Why is the Main Character in Fallout 4 Voiced?

[Imre Csete]

I wonder how the design choices of Fallout 4 will affect the next TES game. More voice actors for the different races, or just roll with two and add some voice synth so your orc won't sound posh? Same lines for all the races even the writing doesn't really fit the characteristics of those races?

I love how the AAA games reaching out for a broader audience carries an inheritent catch 22, making games for people who normally wouldn't play your games (like how Dragon Age 2 justified its action romp because some people quit playing Origins 1 hour in).

 

[RedRockRun]

I hate his voice. He sounds like such a wuss.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Completely disagree. There is no excuse for a silent protagonist anymore in AAA games really. Finally characters can have actual conversations instead of interactions with service number computer labyrinths. I love the other Fallout games but going back to it now and being a completely mute character takes away a lot from the immersion. I like to actually roleplay and not just insert myself into the character.

Exactly. I like the voice acting and the options and find it far far more immersive than those silent protagonists of previous games, but even if I didn't I'd just install the inevitable mod that removes the protagonist voices in a few weeks and use the one that's already come out for the extended options. People that want a completely mute character and verbose dialog choices will get both before long, but if Fallout 4 did not have voiced protagonists those people would be the ONLY ones satisfied instead of literally EVERYONE. Having voiced protagonists gives more options for the player to tailor the game to their tastes with mods than not having them, it's that simple.

The writing would still be the same regardless of if there were voiced protagonists or not, and if not it's a ridiculous and baseless assumption to believe that they would have spent the time and money involved anywhere else in the development of Fallout 4. The addition of voiced protagonists was an attempt by Bethesda to address the fact that a lot of people think their writing is terrible (it's not, people just miss the point of their open world games) by attempting to add emotional resonance to it, and this is the thanks they get?

Its done very poorly. Fact of the matter is this game is displaying a lack of choice and removes much of the options to tailor one of a characters. Voice actors get paid per line. That being said, they probably could have made this work if they just made the character more of a defined character, but they tried a middle ground that just made it bland

At least you are willing to admit that this could have worked, even if unlike me you don't think it already did. The vast majority of the people complaining about the voiced protagonists including here are just dismissing the entire idea out of hand without ever having intended to give it a chance just because they want to roleplay and/or self insert despite the fact that having voiced protagonists does not harm their ability to do so and for some people will even enhance it.

Not to mention, this really resticts things like quest mods since you can not voice the main character unless you are the person who was paid to do it. At least not to a good degree

Actually no. If there were no voiced protagonists these quest mods would not be voiced regardless, but with voiced protagonists they now can be. Best case scenario modders will be able to take from the 13,000 lines that are already there and use them for these mods, and the worst case scenario is that during these mods the protagonists will not speak like they have a sudden case of laryngitis, you know, just like they would ANYWAY if there was never any voiced protagonists in the game to begin with. Having voiced protagonists only adds more options for modders that not having them would prevent them from having, it doesn't limit mods in any way whatsoever.

That's the thing with these voiced protagonists, from the very moment it was announced the absolute worst case scenario is that possibly with a little help from mods everybody is no worse off than we would have been if there was no voiced protagonists just like every game before. Bethesda was not going to put any more effort into the writing and options than they were now if it wasn't voiced, and what they did do what good enough anyway. The only thing this could have ever done is benefit the game in the end.

 

[Makabriel]

Interesting. Was expecting to see arguments on both sides of the fence here, but I seem to be the only one on this side, so I'll just smile, nod, and go back to enjoying the game as is.

 

[IceForce]

Perhaps it's just me, but when I see text on my screen, that's all it is to me, -- text. I don't prescribe any sort of personality or emotions to it, I just read it plainly.

I don't have a very active imagination in that regard, so for me personally, a voiced protagonist improves a video game considerably (as long as the voicework is reasonably good, of course).

 

[Biran53]

It would be fine if Fallout 4 were a more classic RPG and not a sandbox. But it is a sandbox, and this ALWAYS happens when you have a voiced protagonist in a sandbox game.

 

[Benpasko]

The voice acting is really terrible, I hate the main character. It's especially awful in "emotional" moments where you have no choice but to have your character be totally into it. I should be allowed to play a psycho who doesn't give a rat's ass about finding her dumbass baby, but no. The replay value is going to be much lower than previous fallouts.

 

[EHKOS]

I'd take 6-8 text options then 4 voiced ones using the BioWare model that even BioWare fanboys openly despise.

I know, I keep accidentally saying things I didn't mean because the options are vague. I hate hurting peoples feelings like that.

 

[Zontar]

I'd take 6-8 text options then 4 voiced ones using the BioWare model that even BioWare fanboys openly despise.

I know, I keep accidentally saying things I didn't mean because the options are vague. I hate hurting peoples feelings like that.

What does "Sarcasm" even mean in the context of someone offering you a quest? Does it mean you accept it but are a bit of a dick about it, or that you're turning it down and being a bit of a dick about it?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm actually more chuffed by this dialogue decision than I am by the reworked skill/level system. Still loving the game, just not enjoying this specific part of it.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

And this is what's so strange about Fallout 4. It seems to be the worst of both worlds. The character keeps emoting and acting like they have a personality, which prevents the player from filling in those blanks with the character design in their head. They can't project themselves onto this character. But at the same time, the protagonist isn't characterized strongly or consistently enough to be interesting. They don't really have a personality of their own for us to discover.

Thank you. You've just summed up my thoughts on the whole defined/blank-slate dichotomy perfectly, and the reason why I don't like the middle ground here. I don't have a problem with voiced and defined characters if there is something interesting to define, but the protagonist in Fallout 4 exists in that middle ground where they have too much personality to project your own ideas onto, but not enough to be interesting in their own right. It has the disadvantages of both, and the advantages of neither.

 

[rgrekejin]

The reason people are okay with no voice acting, and many prefer it, is because they want to use their *imagination* to flesh out their main character. You cannot do that while the main character is spouting dialogue and imprinting his own personality onto your avatar. It's just wanting something different from a game--it'd be like saying "There is no excuse for the lack of a linear narrative in AAA games". People play Bethesda games to tell their own story. If you want a story told to you I really just feel like other games do it better.

Exactly. I find the people citing "immersion" as a reason for liking this system baffling. How bereft of imagination do you have to be that the completely flat tone-deaf responses this game supplies actually *improve* your immersion? Setting aside the terrible way the dialogue choice system itself is actually implemented (four vague choices, a camera system that sometimes decides to pan out and switch angles and not allow either party to move and sometimes doesn't, NPC interruptions that can leave you stuck in conversation mode when a firefight breaks out...) the voice acting in this game is just really bad *as voice acting*, all other concerns aside. I can deal with reading text-based responses and filling in the tone in my own head. What really breaks immersion is when two characters are having a conversation, and it's obvious that the two voice actors were not in the same room together when the recording was done, because the tone of voice that one is using is wildly inappropriate given the tone of voice of the other party. I'm skeptical that a fully voiced protagonist can work at all in a game with a supposedly blank-slate character, but I'm completely dead certain it can't work if it's done this lazily.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I've always found Bethesda to be a dev that never really learns. To this day their titles are still horribly imbalanced, buggy, and full of padding. I fully expect another one of Howard's mealy-mouthed responses over criticism, with their next game addressing it by not really addressing it. Because if they haven't learned by now the clearly never will.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I won't be playing FO4 but why doesn't Bethesda have multiple protagonist voices to choose from? You know, like old, antiquated and out-dated Baldur's Gate did? Yeah it'd be expensive but this is the company that boasted about making the biggest game ever (Skyrim), and if they believe in the quality of their games (I don't) they should put their money where their mouth is. It'd be better than wasting money on 10,000 models of guns and ultra-resolution graphics.

 

[rgrekejin]

It'd be better than wasting money on 10,000 models of guns and ultra-resolution graphics.

...have you seen the textures they use in this game? That clearly isn't where the money's going either.

 

[Kyrian007]

How weak must Shamus' character when he did the quest he used as an example? I DID walk right into that room. And the combat lasted ONE VATS session with 4 shotgun headshots and me taking NO damage. That "boss" and his couple of henchmen were so weak I was oneshotting most of them with a pipe rifle I was using to save my good ammo, and threw away after the fight rather than bother to scrap or sell it.

As far as "story" and "voiced vs not voiced" arguments... meh, I don't really care. For me, Bethesda games going all the way back to Daggerfall have all had game stories that are easy enough to ignore and are great frameworks for me to craft my own "canon" for what's going on. And FO 4 is no different. The given story is just for those sad individuals who don't have enough imagination to craft their own narrative. To people like that, yeah it must seem like a shallow story. The "dialogue options" aren't for story for me. They are just a gameplay mechanic... like shooting or picking locks or hacking. They are the CHR function and what you can get out of it and a couple of perks. To me they have very little to do with what's happening in the story.

 

[kenu12345]

How weak must Shamus' character when he did the quest he used as an example? I DID walk right into that room. And the combat lasted ONE VATS session with 4 shotgun headshots and me taking NO damage. That "boss" and his couple of henchmen were so weak I was oneshotting most of them with a pipe rifle I was using to save my good ammo, and threw away after the fight rather than bother to scrap or sell it.

As far as "story" and "voiced vs not voiced" arguments... meh, I don't really care. For me, Bethesda games going all the way back to Daggerfall have all had game stories that are easy enough to ignore and are great frameworks for me to craft my own "canon" for what's going on. And FO 4 is no different. The given story is just for those sad individuals who don't have enough imagination to craft their own narrative. To people like that, yeah it must seem like a shallow story. The "dialogue options" aren't for story for me. They are just a gameplay mechanic... like shooting or picking locks or hacking. They are the CHR function and what you can get out of it and a couple of perks. To me they have very little to do with what's happening in the story.

Well yeah its not hard to make your own story when you are just completely ignoring all the mechanics and story like you said, but that can literally can be done with about any game. I rp my gta online character like that, but a role playing is suppose to give clear options for you to express your character with and have the character fit into the story instead of vague choices that you wouldn't always know at first. That being said the writing and the dialogue choices in this really restrict that manner and you can ignore the start all you want, but eventually the main story rears its head back in and you are back to the caring dad. I mean maybe I am misinterpreting what you are saying. Who knows

 

[Kyrian007]

Well yeah its not hard to make your own story when you are just completely ignoring all the mechanics and story like you said, but that can literally can be done with about any game. I rp my gta online character like that, but a role playing is suppose to give clear options for you to express your character with and have the character fit into the story instead of vague choices that you wouldn't always know at first. That being said the writing and the dialogue choices in this really restrict that manner and you can ignore the start all you want, but eventually the main story rears its head back in and you are back to the caring dad. I mean maybe I am misinterpreting what you are saying. Who knows

Well, just as an example... the character I'm playing now isn't the "caring dad." The "dialogue options" that reference that storyline are just gameplay mechanics for getting more quests, the story reasons for which I add to my own canon story. I may someday play a run through fallout 4 as the dad character as written, but its hardly necessary. My 3rd Skyrim character was actually the Dragonborn. The first was just a loveable doofus (fighter build) I made to test the combat engine. The second was a false dragon who turned into a serial killer (thief build) after his love interest was murdered. Only the 3rd was actually the dragonborn (my paladin build.) And out of all of my Skyrim characters (I think I'm on my 6th... its been a while) there WASN'T even a civil war until long after the "Dragonborn crisis" was resolved (I finally went through it with my 5th character, up to that point I hadn't bothered.)

It will help when we get a good alternate start mod. There are several good ones for Skyrim. It will help, but again isn't necessary for a player with a working imagination.

 

[kenu12345]

Well yeah its not hard to make your own story when you are just completely ignoring all the mechanics and story like you said, but that can literally can be done with about any game. I rp my gta online character like that, but a role playing is suppose to give clear options for you to express your character with and have the character fit into the story instead of vague choices that you wouldn't always know at first. That being said the writing and the dialogue choices in this really restrict that manner and you can ignore the start all you want, but eventually the main story rears its head back in and you are back to the caring dad. I mean maybe I am misinterpreting what you are saying. Who knows

Well, just as an example... the character I'm playing now isn't the "caring dad." The "dialogue options" that reference that storyline are just gameplay mechanics for getting more quests, the story reasons for which I add to my own canon story. I may someday play a run through fallout 4 as the dad character as written, but its hardly necessary. My 3rd Skyrim character was actually the Dragonborn. The first was just a loveable doofus (fighter build) I made to test the combat engine. The second was a false dragon who turned into a serial killer (thief build) after his love interest was murdered. Only the 3rd was actually the dragonborn (my paladin build.)

It will help when we get a good alternate start mod. There are several good ones for Skyrim. It will help, but again isn't necessary for a player with a working imagination.

Yeah, I can't wait for the alternate start mod actually. Hope there will be some mods to circumvent some of the bad dialog too, but as for now we are stuck with what we have which don't get me wrong is alright but is very poorly written which is where a good bit of the criticism seems to come from including mine. I was glad when modders got the dialog mod to extend the whole sentence out