Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Can we take a moment to appreciate the sound design (and discuss music) please?

I switched off the music because it’s become annoying after tens of hours spent in game and to my surprise I’ve discovered very rich, multilayered, atmospheric af soundscape. Inside illithid’s nautiloid is my favorite — menacing, otherworldly, industrial. Reminded me of what made Mark Morgan’s soundtrack for Fallout so good — it relied heavily on ambient industrial sounds incorporated into the music.

Said that I tend to think currently music doesn’t give player enough breaks. Add to this the repeating pattern in almost all of themes and you’ll end up getting tired of it very quickly. BG1 handled this by making music appear sporadically along the journey with the big chunks of world voiced by ambient sounds only.

Please keep up the good sound design work, Larian. It is a thing many (if not all) indy developers hugely underestimate thus failing to introduce the world which will end up a living thing.

Haha, I am not sure if it is "underestimating" or simply a budget. A good ambient sound design can make the world feel much more alive then it actually is, true enough.

I didn't get annoyed by music, but I do notice it.

Yes and no. I can see someone would prefer spending funds on visual assets instead of hiring a sound designer, yet I fail to comprehend how grabbing some stock field recordings and introducing them in a game world with some minor tweaks is a budget constraint. As a sound person myself I tend to think it is an underestimation of hearing itself as a way to interact with the world. If only they knew how sophisticated human hearing is, and how vital it was and is for our survival and comprehension of the environment, I bet that wouldn’t be an optional feature.

Then again, how many customers will conciously look for quality audio when making a purchase decision? I will not argue that it is an important element - I think one of the reasons some of the recent cRPGs felt so lifeless to me, were pretty empty sound scapes. But if you do have a financial constraints, better visuals will help to sell the game, good audio probably not. Out of curiosity, I think I will turn the music off to hear what exactly cought your ear