Voicing Celebrity Concerns

In "Brütal Legend," Jack Black rocks where many movie stars have rolled in voicing video game characters.

My point here is not to slam the talent. There are innumerable examples of horrid voice acting from no-names out there too, and the quality of their work probably has less to do with them than with the level of input game designers ask of them. There’s a fascinating piece over at The Brainy Gamer that goes into how little opportunity voice actors of all ilks are given to delve into characters, or even to familiarize themselves with their material, before recording. While a game like “Brütal Legend” made it a priority to lean on Jack Black for creative contributions, most titles simply bring in their voice actors at the end of the process and have them quickly recite lines they’ve barely read. No surprise this leads to ho-hum results.

Because of this, unless there’s a serious paradigm shift in terms of thinking about the vital role voice actors play in selling a game’s fiction, it’s difficult to see any serious benefit in developers spending extra money on a Keith David or a Patrick Stewart or a Sam Jack.

That’s an opinion bolstered by “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,” the PS3′s reigning blockbuster and a superbly thrilling third-person actioner created in a Hollywood summer-spectacular mold. “Uncharted 2″ has rightly received huzzahs for its exhilarating set-pieces, which involve (among other daredevil missions) climbing up train cars that are dangling off cliffs and leaping between racing jeeps during firefights.

But just as integral to its playing-a-movie vibe is the game’s voice work, which — bolstered by an impressively cinematic script full of action-movie banter, one-liners and good-vs.-evil dynamics — is reliably strong, and which is handled by a cast of skillful veteran voice actors led by Nolan North (“Assassin’s Creed,” “Prince of Persia”) as Indiana Jones-ish treasure hunter Nathan Drake. “Uncharted 2″‘s characters are full of personality and wit, making it clear that what’s needed to improve the state of video game voice acting aren’t Hollywood big shots, but designers and publishers who treat their vocal performers as more than just artistic afterthoughts.

[Additional photo: "Wet," Bethesda Softworks, 2009]

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