The game has some amazing art direction and plays great but the sound... There's one area in the DLC thathas some catchy melancholic music and that reminded me how boring this game sounds otherwise. I might as well mute the thing and there's no difference. There is no music most of the time and the ambience is so subtle, i can barely notice it. And it's not just because is an open world game, all Souls games sound boring. The only music that exists is during boss fights and it's always the same forgettable epic choir (yes, fight me). The sound effects are also pretty generic and boring. The only game from this series i remember having some cool sounds was those brain things singing in Bloodborne. Other than that you get the usual stock monster growls and hit sounds and that's it.
Then i thought about it a bit and realized it's not just these games. I don't remember the last game that urged me to seek it's soundtrack, which is something i used to do all the time before. I have a huge game OST collection and 90% of it is still from the 8/16bit era and the PS1/N64 (remember those catchy videogame midis and chip tunes you would hum all day?).
Same with SFX. I'm pretty sure the last game i remember that has an interesting sound design was INSIDE but only in some certain parts (the shockwave part sounded AMAZING). The last game that had consistently good/interesting sound design for me was Portal 2 and that was more than a decade ago. Even games that always had good soundtracks for me like the Zelda or Metroid series have now dropped the ball. The last two main Zelda games sound boring and i don't remember if Metroid Dread even had music... did it? Because i completely forgot about it. Naturally, it had to be a remaster of an older game (Metroid Prime) to remind me about the awesome music this series used to have.
Also, no. Sorry. I don't think the recent DOOM games have good music. I don't think Mick is a good musician. Random industrial sounds over an over distorted, super loud guitar isn't music for me but i guess it's a matter of taste so do feel free to fight me. And yes, Mario Kart 8 has a great soundtrack but it's still a 10y old game that mostly has remakes of older tunes. Let's see, what else... I remember Diablo 2 having a great OST, like all Blizzard games. Do Diablo 3 and 4 even have that anymore?
In conclusion, i think modern games have great visuals and good art direction is still a thing. But i don't think they sound as good or interesting as older generation games, as if sound and music in general has become a non priority. I guess voice acting took over with all the talking and expensive voice actors?
