Poll: Voiced protagonist or silent protagonist?
- Thread starter HellspawnCandy
- Start date
What I've realied I like about voice-acted protagonists is that it actually allows for acting on their part - moving dynamically through conversations, making gestures, facial expressions and the like - they can talk without saying anything.
Curiously, this doesn't seem to apply for silent protagonist games - they seem to revert to the stiff 'talking heads' approach, presumably because it may look silly to have a character pacing around, gesturing etc without their mouth moving.
For what I think is a great example see Lair of the Shadow Broker dlc from ME2. Not so good - Dragon Age. I love Dragon Age and it's characters, but going from ME to that, I found the talking heads style with the camera occasionally flitting to my blank-faced PC really quite jarring..it just seemed rather wooden. While with silent protagonists it's true that you can imagine the voice of your character, you also imagine HOW they say it, an effect rather betrayed by the fact the on-screen avatar is standing there like a plank .
To cut all that short - It's not necessarily the voicing of a character itself I prefer, it's the fact it frees them up to be much more dynamic and expressive in other ways
Curiously, this doesn't seem to apply for silent protagonist games - they seem to revert to the stiff 'talking heads' approach, presumably because it may look silly to have a character pacing around, gesturing etc without their mouth moving.
For what I think is a great example see Lair of the Shadow Broker dlc from ME2. Not so good - Dragon Age. I love Dragon Age and it's characters, but going from ME to that, I found the talking heads style with the camera occasionally flitting to my blank-faced PC really quite jarring..it just seemed rather wooden. While with silent protagonists it's true that you can imagine the voice of your character, you also imagine HOW they say it, an effect rather betrayed by the fact the on-screen avatar is standing there like a plank .
To cut all that short - It's not necessarily the voicing of a character itself I prefer, it's the fact it frees them up to be much more dynamic and expressive in other ways
I usually prefer silent protagonists, because there's the possibility that the voice acting in the game is terrible, like Just Cause 2. But, in the end, it depends on the game.
REALLY depends on the game.
In Dragon Age, I liked having the variety of options for my character, and it would have been hell to provide even two voices (male and female) for each race and class combination, let alone giving players a selection.
In a game where your character is more defined, like Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2 (and my usual reference at the moment, Alpha Protocol), it works to give the character a voice, because it's more practical to implement, and it can add to the feeling of immersion slightly.
In action games, it also depends. A character like Kratos in God of War, or Sam in Vanquish is a personality. They have an on-screen presence, they're shown in cutscenes, and having them speak helps immerse you in THEIR story. IN a first-person game that almost never breaks from that perspective, like Half-Life and Resistance, your character doesn't speak because that would break your immersion in YOUR story.
Thinking of which, I only just realised that Nathan Hale was a silent protagonist while I was writing this. Even in custscenes and stuff, he never says anything. Except the narrator lady I forget the name of mentions that she spoke with him, so you kind of assume he CAN talk.
Maybe he's like Squall in Final Fantasy and can actually pronounce an ellipsis.
The complete fully-voiced everything-ness of The Old Republic is one of the things I'm most impressed about, assuming it works the way it's meant to. Because that will be insane.
In Dragon Age, I liked having the variety of options for my character, and it would have been hell to provide even two voices (male and female) for each race and class combination, let alone giving players a selection.
In a game where your character is more defined, like Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2 (and my usual reference at the moment, Alpha Protocol), it works to give the character a voice, because it's more practical to implement, and it can add to the feeling of immersion slightly.
In action games, it also depends. A character like Kratos in God of War, or Sam in Vanquish is a personality. They have an on-screen presence, they're shown in cutscenes, and having them speak helps immerse you in THEIR story. IN a first-person game that almost never breaks from that perspective, like Half-Life and Resistance, your character doesn't speak because that would break your immersion in YOUR story.
Thinking of which, I only just realised that Nathan Hale was a silent protagonist while I was writing this. Even in custscenes and stuff, he never says anything. Except the narrator lady I forget the name of mentions that she spoke with him, so you kind of assume he CAN talk.
Maybe he's like Squall in Final Fantasy and can actually pronounce an ellipsis.
The complete fully-voiced everything-ness of The Old Republic is one of the things I'm most impressed about, assuming it works the way it's meant to. Because that will be insane.
I prefer voiced to be honest, I can't wait for the day that voice synthesis tech gets good enough for games, hire a voice actor, have him or her do a few dozen lines, slap it in the games and then write the dialogue so that the game can generate whatever voice the text displays.
Personally I loved Saints Row 2, the ability to choose from a number of voices gave the game real choices, playing as the black dude was vastly different then playing as the English dude (personal favourite, bloody psycho he was)
Personally I loved Saints Row 2, the ability to choose from a number of voices gave the game real choices, playing as the black dude was vastly different then playing as the English dude (personal favourite, bloody psycho he was)
Well I guess I don't know very many butch women but she sounds butch to me, and I agree that the male Shepard is only tolerable in the role of selfish dick, when you play paragon he delivers a lot of lines in a creppy camp counselor voice.MishiSings said:
really it depends on game
like i don't link going around making wise cracks
on the other hand its becoming stale and out dated
like i don't link going around making wise cracks
on the other hand its becoming stale and out dated
Like another post-er said Shepard is charismatic while Freeman is silent. Now if you look at Samus Aran and Master Chief they are both silent but talk in short bursts that make the story better. Personally it all depends on the game and which would be suited better for it. Oh thought of another one the Guy from dead space Issac Clark, horror game, silent protagonist, loud enemy's, gloomy environment, great game.
Either is fine.. BUT if the protagonist is silent, it needs to be because they are a true vessel for the player and they interact with the game world as such.
Silent protagonists actually do ruin a game when it's obvious they should have a voice and do have a designated character/personality but they are left mute for no good reason. In other words, I can't put my own thoughts and words into a silent character when it's obvious that character has already been designed as someone who is not me *waves to Gordon Freeman*
Silent protagonists actually do ruin a game when it's obvious they should have a voice and do have a designated character/personality but they are left mute for no good reason. In other words, I can't put my own thoughts and words into a silent character when it's obvious that character has already been designed as someone who is not me *waves to Gordon Freeman*
