Warzone 2 content creator believes developers are intentionally lowering footstep volume

Warzone 2 has come under a lot of fire after players were unable to hear enemy movement, and the developers have fixed this issue to an extent but not completely. According to Call of Duty YouTuber TheTacticalBrit, Activision may be reducing the footstep volume instead of increasing it. Here's what the content creator said:

"The way they've handled the priority processing, they've deliberately made it [footstep audio] worse, and they could absolutely fix it tomorrow if they wanted to, but they just haven't."

Since the release of the latest Call of Duty battle royale, Warzone 2 in November 2022, players have been complaining about the volume of enemy footsteps. At launch, there was practically no footstep volume in the game, allowing opponents to sneak up on you without any warning. Though things aren't as bad anymore, the community seems displeased by the title's audio.

---

Warzone 2 developers can fix the footstep audio by making a small change

Warzone 2 uses something known as a priority-audio system, which takes multiple audio cues and puts them in a single master track. In doing so, the game has to prioritize multiple cues instead of playing all of them at once, which could possibly overwhelm the player.

The title has many audio tracks, including those involving gunshots, killstreaks, grenades, announcers, vehicles, footsteps, and more. Consequently, all audio cues have different priorities, and seemingly, the sound made by enemy movement does not get the highest priority in the game.

The video attached above explains and showcases that when there are various activities taking place around the player, enemy movement will not be heard. For example, when a Mortar Strike is activated near you in Al Mazrah or Ashika Island, this title's audio will not focus on footsteps, resulting in the player not being able to hear others moving around.

An experiment was also done by TheTacticalBrit where a Mortar Strike was triggered 44 meters away while an enemy ran past the player. However, no footsteps audio was heard due to the killstreak audio being prioritized. The same experiment was subsequently carried out, but this time, at a distance of 144 meters away, and the result was no different.

Hence, more often than not, when players don't hear footsteps while playing the game, it is highly likely that another activity is overpowering the enemy's movements and not because there is no footstep audio being played at all. This cannot be fixed by changing the audio settings in-game or by using external software, as this is how the game has been coded.

The developers can fix this issue by simply placing footsteps at a higher priority so that it is played, even when other audio cues are heard. However, the developers have not made this change yet, even though it can be done via a small update to Warzone 2.

The fact that enemy movement can often go unnoticed can be used tactically, and gamers can push the enemy's location right after activating a killstreak so that the opposition cannot hear any footsteps.