Greatest Voicework in a Game, EVER!

[FieryTrainwreck]

Gotta go with the Legacy of Kain series. High melodrama done so well you never roll your eyes is, IMO, harder to pull off than comedy, camp, or sarcasm.

A lot of right answers in this thread, though. I'd argue against Nolan North because I think he sort of embodies the "aim for the middle", focus-grouped approach that shapes the majority of voice acting at this point.

 

[Winji]

Liam O'Brien. There is just something magical in his voice and it's a pleasure to find him in any game I play =)
And like others have mentioned the narrator from Bastion was also rather lovely =P

 

[PatrickXD]

The best voicework I've heard in game, not for any particular character but as a whole, is The Cat Lady.
Not to mention the fact that it has the most disturbing bit of voicework I've ever heard at a late stage of the game.

 

[exxxed]

Dear God how could I forget about the Homeworld series, both the soundtrack and voice work are amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os280aKKfIw

Honorable mentions:

Deus Ex

Bioshock

Borderlands 2

The Witcher 2

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 and Outcast

 

[KingWein22]

Jon St. John: Yeah, he did Duke Nukem but to VA a horrible Sonic character and to have a Ventrilo Harrasment of his voice was great. Hell, he even did the intro to Twisted Metal 4.

Charles Martinet: The voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi! A legend in his own right.

 

[Severian]

Very impressed with The Last of Us. I've honestly not seen/heard better voice acting in a video game in all my years of gaming(30 or so). It's quite impressive.

 

[Salsajoe]

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

I'm amazed over and over again, by the impressive sounds in that game.
From footsteps to bloodspilling and bonecracking, and of course the screams.
They really let themselves go with the screams, especially the Agathan archer screams of out of the top of his lungs.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Legacy of kain, all of them /thread. TONY JAY IS YOUR GOD, FEAR HIM MORTALS.

The entire cast was great in those games.

Oh, remember Melciah in Soul Reaver 1?

He was voiced by the same guy that was voicing Raziel.

OT:

Pretty much any character Simon Templeman voices is awesome. The only reason the one he played in Uncharted sucks is because the writing for that series is terrible and cliche-ridden to begin with. Even the best can't do much to redeem complete dross.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

Alright, I suppose I'll list my top three.

Spoiler: Number 1

The Illusive man. Not only do I like the sound of his voice, but the tone leaves you with both a subtle undertone of dread, as well as a certain kind of faith in him. Sort of like "I know he might be plotting against me... But I trust in his abilities" It basically gives him this image of a boss that not only is confident and intelligent, but one that you can almost trust (as well as one you wouldn't want to oppose) with your life. Hell, even while playing a paragon Shephard, despite knowing that the Illusive man was "evil", I just honestly couldn't be anything but polite to him. It was a very good performance, one I truly think is award-winning.

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Spoiler: Number 2

Stephen Heck because... Well... Just LISTEN to him, the actor Nolan North truly gets the whole "truly batshit crazy" thing down.

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Spoiler: Number 3

Cave Johnson, for... Well... Cave Johnson.

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Did you work out who the Illusive man was? That bugged me for hours before I realized it was Martin Sheen and at that point it really destroyed the character for me actually because I kept seeing him as the president. Sometimes its better to chose an unknown than a well known actor because that can interfere with the character

 

[Mandalore_15]

Probably not the most original choice but the voice acting in The Last of Us is bloody amazing.

 

[Weaver]

It's obviously Mark Hamill as the Joker.

 

[Iwata]

The Killzone games, in general. The voice cast is a who's who of the finest actors to ever live: Brian Cox, Malcolm McDowell, Sean Pertwee, Ronny Cox, Ray Winstone...

Nothing to me comes even remotely close.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Legacy of Kain, all of them /thread.

I'm seconding this. Listening to Simon Templeman and Micheal Bell is like having a ceaseless orgasm.

 

[Ihrgoth]

I have to say SHODAN definitely gets my vote for creepiness. But more recently I would have to say Pete Reneday as duncan in Dragon age: origins.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

For me it's Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher in plinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

It was the best-written splinter cell game to date, and Michael Ironside just sold the character right there. I loved every second of listening to his voice.

 

[synobal]

Legacy of kain, all of them /thread. TONY JAY IS YOUR GOD, FEAR HIM MORTALS.

Ya came here to say this, quite pleased to see it was the first submission.

 

[b.w.irenicus]

There are so many. One that comes to mind is Gwendolyn from Odin Sphere, it just really fitted the atmosphere of the game. Thomas Jane as the Punisher was awesome as well, the game wouldn't be half as good without him.
Oh, as much as I didn't like FFXIII-2, I thought Caius was badass.


Honorable mentions go to Kain from Legacy of Kain and Irenicus from Baldur's Gate II, because they even got really, really good voice overs in the German version of the games.

 

[Leemaster777]

Bioshock has, bar none, the best voice acting in any game I have ever played.

And Armin Shimerman as Andrew Ryan? God:


This part gave me a voice-gasm.

 

[AT God]

Max Payne has some great voice work, although there are some bits that are poorly scripted or ones where the voice actors don't match the tone of the situation. Overall the voice actors are really good though, the lines especially near the end of the third one, the ones that are plot twist revealing are REALLY good.

Also, the voice acting from StarCraft has been good at some times. The opening voice acting scenes from Heart of the Swarm are really good. The line Raynor says about "moving heaven and earth" to bring Kerrigan back was really good, although alot of the banter in the game is stupid.

GTA4 had some good lines, especially when Niko finds the person he had been looking for.

While the voice acting wasn't good from a technical standpoint, I really loved the voice work by the protagonist in Saints row 2, since they used the same script for all the different voice actors, meaning the Cockney accented guy had to say things that don't fit the accent. Notably how he has to say mother fucker a lot which means most of the time it comes off as mahtha facker, which makes things even more funny.

Also, already been mentioned but Bioshock, specifically Andrew Ryan, Atlas, and Fontaine all did great voices, Ryan had the best by far but Atlas' voice over for when that submarine explodes was pretty good.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Legacy of kain, all of them /thread. TONY JAY IS YOUR GOD, FEAR HIM MORTALS.

Ninja'd on the first reply, as it should be.

Simon Templeton's Kain alone would be enough to make this true, but add to that Tony Jay as the Elder God, Michael Bell as Raziel, and so on....yeah it's not even a contest at that point.

Templeton also did the voice of Logaine in Dragon Age Origins, and stole the show voice-work-wise (for those of you who aren't familiar with LoK and could benefit from a reference).

But yeah, Legacy of Kain has the best video game voice-work. Fact.