Video Game Voice-over: Turning Up the Volume
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Remember Tetris? We must have all played it at least once when it hit the international market about 40 years ago, give or take. It was fun, creative and most importantly, it worked out your brain, as it was a skill-based game. A lot has happened on the gaming scene since then.
Video games have seen unprecedented growth over the past decades. Statista has determined that the global gaming market cap in 2022 sits at $196 billion. And this number is on the rise. Unquestionably, the ever-evolving video game industry and the sustained effort video game developers make to constantly reinvent themselves and come up with newer and bolder concepts, accounts for the industry’s expansion.
That and the ingenuity of each story, character, graphics, and ultimately – voice-over. In this article we take a look at a few brilliant video game voice-overs and what made them so hugely successful. With examples, you’ll absolutely love it. Turn up the volume!
Here comes Far Cry 3 – The definition of insanity! – when voice-over gets insanely good
The House of the Dead 2, or when voice-over betrays the story
The Last of US – Sarah’s Death, an Oscar for voice acting?
The exceptional voice acting pours even more emotion into the story. Hana Hayes, giving voice to Sarah, gives a stunning performance. Troy Baker, playing Joel, Sarah’s father, also has an Oscar-worthy performance as he gives in to feelings of grief and melancholy following the loss of his daughter, artfully fusing them into his voice acting.
The perfect harmonisation between voice acting and plot development as the emotional charge peaks makes The Last of Us – Sarah’s Death one of the best games of all time. See for yourself!
Is there a secret formula for good game voice acting? With so many video games out there, some with better voice-over than others, it’s about time game developers raised the standard for game voice acting if they want their games to become blockbusters.
Creating memorability
The 2022 edition of GamesBeat Summit in Los Angeles emphasised the need for engaging voice actors in the story development process.
Jennifer Hale, voice actress and summit panelist, compared game voice acting to film and television production, where actors are involved in every stage of the story development, which does not happen in the gaming industry.
“It was such a technically driven media for so long, but now the role of story and character is so important… It all comes back to collaboration, cooperation, not competition,” said Hale.
The importance of voice-over localization