your favorite sound design?

[The BMFG]

What video games do you guys think has the best sound design? Personally I'd choose Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2 (The original one) & Mortal Kombat 9.

[MrFlibble]

Doom 64?

[vanilla_d00m]

Arcade version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.  Classic DOOM from the 90s, StarCraft BroodWar and Diablo 2.  These games brighten up my gaming world.

Edited June 16 by vanilla_d00m

[CrocMagnum]

Vampire the Masquerade Redemption (2000) pleases me in every aspect of its sound design. 

 

The soundtrack by Kevin Manthei was exceptional, it still gives me the chills: Main Theme, Anezka Theme.  

 

The Voice Acting was memorable too. The actors tried to mimic Old English.

It wasn't perfect but it added so much to the Medieval/Ghotic atmosphere. 

 

The Sound Effects created by Nick Peck were so polished that I still remember them to this day:

The footsteps, the potions, the weapons clashing in the inventory, the vampiric powers or the cue when you gained a level. 

 

Finally Vampire Redemption had EAX sound, it was such a joy to play this game. 

 

Edit: while doing my search I learned two things: 

 

1- Vampire Redemption was developed by an American studio. Damn, I always thought Nihilistic were from Eastern countries. 

2- the voice actress who dubbed Anezka (Maggie Beard) also voiced Samara in Mass Effect 2! I would never have thought. 

 

Edited June 15 by CrocMagnum

[Mr. Freeze]

Ready or Not. The best gunshots and death screams I've ever heard. 

[DiavoJinx]

Elite Dangerous by far.  No other game I've played has come close, and there are many good ones.

[El Juancho]

Half-Life, the sound design is just so iconic

[Patrick_Plays_Doom]

5 minutes ago, El Juancho said:

Half-Life, the sound design is just so iconic

Well You get the trophy of beating me to say this, well done

Half life just has so fun sound effects, i love the way they recycle them sometimes, in clever ways, it has charm

[LadyMistDragon]

Horror developers Frictional Games always bring it with their sound design. It's quite intense and you can really feel the sound of things bouncing around and the sounds can easily be associated with what they represent.

[Mr Masker]

Hitman Contracts is a very unique game in the series in terms of its tone. The other games aren't always cheery cheery, but Contracts really goes in that darker gloomy tone. The soundtrack has plenty of electronic sounds and all that, but also loads of atmospheric tracks which are done perfectly. It gives the game a creepy atmosphere that I just love. 

Spoiler

 

 

The levels are flashbacks, while your character is recovering from a gunshot wound. The outside world in real life is raining, so every level is during rain (even in the Hitman 1 remake levels, where it wasn't actually raining). The sound of the rain + the atmospheric music is super iconic and memorable for me, and it's one of the reasons why it's my favorite in the series. Even with the themes and levels aside, the game quickly pulls off its dark and grim setting through it's visual and sound design.

 

I feel like the recent HITMAN 3 took some inspiration from this game, albeit with a more cinematic and flashy nature at times. I still feel like this did it better though, perhaps the old game-y feel aids its uneasy tone.

 

There's probably more I can bring up, but it's been a while since I last played this game so that's all I've got currently.

Edited June 15 by Mr Masker

[Zerofuchs]

Elite's already been mentioned, good sound design is a big part of any solid space sim.

 

Arma 3, in a not hugely surprising twist considering it is a simulator, does an excellent job on the sounds of gunfire, ricochets, doppler effects from moving vehicles, sound travelling over distance... and shellshock (never forget earplugs). With a few mods like TFAR, you can get full 3D audio and realistic radios affected by signal.

[Gaia74]

As someone who stole extracted sounds of entire games for my dumb things, I have to say that Armored Core 6, Sekiro, Kingdom Hearts 3, League of LEgends and Doom Eternal, and Front Mission Evolved, have somehow great sound design

 

specially Sekiro, deflects make one happier

[Daemonic Synergy]

Let's see...

 

Half-Life 2, DOOM Eternal, Ion Fury to name a few. Coincidentally all of these are FPS games, but they have brilliant sound design and scores as well. 

 

A couple of honorable mentions also:

 

Anno Mutationem, and Hollow Knight. 

 

All of the games I mentioned also have fantastic art style, which really make the entire vibe quite memorable. Strictly from environmental sound design though, they are all my favorites.

[Skullzrawk9]

Hotline Miami by far, has my favorite sound design. Not only do the guns sound good, but melee combat has these sort of crunchy/juicy sounds that tie in with the visual game feel.

Edited June 15 by Skullzrawk9

[SilverMiner]

Blood, Far Cry, Flatout, Fallout, Doom, Minecraft, Heretic, Hexen, Loderunner Legend Returns, Granny in Paradise, Super Cow, Redneck Rampage (translation by GSC game world)

[Milkeno]

Baldies ps1, never tried the other versions so I don't know the quirks of each version's sounds.

[Artyoman]

Half Life 1 & 2, Quake, flash games, old minecraft versions, Source games overall

[OpenRift]

Half-Life 1, hands down. Easily some of the most satisfying and responsive sound design in gaming.

[Downcologo one]

Plants vs zombies 1 

 

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Fallout 4. Always nice to know how far away I am from an enemy by hearing the gunfire go from slight pops to full on gunshots.

[Lila Feuer]

Quake, Quake II, Quake III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom 3, Heretic and Hexen series, Half-Life 1, Unreal/Unreal Tournament, F.E.A.R. (the first one), Fallout 3/New Vegas, Manhunt, Carmageddon series (especially those ped collisions in the first one!) Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 1-4, Devil May Cry series, Hotline Miami 1-2, and Fromsoft games. Honorable mention to Aubrey Hodges for his sound design for PS1/N64 Doom.

Edited June 15 by Lila Feuer

[wildriot]

Sonic 3, alot of the various sfx just tickles my brain in a special type of way, not to mention its OST.

[SirPootis]

Gotta say I love Hunt: Showdown's sound design. Gunshots you can always hear (and different sounds dependent on distance, so keen hunters can actually get a feel for exactly where a hunter is just by hearing a distant shot), plus footsteps that, while a bit loud, help to pinpoint a hunter's exact location. Add in the AI opponents that always make some kind of noise, dogs and chickens that bark when hunters get near, and the great ambient noises, and you have an atmospheric pvpve shooter that also gives you all the intel you need if you pay attention

[Xaser]

There are plenty of games that deserve a shout-out, but the one that comes to the top of my head at the moment is Dead Space. It's a rare case where the ideal way to play the game is to turn the music off and let the audio design do all the heavy lifting. Shit's great, yo.

[yakfak]

curse of monkey island

the music is atmospheric and joyous, the voice acting is the only voice acting I think I actually like in games and there's a great crossfading system at play in the background

[Lila Feuer]

@Xaser Knew I was forgetting something, yeah Dead Space is the shit.

[fishy]

i like doom ofc, budokai tenkaichi 3, csgo, left 4 dead has masterful sounds too, pes 2006 also had great sounds and great music, then you have stuff like black on ps2, ofc the mario games can't go wrong with mario, etc.

[DerTimmy]

returnal

[Lippeth]

Diablo 2 has really satisfying sound effects for combat and inventory items. The sound design is probably one of the biggest reasons the game as a whole is so addictive.

[Lila Feuer]

@Lippeth Oh that's just cruel of my faulty memory, I can't believe I'd forget Diablo!