I have this issue as well. It makes the game unplayable so I requested a refund since EA doesn’t seem to be working on a fix.
Really? The game is unplayable because sound effects and dialogue are also coming from the rear speakers? I mean, it sucks and I went with headphones for the majority of my playthrough as a result, but unplayable? Come on.
To me the loudness issues are much more of a problem, to be honest. The mass relay transition screen is so unbelievably loud that I had to mute my AV receiver every time. The same goes for gunfire (had to set sound effects volume to 40% to make it somewhat tolerable), and even the end credits song is at least 10 dB louder than the in-game audio. What a mess.
They are not 'also' coming from the surround speakers, they are only coming from the surround speakers. This means that all dialogue in cutscenes are coming from behind your back only and that makes it unplayable. Forcing audio output to stereo to make it listenable is quite simply unacceptable.
It is “playable” but you get like 60% of the experience. And it’s not just loudness and sounds being in the wrong speakers. All sounds are unbalanced volume wise so like the foot steps sounds are way too soft. It makes for a very hollow and non immersive play experience which is ironic because the whole reason I’m replaying the game in a remaster was so I could get a more immersive experience lol. Playing with headphones or in stereo on speakers does not fix the low/high volumes.
EA has a track record of not fixing huge bugs for a very long time, if ever, so I got my money back since this isn’t what I paid for. I encourage others to get a refund too since money talks. Sony will refund you despite having downloaded and played it as a one time exception, if you’ve never done that before.
