Eidos Confirms New Lead Voice Actor For Thief

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Eidos Confirms New Lead Voice Actor For Thief

Eidos Montreal says the voice actor portraying Garrett in the Thief reboot needs to be able to perform his own stunts.

The Thief trailer released on April 1 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123021-Thief-Teaser-Steps-Out-of-the-Shadows] looked not entirely bad but the absence of Stephen Russell, the man who so effectively portrayed the lead character of Garrett in the first three games, made fans of the franchise somewhat less than happy. And now, despite hope that the voice in the trailer was just a placeholder, Eidos Montreal has confirmed that Russell is in fact out.

Russell was considered "quite heavily" and was actually brought in for some early voice recordings, but the studio eventually decided to record voice and movement at the same time with a "full performance capture technique," and that left the veteran voice actor out in the cold.

"The actor playing Garrett needed to be able to perform his own stunts," Audio Director Jean-Christophe Verbert explained. "Garrett's a really athletic guy. We could have pasted Stephen's voice on top of the actions and stunts of someone else, but this wouldn't appear natural. It really wouldn't make any sense to capture the full performance for our other characters, but not for our star."

"We're absolutely huge fans of Stephen's work on the classic Thief games. But when it came down to it, we ultimately realized that holding onto Steven as the voice of Garrett just for the sake of our nostalgia would be like wanting to cast Sean Connery again in the new 007 movies," Narrative Director Steven Gallagher added. "It's a nice thought, but honestly, it wouldn't make sense for anything else other than nostalgia."

It's arguable that nostalgia is the entire basis for making Thief 4 - it's a new game in a 15-year-old franchise, after all - but if you wanted to be argumentative you could simply point out the rather large body of work that already exists in which professional voice acting is effectively laid over animated characters, or ask why it's even relevant in what is, as far as I know, a first-person game. That's not to dismiss Eidos' explanation outright, but it is a tricky position to argue; regardless of what you think of it, however, the bottom line is that Russell is out, new guy is in and, aside from slapping your name on the inevitable petition [https://www.change.org/petitions/eidos-montreal-square-enix-bring-back-stephen-russell-for-thief-4#], there's not a thing you can do about it.

Source: Eidos Montreal [http://community.eidosmontreal.com/blogs/Out-of-the-Shadows]


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josemlopes

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I dont get why people will get (because they will) so angry about this, like seriously, someone could decide to make a Timesplitters or a Conker Bad Fur Day (some of my favorite games) sequel and change the voice actor that I wouldnt mind. I would prefer to have the original, sure, but its not like it ruins the game, especially with Thief.

PS: And the guys easily justify their choice here
 

JokerboyJordan

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Andy Chalk said:
It's arguable that nostalgia is the entire basis for making Thief 4 - it's a new game in a 15-year-old franchise, after all.
Except it's no longer Thief 4, it's a reboot.

I like the James Bond analogy they used, it's right on the money. Sure there's a difference in that you can tailor the body to fit the voice in games as opposed to films where overdubbing is unnatural, but there comes a time when you have to let go of the past.
It's a 15 year old franchise, this isn't like DmC where they're completely butchering the mythos, it's an evolution of the game to bring it into the modern industry.

This may inevitably bring some aspects of 'broadening' the gameplay to appeal to a wider audience, but honestly Thief fans should just be glad the project is actually alive, rather than it fading into obscurity- like Timesplitter, or being done poorly- like Duke Nukem Forever.
 
Nov 28, 2007
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DVS BSTrD said:
Andy Chalk said:
But when it came down to it, we ultimately realized that holding onto Steven as the voice of Garrett just for the sake of our nostalgia would be like wanting to cast Sean Connery again in the new 007 movies,"
He's not THAT old!
http://www.falloutwiki.com/images/thumb/2/28/Stephen_russell.jpg/260px-Stephen_russell.jpg
Still it's good for consistency. ho's voice did they use for the trailer?
They used the new guy for the trailer. That's what started the whole thing, because fans were upset that Russell wasn't in the trailer.
 

kailus13

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josemlopes said:
I dont get why people will get (because they will) so angry about this, like seriously, someone could decide to make a Timesplitters or a Conker Bad Fur Day (some of my favorite games) sequel and change the voice actor that I wouldnt mind. I would prefer to have the original, sure, but its not like it ruins the game, especially with Thief.

PS: And the guys easily justify their choice here
Except the older games have always been in first person, so they shouldn't even need to motion capture Garrett.

Is this a reboot or a sequel, cause if it's a reboot then using a new VA makes sense.
 

dakkster

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Same idiocy they pulled for Splinter Cell and the new actor for Sam Fisher. I call it actor since they seem to love that full motion capture acting BS. We want the proper VOICE actor since that's the principal element of the characterization of Garrett that we experience as players. I don't want a bunch of fancy cutscenes that are obviously the main reason for kicking Russell to the curb. One of the great things about Thief was the subtlety of the cutscenes and the thoughts and comments we got from Garrett while playing the different levels, coming across different stuff.

When I saw the trailer I didn't really care either way about the different voice actor. Now that the reason is "oh, we want someone young who can do stunts BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT VOICE ACTORS NEED TO DO" I'm getting this game at an extreme sale price on Steam if I get it at all.
 

RJ Dalton

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I was fine up until that stupid chase and jump out the window bit. Thief was about making sure nobody knew you were there, getting in and out as quietly as possible. And the fact that they have Garret doing stunts bothers the shit out of me. Garret was not a stunt man. Stunts are how you show off and Garret was not a show off.
 

bafrali

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Well at least they had their artistic reasons and they stated it right from the start. This is more than the usual PR from your standart developer
 

Formica Archonis

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Andy Chalk said:
"The actor playing Garrett needed to be able to perform his own stunts,"
So the guy will be talking and swordfighting at the exact same time...? Because a lot of movies, the thing they seem so desperate to mimic, have these innovative things called "stuntmen" who are called when the actor doesn't need to be seen or heard close-up during the actual stunt, seeing as the skill set for driving a car while on fire and the skill set for memorizing a page of text and reciting it with proper emotion rarely overlap.

But I guess that's impossible here, what with the full-motion video that has the actual actor visible in closeup at all times and not some future sci-fi 3D representation that could be played by multiple people without it being obvious....

I have no horse in this particular race, never having played Thief, but this excuse is so weak I'm still somehow annoyed.



CrossLOPER said:
the CEO must look good in a bikini.
OH FUCK BOBBY KOTICK IMAGE IN MY HEAD NEED BRAIN BLEACH
 
Mar 19, 2010
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kailus13 said:
Except the older games have always been in first person, so they shouldn't even need to motion capture Garrett.
This.
The fact that they need full body mocap for Garrett is concerning. I am not sure what kind of game are they making. Steampunk Mass Effect with stealth elements, third person action game, what is it precious, what is it, or will be whatever? This is troubling news. I was looking forward to play the new Thief but I am not anymore.
 

kailus13

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Formica Archonis said:
OH FUCK BOBBY KOTICK IMAGE IN MY HEAD NEED BRAIN BLEACH
Can someone good at photoshop get on this please.
Undomesticated Equine said:
kailus13 said:
Except the older games have always been in first person, so they shouldn't even need to motion capture Garrett.
This.
The fact that they need full body mocap for Garrett is concerning. I am not sure what kind of game are they making. Steampunk Mass Effect with stealth elements, third person action game, what is it precious, what is it, or will be whatever? This is troubling news. I was looking forward to play the new Thief but I am not anymore.
The only reason I can think of is if it's third person. As much as I enjoy Assasins Creed, I do not want Thief to turn into it.
 

Doom972

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That's a very weak excuse. As they said, they could've just used the stuntman's motion and Stephen Russel's voice - and no, it wouldn't feel unnatural. It worked great in many good games in the past.

They are obviously not going to give this franchise the respect it deserves. If they don't care about Thief's nostalgic value, then let them rely on gamers unfamiliar with the franchise to buy their game. We'll see how well that will work. If it'll get good reviews, I might buy it on a Steam sale months after release.
 

Korten12

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Aug 26, 2009
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kailus13 said:
Formica Archonis said:
OH FUCK BOBBY KOTICK IMAGE IN MY HEAD NEED BRAIN BLEACH
Can someone good at photoshop get on this please.
Undomesticated Equine said:
kailus13 said:
Except the older games have always been in first person, so they shouldn't even need to motion capture Garrett.
This.
The fact that they need full body mocap for Garrett is concerning. I am not sure what kind of game are they making. Steampunk Mass Effect with stealth elements, third person action game, what is it precious, what is it, or will be whatever? This is troubling news. I was looking forward to play the new Thief but I am not anymore.
The only reason I can think of is if it's third person. As much as I enjoy Assasins Creed, I do not want Thief to turn into it.
They stated some actions make you go into third person but majority of the time your in first person...
 

kailus13

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Korten12 said:
They stated some actions make you go into third person but majority of the time your in first person...
So they're messing with the camera, thus ruining any sense of immersion and flow? Everything I hear about this game makes it seem worse.
 

VladG

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Do I lament the loss of the original voice actor? Yes. He was amazing, he was probably half the reason the Thief games were so awesome.

But I'd still rather have a new Thief game (and I mean a THIEF game, you cram any inappropriate action/shooter bullshit in there, Eidos, and I will personally make it my mission to take a massive dump in the game box and leave it outside the studio's doors. And no cutting the game out half way through like you did with Human Revolution, either. I don't want another cock-tease) than sulk around for something like this.


Seriously, Don't Fuck This Up! I had no expectations for Human Revolution, since the 2nd game was so horribly bad, but Thief 3 was still a good game, despite falling short of it's predecessors.