Slot in Voice-Acting

 Swapsies!

There is a very peculiar style of voice acting in video games that has been around for quite a while but to which myself and a lot of the rest of the world has been made aware of very recently. I'm talking about the style of VO work where a significant character, typically the protagonist, employs not only different voices depending on the character created, but different lines too. Whereas everyone else in the script remains static and responds in dialogue the same way they would to any character voice, the the inciting vocal stimuli could change from one performance to another, which is about as complicated and confusing as it sounds. Perhaps one character is providing generic affirmation responses to wildly different topics of conversation, and maybe that creates a floaty feeling to dialogue where it sounds like two conversations are being had in different rooms to different people. Who do you think handles this style of voice acting the best? Because I'll tell you straight away who's the worst.

Watch_Dogs Legion. When I said this topic had been made aware to the world, I was referencing Watch_Dogs Legion, for the way in which people reacted to learning how the 'play as anyone' feature of the game meant that NPCs would be inserted as key inciting voices that drive the narrative forward. It sticks out like a sore thumb as just about everyone fails to affirm themselves as interesting and commandeering protagonist characters, and the player is left with a personality-free husk that places pithy English colloquialisms above any meaty depth in conversation. It's actually very rare whenever there's a topic of conversation expressed that isn't just general and vague for the actually properly written characters to bounce off, but in those instances it always stands-out noticeably. Even after watching the same scene about five times, I don't think I heard a single variation performance pull of the 'I'll just jump into my quantum tunnel' back-and-forth with Bagley that was convincing.

I'm convinced that a big part of Legion's problem comes from the fact that none of the voice actors give a 'main character' performance. Which could be because they were intentionally told to act in a vague manner that could be applied over the digital faces of a dozen London citizens. All of the voices crafted best fit background NPCs that give out quests rather than front the core rebellion which drives the story, and some of the voices are literally just digital pitch-shifts of other lacklustre performances. I'm not blaming the actors, I can only imagine none of them were paid 'main character wages' for the sort of work they put in; instead I critique the entire concept for how it neuters the human element of a narrative that is supposed to be about ordinary people rising up to face injustice. Andor, this is not. 

But by happenstance, not very long after 'beating' Legion and leaving that game and it's woes far behind me; I stubbled upon a rebound game that employs something very similar. 'Solasta: Crown of the Magister' is essentially a standalone DnD 5th Edition game engine built to facilitate a very faithful digital DnD experience. One such part of that experience being choosing your character, personality and all, which means conversations can play out differently depending on the combination of voice and personality traits you employ. This becomes very obvious in scenes when your cast is interacting with one another and performances vary, key words are mis-pronounced and entire strings of dialogue capture the spirit but miss the content of the captions. And yet, I find myself looking a bit more fondly on my group of adventuring dolts than I do on the Legion gang.

I think the key to what Solasta does is A: the entire cast of Solasta is filled with less full-on character-suited voice actors, which means the slightly hammy performances fit amidst the wider cast on hand. And then B: the crew of interchangeable voices spend a lot of their time interacting with one another, in conversations that can better be warped to suit the dialogue and voices chosen. Of course these are the cherries, the base of the cake is the strength of the writing team making it so that dialogue and reactions suit together in a manner that can be respected and enjoyed. Honestly, a few play sessions in and I don't even think about the fact that my Solasta team-mates are being slotted into the hero role; the character's and their personalities work decently well together.

And as I really delved into this topic and took the time to think on it; there was one game that came screaming to mind more than any other. Saints Row. Specifically 2 onwards; how could I never consider it before? All of those games have the character customisation with the slot-in voice acting that changes the dialogue drastically during scenes. Sometimes the way the game does it is tongue-in cheek; such as the 'zombie' voice which simply replaces all the player's dialogue with undead groans whilst everyone else continues on like they can understand you fully. But other times there'll be back and forths that are witty and humorous but totally contextually different depending on which voice you pick! I always remember the first drive through Steelport with Shaundi in Saints Row 3, where the Boss teasingly mocks her until she gets a little pissed, but the topic of the mocking shifts completely depending on what voice you pick in a manner that you'd never even notice unless you started replaying levels.

For all that Saints Row gets ridden for, because it's really just a luke-warm Grand Theft Auto clone that lacked it's own swinging knock out concept once they finally broke free of that stigma, they excel in this specific front. Every game they've managed to slot-in protagonist voice roles so deftly they managed to turn it into a reoccurring joke, both with that Zombie voice I mentioned, and then with the Nolan North voice pack in Saints Row IV. (A voice in which Nolan literally breaks the forth wall as much as humanely possible.) Both through clever scripting and thoughtful performances, Saints Row manages to consistently emulate an engaged and specific character, with personality, in a totally slot-in role. I don't give Saints Row a lot of props, but to my mind they are undoubtedly the kings of that specific design role.

Having never really considered it before, today I realise that this slot-in style of voice work has to be supremely challenging to all involved. Likely invented to provide a dynamic sense of personality and breathe a little passive replay-ability into a game that is designed to be experienced many times, there are so many factors and balances that need to be accounted for just to make such a complex concept invisible. Many games present customisable voiced protagonists, but the difference between a single script read in multiple voices and a plethora of response scripts to the same prompt script can scale to orders of magnitude. which is probably why games which use slot-in voice acting don't have their players be the chattiest people in the room. Unless you're talking about the amount of voice lines in Saints Row; those devs were genuinely insane.