[Feedback] Unofficial Timeline of Audio Reverb & Acoustic changes (2016–2025)

poinepp

First of all I know this stuff may sound boring to many people and make them not wanna read it at all but I just have so much passion for audio and sound design in general. So I just wanted to share some of my observed timeline of audio and reverb acoustic changes throughout the years, along with some feedback.

I kept track of these changes mainly by playing myself and also by watching other players’ perspectives over the years paying close attention to every little detail regarding the audio mix and how the game renders it.

2016 – Early 2019

• Distant survivor screams had extremely low audibility: often felt almost inaudible or muffled.
• Global sound environment was flat: little to no echo or reverb, especially outdoors.
• Atmosphere: it was enough for its time but lacked immersive vibe that the next iterations had.

Early – Mid 2019

• Reverb began to be more noticeable across maps, especially for survivors and any 3d global audio.
• Delay introduced (roughly around ~1-1.5 seconds echo tail) tho echo effects still had muffled aspect.
• Atmosphere: It really started to feel very atmospheric at the time.

Late 2019 – Late 2020 (Peak Reverb Period)

• Reverb significantly ramped up globally. Every survivor scream felt massive, echoing across all outdoor and indoor maps.
• Delay tails extended to ~2-4 seconds, creating long echo off surrounding terrain.
• Atmosphere: Has significantly improved the horror aspect of global heard sounds from survivors and killers.

Late 2020 – June 2023

• Pull-back phase: Reverb intensity reduced.
• Echo tails shortened, reverb less dominant but still present for atmosphere.
• This phase in my opinion was the best immersion and atmosphere wise it just felt enough to feel like you are in a horror game.

Late 2023 (Nostromo Release Period)

• The strong reverb profile from the new Nostromo Wreckage map was in my opinion unintentionally applied to other outdoor maps as well.
• This created an extremely dramatic, long echo effect across all outdoor maps which honestly I kinda liked it a lot.

June 2023 – October 2024

• Bug period: audio behavior inconsistent. Some matches had minimal to no reverb in outdoor maps; others had extremely heavy reverb.
• Delay between original scream and echo response varied wildly between matches.
• In October 2024, a bug fix during haunted by daylight has fixed many of these inconsistencies.
• Outdoor map reverb restored to consistent levels, though delay remained much shorter (around~0.5 seconds) than earlier exaggerated periods.