Destruction AllStars launched this week exclusive to the PlayStation 5, where it's available for free on PS+ until the end of March.

Despite its fairly positive reception, there's one problem that threatens to drown out the rest of the conversation surrounding the game. Which is ironic, because that problem is voice chat. Specifically, that voice chat is enabled by default in Destruction AllStars, and can't be turned off in-game.

Anyone who's spent any amount of time in the public lobbies of an online game probably knows why this is a less than ideal situation — compounded by the fact that on the PS5, voice chat plays directly out of your controller.

As we reported yesterday, the developers over at Lucid Games are aware of the negative feedback surrounding this feature and are already working on improving things.

But in the meantime, here's how to turn off voice chat, mute other players, and mute your own mic in Destruction AllStars.

How to mute other players and turn off voice chat in Destruction AllStars

The good news is, there is a way to turn off voice chat in Destruction AllStars so that you can no longer hear the other players in your lobby. The bad news is, you have to do it before the start of every match — there's no way to change your preferences from voice chat being enabled as default.

Confusingly, there's actually no way to turn off voice chat from within the Destruction AllStars game menu. Instead, you need to wait to be sorted into a multiplayer lobby, then press the PlayStation button on your controller.

This will bring up a series of Activity Cards, one of which will be titled Destruction AllStars Squad. This is the lobby's voice chat. Hit the square button to mute the entire lobby for the duration of the match.

Alternatively, a more long-term solution is to go to the main PS5 Settings menu and select Sound > Volume > Controller Speaker. You then have the option to adjust the sound on your controller all the way down to zero.

The upside here is that your controller stays muted until you turn it back up, across multiple matches. The downside is that you'll need to remember to manually turn it back on before playing any other games where you actually want to use the controller's in-built speaker function.

How to mute yourself in Destruction AllStars

Muting the rest of the lobby is half the battle. With voice chat temporarily turned off and/or the speakers muted, you can't hear them any more, but they can still hear you.

Depending on your feelings on the matter, this may be just as bad. And even if it's not a problem for you, muting yourself as well is definitely the considerate thing to do.

Fortunately, muting the mic on the PS5 controller is a lot easier than muting the speaker. Pressing the button directly beneath the PlayStation button will mute the controller's inbuilt mic. The button will helpfully glow to confirm that you're currently muted.

Once again, the more enduring alternative is to navigate to the PS5 Settings Menu and select Sound > Microphone. Toggle this setting to Mute to disable microphone as default — either on the controller or on a headset — until you manually change it back.

Now that you're ready to play Destruction AllStars in peace, consider checking out our guide on the characters' abilities to help you choose who to play as.

Or if you want to know more about our experience with the game, you can read our review here.