I love this game, and it's predecessor, but there are some EXTREMELY high pitched shrieks hiding in the music and sound effects that make it hard to play with the sound on. I have located what I need to do in my system (Windows 10) to just cut out those high ranges, making it much easier on my ears.

• Search for/open "Control Panel"
  
  
• Click "Hardware and Sound"
  
  
• Click "Sound"
  
  
• Find your speaker in the list, then right-click -> "Properties"
  
  
• Go to the "Enhancements" tab
  
• Check the "Equalizer" option
  
  
• In the bottom, there is a dropdown of various 'performance types', like Pop, Rock, etc. Ignore the dropdown and click the ellipsis (...)
  
• Drag the 16k slider to the minimum (optional: Lower the 8k slider if the high pitched sounds are still too much)
  
  
• Click "Save"
  
• Click OK on all of the forms to save your change
  

And that did it for me. Previously, I could barely play this game with all of the shrill sound blasting out of my speakers, and completely cutting out the 16k channel has made it SO MUCH BETTER.

I hope this helps anyone else with high-range sensitive ears.