The Finals players want this audio issue fixed

Despite only being four months old, The Finals has gotten off to a great start and has been a huge hit with gamers. Due to it still being new, The Finals does have its share of problems, but Embark Studios is actively working to address many of these to bring the best experience possible to its fans. But, one issue is becoming a thorn in the side of many players and they hope to see it addressed soon to improve the overall experience of the game.

U/TayI_0R has taken to Reddit to ask Embark Studios to fix an audio issue that is currently making The Finals incredibly frustrating to play. In any competitive game, audio is important to give players real-time feedback on an enemy’s location, and the direction that gunshots are coming from, and to overall improve game sense. Unfortunately, when it comes to The Finals, its positional audio leaves a lot to be desired.

The player states that they can hear “teammates footsteps with pinpoint accuracy yet most enemy footsteps are nonexistent.” This can make the game unnecessarily difficult as players will often mistake their teammate’s footsteps for enemies which can cause distractions, as well as leaving themselves open to be taken out by their opponents as they weren’t aware they were being targeted.

Other Reddit users shared their experiences and agreed that this needs fixing, with u/StairsIntoTheSun saying “I’m on PC, I have an audio interface, I have good headphones. I often get confused with my own footsteps sounding like they’re coming from behind me.” U/Rendar explained why the audio may not be working as intended saying “Most likely some portion of the audio soundscape generation is server-side, as a result of how much map geometry calculations are also server-side.” This would make sense as it happens in many other online games too, with players often not hearing opponents nearby and being eliminated because of it.

Some players see this as a major issue in the game, with u/JediSwelly claiming only hacking is a bigger issue, “Besides the hacking, this is the biggest issue. The audio in this game is horrible. It gives zero information.”

Despite this, some users did give praise to Embark Studios for the quality of The Finals’ sound design, despite its issues that need addressing, with u/KatyaVasilyev saying “The sound design itself is fantastic, every single thing in the game has its distinct audio cues – you can even hear someone ADSing if you’re close enough to them. The actual problems lie on the technical side with positional audio being pretty bad.”

The Finals isn’t the only culprit when it comes to bad positional audio, and if it is server side that could explain why it gets fixed in very few games. But, players shouldn’t let it ruin the overall experience as so far The Finals has been a huge hit with players, with some claiming it should be as popular as Fortnite and Call of Duty. While it hasn’t quite reached the heights of the more popular shooters on the market, it is seeing its share of success. The Finals recently entered Season 2 and receives regular updates to introduce new content into the game.

If you’ve been on the fence about trying The Finals, now could be a great time to jump in as it is still new. To have the best experience with the game, we highly recommend checking out our The Finals best Light build guide, best Medium build guide, and best Heavy build guide so you can figure out what character and loadout will suit your playstyle best as teams benefit from having a varied group of players, even if many are preferring Light due to the current meta.