Reply With QuoteJesus Christ.
It would still be a bad game. There are too many serious gameplay flaws to deny that. But it would be a bad game, with a good voice acting performance from the main character. Which affects more than you would think.Originally Posted by Schwaa2
The narrative's primary emissary (in Thief games, anyways) is the main character. There are readables, overheard conversations, and of course the odd cutscene... but the world doesn't 'come alive' until Garrett begins commenting on the world around him. At that point it gains context and realism. Bad voice acting does serious harm to the player's ability to identify the story as relevant to them.
And with so many mainstream reviews lambasting both the story and the voice acting in fairly equal amounts...? I tend to think that isn't a coincidence.
Jesus Christ.
Source(s)? There's plenty wrong with the sound mixing, but I haven't seen anyone say that the voice acting was bad.
Didn't find anything particularly wrong with Orzari's performance myself. At worst, you could say that it was lackluster, but it's mostly a passable to decent delivery.
Here's a few.
Quote from IncGamers' Thief 4 Review:
Quote from SlashGear Thief 4 review:"Stephen Russell is missed as a vocal talent (not least because of his ability to put a voice to multiple characters,) but even he couldn’t save some of this material from sounding like over-eager fan-fiction."
Quote from The Escapist's Thief 4 review:"What’s a bit less impressive is the voice acting and mixing of sound. At some points it’s difficult to hear what’s being said in the (sometimes too frequent) cutscenes, and at others the acting can be awkward and unrealistic."
Quote from Badass Digest's Thief 4 Review:"While Garrett's new voice actor isn't terrible, he just isn't Stephen Russell, and a number of his lines fall flat."
Hell, this review from Playstation Universe even flat-out lists 'lazy voice-acting' in the list of dislikes."...It’s all told via poorly-directed cutscenes and terrible voice acting - not unenthusiastic or flat, but littered with objectively incorrect line readings."
I could go on, mind you. It's actually easier for me to count up the number of professional reviews that haven't mentioned the subpar voice acting in some capacity.
The only one of these quotes that says something about Orzari is from The Escapist, and it says he's not terrible. IncGamers actually says in their review, "New voice actor Romano Orzari doesn’t do a bad job". I'm inclined to agree, especially given the material that he had to work with.
Last edited by Starker; 25th Mar 2014 at 10:05.
Let us all embrace the mediocrity then?
Who said anything about embracing? He doesn't do a bad job. It that so difficult to admit?
In fact, I'd go as far as saying that I wouldn't particularly mind hearing him again in a different role. He's not a terrible voice actor to be avoided at all costs.
Last edited by Starker; 25th Mar 2014 at 12:13.
Yeah, you're wrong. He's exceptionally bad.
And actually, as bad as he is as NuGarrett? He's easily 1,000 times worse as 'RomanoGuard'. So it seems he's just as wooden in supporting roles as starring ones.
Heck, he was pretty bad as 'Dude-Who-Has-Three-Entire-Lines-and-Dies-in-The-Very-First-Scene' in Punisher: War Zone. He just isn't a good actor. And especially set against how incredible Russell's voicework was in the past? It's a major detriment to the player's ability to lock into the story.
Also, defending Romano by saying 'Yeah, everyone says the voice acting is bad... but only one of them singles out Romano as being awful'? Really?
So, the voice acting is bad... but the guy who provides 75% of it isn't? Are you high?
If his performance wasn't bad... no one would be complaining about the voice acting! It wouldn't be worth mentioning! That's like saying 'my lawn looks terrible, but the guy who mowed it did a fantastic job.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c
Seriously, though... even your worst examples don't sound exceptionally bad. It's definitely not Deus Ex level of bad delivery.
None of them single Romano out as being awful. In fact, two of them specifically state that he isn't.
First of all, you are aware that he doesn't actually do 75% of the lines, right? In fact, apart from cutscenes and the hand-holding remarks/observations, he's mostly silent. The hyperbole isn't really helping anyone.
Secondly, bad voice acting being mentioned doesn't mean that every single one of the voice actors has to be bad or even that a specific one has to be bad. The reviews could be referring to Erin/Orion, who actually are bad.
Last edited by Starker; 26th Mar 2014 at 04:31.
Hey, Captain Bananapants? Can you do us all a favour and never subject us to another one of your horrible videos? You're not funny, you're not witty, the name "Rageaholic" is hugely diagnostic of the quality of your videos (you're not James Rolfe, you don't get to rip off his schtick, let alone badly) and you've proven yourself to be a shining example of what's wrong with Thief fandom and PC gamers at large. And your behaviour in this thread is just embarrassing.
You make me want to watch Yahtzee. Hell, I'd rather watch Pewdiepieapfaofewpafoasfpawoefawfal;wflasdfjlfk weff aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa okay, let's not get too crazy here.
What behavior?
I never called names. Although you have.
I didn't cast personal aspersions. Although, again, you have.
I said Romano's bad at voice acting. And he is.
He bludgeons the audience to death with the wooden end of the acting stick. This isn't a revelation. This dude phoned in his lines from orbit. There are threads upon threads upon threads (both here and at the Thief 4 forums) dedicated to dissecting his poorly-read voice acting performances. You're literally posting in one. So many were springing up at the Thief 4 forums, Eidos had to resort to insta-bans, much of which is documented in the earlier pages of the thread you are posting in right now.
And here I was, thinking this thread was about Stephen Russell. My bad. It's apparently dedicated to Romano instead.
I'd love to see the examples of the other threads on TTLG that are dedicated to Romano's performance, though. Not ones that critisise the writing, which it rightly deserves. Ones that specifically deal with Romano's voice acting.
This isn't the personal comment thread, dethtoll, so less hate and more cuddly please. I'm not sure whether the rest of this conversation is going particularly well either as it's sounding rather snarky at the moment. Possibly this thread has come to the end of its useful shelf life. We'll see.
Both Starker and CS are having a heated debate, and that's fine...enter dethtoll, and you have an unwelcome guest who brings nothing but valueless personal attacks for his own gratification.
This thread is an ongoing community statement, which should never be closed.
So in the midst of chastising me for "valueless personal attacks" you... make a valueless personal attack. Awesome. Good job.
And what did your own personal attack offer to this conversation?
I almost can't believe that I'm saying this, but as Garrett's voice I don't really miss Stephen Russell that much. Sure Romano sounds different, and Stephen Russell was of course great as well, but the old Garrett and this new Garrett aren't exactly the same characters anyway. Some of the stuff that Romano says does sound a bit silly, but it's not exactly his fault if the dialogue is badly written. As a voice actor I think he's really good. I got to admit though that I don't normally pay as much attention to these things as some other people probably do.
However, what I do miss in the new Thief game are the other characters voiced by Stephen Russell. He did a fantastic job in Thief 1-3 and really brought some of those characters alive, whereas some of the voice acting in new Thief is quite boring and just mediocre.
As for that video by Captain Spandex, I find it way too exaggerated and "acted" to be taken seriously. The video itself seems well made and it's something that I might otherwise enjoy watching, but the guy's trying way too hard to be edgy and the forced swearing makes me cringe at times. I don't have anything against the occasional naughty word, but this sort of thing isn't even cool if you're over 15 or unless you are Samuel L. Jackson.
No, Sam Jackson would tell him off too.
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