Instead of having true spatial audio for surround configurations it seems like the game is just duplicating the stereo mix into the surrounds. Center and LFE channels seem completely unused, which kinda adds to the evidence that the game isn’t properly mixed for surround audio. And whoever is mixing the game either does not have their monitors calibrated correctly, or simply doesn’t have a surround setup at all because the rears are clearly playing louder than the fronts by a good 3-6db, which leads to really awkward gameplay as all the dialog and sound design appears to be coming from behind you.
This seems to have been implemented in the launch patch of the game, as during the founders-only phase the game was definitely only in stereo, which was disappointing, but I’d rather have that than a bad upmix.
And yet there is no in-game audio configuration option to just force stereo instead of dealing with the shoddy surround mix. Please either give us these audio configuration options or fix the surround mix, preferably both!