The Best and Worst of Video Game Voice Acting

[Blue_vision]

Best? Mass Effect series, especially FemShep, Tali and Garrus. The combination of a great script and brilliant voice acting puts it at the top of the list for me.

I'll agree with this. I also find that Bioshock has particularly good voice acting. It seems so natural, and that's only partly due to good writing

I'm sure there's far worse games out there, but I'd just like to say that nearly all the voices and lines of dialogue from Just Cause 2 make my ears bleed. It's just so bad on so many levels, though I'm not sure if that's supposed to be the point or not.

 

[Azulito]

Best: Metal Gear Solid for me

Worst, albeit hilarious (This was posted on another topic)

 

[Grygor]

The best voice acting in games I played are usually when only a few conversations are voiced such as Fallout 2, Arcanum and Planescape: Torment.

The worst voice acting had to be Zero Wing which I never played just seen videos of.

The actual game didn't have voice acting.

What you're hearing in the videos was added after the fact by people mocking the game's terribly-translated English text.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Worst: The CDi games. (No f***ing contest...)

O RLY?

<youtube=Mv8uTePIEXs>

Don't mess around with RAD, mother f***er. This game's voice acting is bad enough to melt cats.

EDIT: The game itself is pretty good though.

Yeah.... I'm sorry, but no.
That is absolutely brilliant voice acting compared to dun dun dun "Chaos Wars!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bangt7d9vGA
Easily the worst ever. it's like the actors were bored as they read their lines.

 

[Reiver102]

Hmm
Best: Mass Effect games are really frikkin good, which helps the overall cinematic quality of the games. Amongst older games, I'd say Ys 1&2 for the Turbografx CD-ROM was a landmark in all kinds of ways, not least of which was that they hired professional voice actors (in 1990!)

Worst: Tough one...the English version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PS1 was pretty bad, but even worse are some other Turbografx CD games, like Valis 3 and Ys 3, just to name a couple. Valis 3 is so bad I don't think the actor's were even getting paid (or they were related to the programmers and wanted 15 mins of fame). Oh yeah, and the PC had a whole slew of FMV crap like 7th Guest, and even the wonderful Ultima games, where Richard Garriott actually did Lord British' voice, to the eternal bleeding of my ears.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Crap! Disregard this post. The Escapist was being screwey.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Best-Metroid Other M

Worst-Mass Effect

Oh you!

Out of my current steam library?
Eh, very little bad acting and a ton of good voice acting (psychonauts, arkham, modern warfare, half-life 2, l4d, bioshock). I guess Bioshock would win though, the voices have a great melodramatic theatre character to them. For worst I'd have to go with Fallout NV, although hokey performances at times are to be expected of a game with a script this large. Also for a companion Arcade seemed to have really meh acting from when I spoke to him.

 

[Aura Guardian]

Best-Metroid Other M

Worst-Mass Effect

Oh you!

Oh me what? It's what I thought it was bad. And I'm a troll?

 

[MRMIdAS2k]

Worst has to WWF Smackdown 3

Cole: "THE LAST RIDE, THE LAST RIDE!"
Tazz: "Are you really?"

or

Cole: "I think THE PEOPLES ELBOW is great"

 

[Scars Unseen]

For its time, Darkened Skye had good voice acting, though to be fair, it was the hilarious script that made the game. Not bad for a game that was pretty much an interactive Skittles advertisement.

Armed & Dangerous is also worth a mention. I guess I'm just a sucker for good comedic writing.

Oh, and here's a clip for those that never played the game:

 

[Vergial]

Best: Almost anything Bioware, honestly. Damn fine actors.

Worst: CDi Games, and I'll say Metroid Other M as well. As if the story wasn't bad enough, they gave Samus a voice as if she really needed one. And it was BAD.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Best: I know this isn't really an answer, but anything that Keith David does. i.e. Anderson from Mass Effect, The Arbiter, etc. etc.

Worst: I haven't really played games with bad voice acting, the worlds would probably have to be Read Dead Redemption, both Marstons were whiny little bitches.

 

[Esvees]

Best: Agree with many on the Uncharteds & Bioshock, but would also make honorable mentions of

- The Starcrafts (there's something comforting about a future full of trailer trash, the Protoss sound just right and then there's......."get me into za fiiiight!")

- Assassin's Creed 2 (pretty much everything coming out of Ezio's mouth, then there's Athena telling him to shut up at the end while the grown-ups talk. Desmond is about as dull as Altair was tho...)

Worst: Ok, get hold of a PS1 or Saturn, and play allmost anything by a Japanese developer with voice acting. Some of the worst are sould blade (prequel to Soul Caliber), for some unbelievably bad VA during the endings or Deep Fear on the Saturn. Good game, but whoever voiced the protagonist sounds like he's constipated througout and is incapable of emotion.

 

[thenamelessloser]

The best voice acting in games I played are usually when only a few conversations are voiced such as Fallout 2, Arcanum and Planescape: Torment.

The worst voice acting had to be Zero Wing which I never played just seen videos of.

The actual game didn't have voice acting.

What you're hearing in the videos was added after the fact by people mocking the game's terribly-translated English text.

Oh, lol, no wonder why no one else mentioned it. I was thinking like wtf no one else is mentioning htat game's voice acting. But now it makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Best: Half-Life 2, Baldur's Gate (any of them)

Worst: Deus Ex: Invisible War. Oh my god...

 

[blxtnsq]

Best - Putting in a vote for Mass Effect (it has Seth Green for fuck's sake!)
Worst - Heroes of Might and Magic 5. I love that game with an undying passion and while some of the actors aren't too bad they really lower the bar in the expansions. If I hear one more orc speak...

Oh no wait! Worst is Spellforce! The random guy at the very start who runs in from the fields is hilarious. He's supposed to be looking for help after getting attacked but he reads all his lines in monotone without pausing at the end of sentences.
Sorry, can't find a video.

 

[Ironbound]

Best: Well, I really do love the voice acting in Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines.
Just gotta love Smiling Jack, and Bishop Vic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aa8B7hIynE

Worst: Hmm, abit more tricky. Most JRPGS I have come across for sure, and of course RE, but that is nothing new There are other select games aswell with atrocious voice acting from time to time to.

 

[Tattaglia]

I don't think anything can be worse than Arma 2.

What, you don't enjoy listening to such gems as "TWOTHREE. ENGAGE-that MAN FAR to our-FRONT."?

 

[ManaAdvent]

Best: FFX, BioShock

Worst: Castle Shikigami 2, Chaos Wars, most Sonic games