VALORANT players are looking for better sound feedback for damage taken after a week of beta testing

It’s only been a week since the release of VALORANT’s closed beta, but players already have plenty of suggestions before the game’s official launch this summer. One big improvement that many people are looking for is better sound feedback in the game, especially when taking damage from enemies.

Many players agreed that they often don’t realize they’ve taken heavy damage after a firefight until they look at their health and see that they only have 20 HP remaining. Although people don’t want blood splatter or a red filter on their screen, they think clearer sound design could help with this issue.

In comparison to CS:GO, there are clear sound cues that tell players if they’re getting shot or have gotten hit in the head. The iconic headshot sound from Counter-Strike has been etched into many peoples’ minds, but it seems like VALORANT doesn’t have this same principle.

“The game overall has very little audio [and] visual feedback for most of what’s happening to you,” one fan said. “Even with gun recoil, the gunplay feels extremely floaty compared to CS:GO if that makes any sense. In CS:GO you, in a way, feel every bullet of your burst or spray.”

Unless you’ve been hit in the head, there aren’t a lot of audio or visual cues to tell you that you’ve taken damage. The audio cues that are in place—like various agent grunts and hit sounds—are too light and aren’t as noticeable, especially when focusing on a fight.

Although checking one’s health isn’t hard to do, non-visual indicators should be a bit more obvious for a player so they can decide to continue fighting or back off while in the heat of battle.