Poll: Which Commander Shepard has the better voice acting?

[Zhukov]

I saw this being brought up a lot in regard to that new trailer that just hit the tubes. Thought it would make for a fun little poll. Surprisingly enough, I haven't seen a thread on the topic before.

Personally, I'm pretty firmly in the Jennifer Hale camp. She puts more nuance, emotion and variation in her voice. That said, I can see why a lot of people don't like her somewhat hissy take on the renegade lines.

Mark Meer is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of his lines are great ("big stupid jellyfish") but all too often he comes across as flat and monotone, like someone reading from a page. However, he did improve noticeably between ME1 and ME2, so maybe he'll do better in ME3.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure both actors were specifically directed to use fairly neutral tones. I've heard them both elsewhere and they were significantly more animated, especially Meer.

...

PS. Please try not be obnoxious when voicing your opinion. Femshep fanatics/haters, I'm looking at you.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Femshep fanatics/haters, I'm looking at you.

I think this actually speaks for itself. Jennifer Hale is polarizing because she gives FemShep a personality. Mark Meer is just kinda meh.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I prefer Meer's Shepard. My only complaint is how creepy and manipulative he comes off as during some of the romance dialogue. I never thought of him as being too flat.

 

[hazabaza1]

I suspect this might have been caused at least partially by me.
But, like I said in the trailer thread, I do quite dislike Hale.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I prefer Meer's Shepard. My only complaint is how creepy and manipulative he comes off as during some of the romance dialogue.

To be fair, I think that's the romances, not Mark Meer.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I prefer Meer's Shepard. My only complaint is how creepy and manipulative he comes off as during some of the romance dialogue.

To be fair, I think that's the romances, not Mark Meer.

Yeah, it could just be the dialogue itself.

 

[Yassen]

I hear people saying that Mark Meer comes off as monotone while Jennifer Hale gives emotion and all that jazz, which confuses me since I always think FemShep comes off as sounding monotone. Most of the time it sounds like she's just bored. She even sounds bored in most of her "big, epic speeches" which I always thought MaleShep was able to deliver quite well.

Let's face it folks, each of them have their good and bad moments. It's a massive game series with thousands of lines of dialogue, neither actor is going to get every line spot on.

 

[Fredvdp]

Jennifer Hale is the best paragon, Mark Meer is the best renegade. His deadpan delivery makes some of the renegade comments infinitely more badass.

 

[dimensional]

I usually play a male Shepard but when I did switch to Fem Shepard I was surprised at how much better the voice acting was so yeah a vote for Jennifer Hale here easily the best hands down.

Is there a mod where you can have her voicing male Shepard instead? that would be quite fun (if a little weird).

 

[Vault101]

oh boy...this is going to go well

all Im going to say Is I prefer femshep

also turns out femshep is also cinderella from disneys cinderella 3....yeah, cinderella is compander shepard...

 

[scnj]

I've always found Meer's Shepard to be a bit dull. I don't know if that's him, or the way he was directed. Either way, renegade FemShep all the way.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Mark Meer for the most part sounds like a dullard. Shep just seems flat and bored most of the time. He's not without his moments, most of the renegade dialogue is good for him but since I find most of the renegade dialogue to be appallingly douchebagy I don't use it. That isn't Mark Meer's fault though.


I'm a Jennifer Hale fan; she just gives more oomph for my time spent. I'm nearly up to to the part when she gives an epic speech so I'll check back on how those are delivered.

 

[Paragon Fury]

FemShep.

Jennifer Hale not only is just a better voice actor, but she delivers every single line in the game better than MaleShep.

 

[RJ 17]

I saw this being brought up a lot in regard to that new trailer that just hit the tubes. Thought it would make for a fun little poll. Surprisingly enough, I haven't seen a thread on the topic before.

Personally, I'm pretty firmly in the Jennifer Hale camp. She puts more nuance, emotion and variation in her voice. That said, I can see why a lot of people don't like her somewhat hissy take on the renegade lines.

Mark Meer is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of his lines are great ("big stupid jellyfish") but all too often he comes across as flat and monotone, like someone reading from a page. However, he did improve noticeably between ME1 and ME2, so maybe he'll do better in ME3.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure both actors were specifically directed to use fairly neutral tones. I've heard them both elsewhere and they were significantly more animated, especially Meer.

...

PS. Please try not be obnoxious when voicing your opinion. Femshep fanatics/haters, I'm looking at you.

I've got to agree. To me FemShep actually has the better acting skills, she seems capable of pulling off both paragon conversation choices with a calm, gentle tone, while also being able to become stern and harsh for the renegade conversation choices.

That said, though, I do like Mark when it comes to the Renegade choices, as you said: some of his lines are realy great, and just in general I prefer him if I'm playing a Renegade character.

Edit: Since I can't quite describe why I like male Shepard's voice for the renegade options, I hope these videos will help illustrate it. :3



"I was only mostly dead...try finding THAT option on government paperwork."

 

[Shock and Awe]

In the first one Jennifer Hale was a far better voice actress, but she was also more experienced. However in Two Meer gave a much better performance, so now they are about even.

 

[Volafortis]

Meer does seem to do better at sounding badass, and delivering the big speeches, but Hale still does a fine enough job at those moments. Hale does better in the general conversation options, though. and a lot of Meer's dialogue during romance conversations just ends up sounding really creepy (and when you combine that with male Shepard's smiling,... *shudder*)

Overall, I'd have to hand it to Jennifer Hale, just because it's far more consistent.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Where's the "They're both awful" option?