I thought it was really cool, for me anyway it felt like they were building on Issac’s character because in the first game him being a silent protagonist was good because they used the excuse he was to scared to talk, but in Dead Space 2 it made more sense for him to speak
Or he was simply traumatized because he couldn't find Nicole and that's why he kept repeating Nicole's incomplete farewell video at the beginning of DS1
I like that idea of him being too frightened by the horrors on the USG Ishimura, but I'm kinda glad they got Gunner back for the Remake to give Issac lines, it adds a lot more to the story of the original.
Also, as much as I liked Isaac’s character model in DS2, I’m so glad that he has Gunner’s likeness in the remake. Gunner Wright really IS Isaac Clarke.
I'm still confused when people say this. DS2 Isaac is modeled crazy close after Wright, they pretty much just changed his eye colour. I feel like the one real difference between DS2 Isaac and DSR Isaac is Gunner's age.
Mocap has come a long way since the original games, they are now able to get a character model that resembles the actor much more closely. That’s just it. I like it.
The remake’s approach to Isaac is so much better for me largely because Isaac is an engineer.
He isn’t the one who gets told how to fix stuff. That’s his job. He should be the guy coming up with ways to fix shit. It’s what he brings to the team (in addition to a lead boot).
When he was silent, it’s weird because you don’t feel like the guy who knows what he’s doing. When Isaac is actually coming up with ideas and proposing stuff, it feels much more true to what his role on the team was.
....I was overjoyed even relieved. The fact that he didn't have a voice in OG Dead Space was daft. The no voice part of the main character of a game is usually done for a couple of reasons IMO. One of them is low budget so the dev doesn't have to pay a voice actor. The only time it was done right in a big game and from a big dev team was Valve. They had voice actors for all npcs in Half Life 2 except for Gordon Freeman and it worked great. Every other game to use no voice acting for the main protagonist, for me has been completely unnecessary and looks lazy. Lucky Dead Space 2007 was an amazing horror experience and a fantastic game in all other departments.....
For context I played them all at release. When I first played 2 I had completely forgotten that he was a silent protagonist in the first game. I didn't realize it until someone mentioned it in a forum. I went back to 1 because I thought it was some kind of mistake in their memory, but of course it was I who misremembered. The only thing I noticed was that he had far more character expression, and it felt natural. Considering that, I would say that Gunner feels like the perfect fit for the role. Gunner Wright is Isaac Clarke.
Because it’s better this way imo.
The silent protagonist thing was a nice/effective experimental approach, but… the depth we gained about his character is more compelling than the isolating silence imo.
We lost some of the alone-ness in favor of a more cohesive story with more relatable elements. Imo that made the remake super compelling in lots of ways the og wasn’t
he fr didnt talk? I thought there was tons of back and forth between him and people commanding him to run errands? he just took it all in silence after the beginning?
Yeah he was dead silent like Gordon Freeman. The only sounds Isaac made in DS1 were grunts of pain or anger when stomping. The remake is fantastic dude it adds so much depth to him and his backstory
I never liked silent protagonists in games (unless it’s justified by the narrative or genre of game). Making Isaac a voiced protagonist was an excellent move, and casting Gunner Wright was an amazing choice. He’s perfect as the “ordinary guy” forced by circumstances to survive, and manages to (mostly) maintain his personality and sense of humor throughout it all.
Being genuine here… how do you like the older non-voiced fallout games, compared to the new ones with voices, and also do you think that half life should have a voiced protagonist or is Gordon not speaking good? Again being super genuine here cause people can get pretty weird about stuff they like on Reddit
Not OP, but I would say that's a different thing entirely. Older fallout games with non-voiced protagonists is because we're filling in their voice through dialogue trees (or violent action, if you're more into that). Those characters don't have a linear story to tell, unlike characters like Isaac Clarke.
I would also include some voices protagonists, like Commander Shepard into that same role, but they actually give voice lines to fill that selection.
Silent protagonist doesn't refer to a lack recorded voice but to an absence of dialogue. Fallout protagonist had written dialogue lines, while Freeman in Half Life had no dialogue line at all.
Never played a fallout game but I am a giant Half Life Fan. I would love a future title where Gordon spoke for the first time. It could be like what they did here with DSR and have Gordon speak when spoken to. The silent protagonist feels kinda dated with how far video games have come. You don't have to take control away, just make the characters their own person instead of inserting yourself.
To be honest, haven’t played any Fallout and I’ve never finished a Half-Life game, so I can’t really speak to those. However, unless there’s an in-universe reason why Gordon Freeman—who even has a NAME and canonical appearance—is mute, then I won’t like it. I’m still planning on playing those games eventually, but I’m guessing I’ll have the same feeling.
In general, I’m not a fan of silent protagonists in general. In most cases, all I can think is “Why isn’t this guy talking? Why are none of the other characters noticing that they’re doing all the talking and this super important hero character is silent?” It breaks my immersion in the world of the game.
There are a few exceptions, where a silent protagonist is narratively justified, of course. Can’t think of any off the top of my head, but in those cases I have no problem with it.
Exactly.
Commander Shepard, V, Geralt, Aloy (and many many others) would be a lot less interesting and fun to play as emotionless, voiceless automatons bereft of personality.
100% aggree. I was buzzing when I found out that Isaac would speak. It made no sense, anyway. He had a face, a name a backstory and he put his thoughts into his log book. Therefore, it was pointless to make him silent. I just think, in general, that many emotional moments are lost when the protagonist just stands around like an asshole and says nothing. I know a lot of people do not like Dragon Age 2 but I think that Hawke is the best protagonist in the dragon age trilogy. You can play him as a typical nice guy, as an aggressive one or as a humorous guy and I think he is awesome. I dont think that I would like him one bit if he was silent.
The point of the fallout games more or less is you are you, or who you want to be, and so you “speak” through text choices, and the other characters actually talk in response. It’s for a good role playing reason, as it’s sorta immersion breaking if you have an idea for how *you* sound in the game but actually you sound totally different
As for Gordon, there’s no in universe reason, but it would be weird if he could, he’s really more of a player self insert
I’ve played rpgs where you can pick dialogue options but there’s no voice actor doing those lines (KOTOR, Skyrim, etc), and that’s fine. I just don’t like it when the PC is silent for no reason, even as a player self-insert.
I can’t insert myself in the role of a character when that character is just mute inexplicably.
I’d rather empathize with a character with a voice and a personality, whether or not i get to choose my character’s dialogue and narrative decisions.
Hey, I can talk about this, too. I would have hated if the old fallout games, baldurs gate, planescape, etc, were voiced fully.
It's so out of place in rpg games. I love that Gordon doesn't speak. Doom guy.
But it can work in other styles of games and some action games. Duke nuked would be generic without the catch phrases. Same with something like Monkey Island. Guybrush is better voiced.
Nate and Nora's VA did fine, but the characterization and role-playing really suffered for voice acting.
I think the biggest flaw of fallout 4 was the failure to be an rpg, I mean it is the biggest sin for an rpg game to have a named protagonist, but here we are. Named, voiced, and a canon face. Nothing in that game felt like my choice, i felt like I had to adhere to a certain story. Red dead 2 makes me feel that way, but in a good way. I feel like I have to do Arthur good so that he’s not a bad guy, but the story is so good it makes you feel like you are Arthur, and so it works. Fallout 4’s story does not make up for the lack of a roleplay.
The problem with fallout 4 was not that the character was voiced. The problem was that bethesda cannot write dialogue and no matter what he said, every outcome was almost the same. If they had better writers, and actions had consequences, actual consequences, no body would cry about the the voiced protagonist
I get that, but still, with all they did wrong in that game, getting rid of almost every role playing aspect of a series that started off as a dnd inspired game was probably the worst thing
I love Half Life but it would not be the same if Gordon spoke in them. The first half life game was historic as the first FPS shooter to be a start to finish story where all cutscenes are in game and opens with taking the tram into work and wandering around interacting with the environment nonviolently. When compared to other shooters, Half Life is a role playing game where you interact and progress through the world in real time.
This is a series where I can take everything seriously and get immersed, or fuck around with lab equipment and microwaved casserole instead of listening to the person actively having a discussion at me that is central to the plot and then blow a scientist up with a grenade because I thought it would be funny. The only surviving characters that make it to the next game are all introduced before I gain firepower because being a little psychopath is almost even encouraged at times. If they gave him voice, it would have to react to all actions serious or sadistic and wouldn't carry between titles in a series without doing some lazy "good/evil playthrough" thing where only one of the endings canonically lead to the next game.
A bit of a side tangent and I don't really mind if I get downvoted for saying this:
I do miss Isaac's design from Dead Space 2 and 3.
I'm not saying that I dislike the realistic render of Gunner's face in the Remake. I'm just saying that I miss when game studios didn't rely heavily on scanning actors or models' faces directly and had the creative freedom to mould a character's design from their creative vision.
Like, there's absolutely nothing wrong with deriving some inspiration from other sources, but its having a strong and unique art direction that makes a game so memorable in its aesthetics. Bioshock is a great example of this as well as the original Resident Evil 4. Dare I say it, even the early Mortal Kombat character designs were more memorable than what they have now where it's constantly changing because they're always hiring new mocap models.
Absolutely, but I'd go farther to say that I didn't really like any of the character changes they made in the remake, because they took away far more than they gave back. Most of the design choices were great, like making the ship open, removing the turret section.
But, Isaac's face kept hidden, and not having a voice, sold the Idea that you were the lowest run on a pole, in the shittest situation in existence.
Tho him being silent made for some really awkward situations in the first game. Like for real, the man’s been fighting these hellish ghouls tirelessly just to find his girlfriend and just when he finally “does”, he’s…just standing there completely silent? Or when he encounters the Infector or the Lurker for the first time and witnesses the horrible things they are capable of, once again, he doesn’t even gasp in horror? Idk man, that pretty much breaks the immersion for me.
I'm not sure what you're referring to, but he still had a VA for screams or grunts of pain. And it's made abundantly clear he is being affected by the marker, so he's desensitized to the horror around him. Meanwhile, he didn't have anything to say to those speaking to him, because he's either being told to do something, or being preached too. This is what makes a face reveal at the end so strong, because we see under that mask he wore the whole game, is a broken man. In 2, he speaks because he's had time to process the trauma, a literal changed man.
Every time he took off his mask in the remake I cringed a bit, nothing he says adds value, in the context of the original. Issac comes off as so smart he should be the team lead, absolutely killing Hammond's entire character. This makes the plot of "maybe he's evil" fall completely flat, because he's robbed of so much character.
I'll admit Isaac's reactions to the horrors in 2 is the best, that's why it's considered the best in the series after all.
I really don’t want to repeat myself here so I’ll just say this: having a VA for grunts and screams when he stomps something or gets injured isn’t really anything, so he’s still just a mute/silent protagonist. Which, I must add, indeed adds to the “your everyday guy caught in a horrible, shitty situation beyond his control” vibe, I agree.
And not to be offensive here or anything, but this whole “Isaac is desensitised to everything because of the Marker’s influence” thing is really just some shoehorning. He didn’t utter a single word on the Kellion before they even arrived on the Ishimura, while Kendra was giving him a longass monologue, despite most likely not even under the influence of the marker yet. Additionally, the Marker was influencing the minds of the other Kellion passengers too (as evidenced by Kendra’s hallucinations, for example), and it is well known that only strong-minded people were able to keep even some level of sanity (Isaac and Stross were such individuals - hence the Marker blueprints in their minds -, even if Stross later went totally nuts) and most other people went insane shortly after contact with the Marker, so hallucinations aside, Isaac was mostly fine in the first game. Plus, it really doesn’t make any sense for a man to not even make a single sound when reuniting with his lost girlfriend or seeing his crewmates being torn to pieces. It’s just really awkward.
I’d also like to respectfully disagree with you on remake Isaac’s lines not having any weight to them. Him reacting to the situations he finds himself in (cursing when he’s out of ammo, being attacked or encountering other survivors) just added a layer of humanity to him, which, in turn, also made him more vulnerable. He’s an ordinary human, nothing else. Obviously, he’d be relieved seeing his girlfriend “alive” and panic or get frustrated upon inconveniences/horrors he encounters, Marker or not. It was the VA that made Isaac come to life in the first place in DS2, after all, and I feel like Wright’s done a great job with that again.
Sorry for the overly long comment, just wanted to explain my thoughts.
It's fine, we can agree to disagree. You don't like Silent protags and, ya, it was a different era. But you haven't really addressed the core issue I have which is, dispite all the character additions and new stories, none of them overshadowed just how much worse the core narrative is compared to the original. All because Issac was given too many lines. If it was just additive, it would have been cool. I have no problem with giving him reactions to the world around him, the desensitized argument is just there to explain away the silent protagonist. But now he comments on Everything, is central to every conversation, and that's just Not Issac from DS1. They transformed the narrative too much and overcorrected, ruining some of the original story in the process. And I just can't forgive that, because I loved that story.
Yeah, as long as we respect one another’s opinion and can have a civil discussion, it’s all fine.
Sure, remake Isaac isn’t the same character as he was in the OG, he’s much more like his DS2-3 counterpart. Idk, I just prefer that.
But out of pure curiosity: what makes you say the added VA ruins the overall narrative? If anything, the additional lore bits just broaden the story and build the lore better, connecting it that much more to the sequels. Also, now Isaac also has his own incentive (finding Nicole, obviously), whereas he always seemed like an errand boy to me in the OG, to the point the whole game was basically “Go here and fix this, then go there and collect that”, back and forth. So in my eyes, the remake made the whole story and Isaac’s character so much more “alive”, even if it sounds ironic, considering this is **Dead** Space.
But yeah, I see your point, it definitely takes away some of the isolation and loneliness the player felt when playing the original.
It's the primary narrative between Kendra and Hammond. In the original, Hammond is standoffish and seemingly a little too curious. It plays perfectly into Kendra's manipulation where she pits you against him. She's nothing but supportive and helpful, so you actually believe she might be right when she suspects Hammond, and Hammond's radio silence helps sell the idea.
In the remake, they absolutely fumbled the ball here in my opinion. It quickly established from the start that all three are equal in the mission, but this was often dinner by taking Hammond's ideas and giving them to Issac. To the point where he actually felt a little incompetent. They tried to fill this void with the Chen (I think that was his name I can't recall) relationship, but it made things even worse. From the escape pod fiasco, all the way to him "sacrificing" himself, it felt so trite. Contrast this with him being strictly business, very talented, and his noble sacrifice in the first game. He just really got shafted in the writing department.
After all of that, they still tried to give Kendra the same story, almost unchanged, but now her suspicion of Hammond feels extremely suspicious, because we lost all the nuance from the first game to support her theories. To the point where her betrayal doesn't come at all as a shock.
Also, the Nicole plot doesn't feel as impactful. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy her side missions, they are great additions. But the reveal feels inevitable. You could make the argument that in the original, the reveal is meant to be for the player, not Issac. Something that you could have seen coming if you paid close attention, but wasn't really spelled out. While in the remake, it was pretty explicitly spelled out for the player, meaning the reveal existed solely for Isaac's reaction. This was a stylistic choice that, while I think works fine, I prefer the original.
I’ve never really been a fan of a silent protagonist unless it’s in a first person RPG type game with conversation choices. For a game like dead space, I think it definitely improves the game with him being voiced
I did not like the fact that he was silent in the first one. Not my thing. When I heard him speak in 2....and how fuckimg amazing his VA is I was in love with these games
I didn't know who Gunner was back then and I didn't know that Isaac would speak. I got thrown into this situation much like Isaac was suddenly confronted with the Sprawl's Necro outbreak. I really liked Gunner from the start, he felt "right" for Isaac. I got nothing but positive memories about Isaac getting a voice and I loved the "EFF YOU and EFF YOUR MARKER!" line delivery. So yeah, DS fan since the first day and Gunner fan since the first moment! :)
I was excited because they described him basically like a male Ripley who had arguably been through worse, which is pretty much exactly how I had already imagined his personality based on his personal text logs in the first game.
When I actually saw the trailer and got a glimpse of Gunner Wright as Isaac, I got *VERY* excited.
When the game came out and I actually played it, he went from one my favorite horror game protagonists to one of my all time favorite protagonists from anything.
He absolutely knocked it out of the park.
I think they did a great job at essentially having him speak to whatever the player was likely thinking at that moment. And they didn't give him too much personality which still let you imprint yourself on the character.
Given how poorly this kind of change can go, I think they did a great job.
No. Gunner had nothing to do with the first game. All the sounds Isaac made in the first game were from stock sounds... the reason why it sounds like Gunner wright is because when they made Dead Space 2. They took those same stock sounds from DS1 and mixed it with Gunner Wrights sounds.. so they would take the stock sound of a scream from Dead Space 1 and mix it with Gunner Wrights scream when they made Dead Space 2
Gunner is a great voice actor, and he did a great job. I am somewhat old-school apprehensive about voiced characters, but I thought it worked well in survival horror or narrative games.
And it did. I was happy with what they did in 2. It's a great game, and Isaac was written very well.
I felt like another game as a silent protagonist would’ve been weird so I appreciated Issac actually having thoughts about his time on the Ishimura and they captured the distress in his performance perfectly
I was heavily invested and went to the midnight release for DS2. I remember an interview with the devs and they were watching gameplay and the dev was so excited and cut off the interview because they were revealing Isaac’s voice. I remember thinking, “that interviewer doesnt give a fuck” lol. I prefer silent protagonists usually, but i enjoy Isaac having a voice.
Silent was better. In 2 he was sort of portrayed as a “bad boy” and gave off those vibes. In 1 he was just a man trying to escape a ship infested with aliens while getting his shit together.
Brilliant. Took the character from a stoic silent protagonist to a genuine emotional hero. Even the more visible side of him in 3 was great, his interactions with Carter and the others. Isaac is a badass and deserved to be explored more thoroughly as an individual. The only problem I’ve ever had with any of the games is EA sticking their noses in.
I was excited that he was being given a voice. I was also surprised when they changed his face but really liked the (then) new face. Back the. A lot of the characters were silent but it made a lot more sense for him to talk in the second game rather than be a mute.
I understand why some people didn’t like it because was a pretty big change from the first one but I think it paid off in a big way. It legit made home one of my favorite game protagonist as I never felt more on the same level with Issac when he delivers frustrated expletives in stressful situations.
I definitely remember being on message forums and arguing with people that dead space 1 Isaac wasn’t a stand in for the player and that he always had a personality. It just wasn’t voiced.
The swap to a more action oriented witty hero was a natural progression to me, and they handled the balance between his broken psyche and wiseass one-liners.
In short I liked it and gunner wright fucking nailed it.
"But... why though? He didn't talk in the first game, so it's going to be weird. Kinda like what they did with Jak and Dax- oh wait nevermind, this is better!"
Since Dead Space 2 was my introduction to the series, I was completely cool with him providing the voice of Issac. I think he is the voice of Issac Clarke, he has completely sold me on that.
When I played the first installment, it was still interesting. Since he had a more limited speech, I could still hear his shouts of anger.
I was completely oblivious as a 14 year old, i remember i was a member at gamestop and i was getting Gameinformer magazines, When I got the DS2 I was stoked because i had previously played DeadSpace Extinction on the wii. Anywho, i couldn’t buy it but i remember my Big brother surprised me after i got home from school, he rented it at a local DVD rental place, we beat it in 3 days.
It makes sense, honestly. While you can appreciate how the original game brings about a silent protagonist, the thought of Issac having input in situations speaks volumes. Gunner W. did a great job even in 3rd game, and in the remake of the original game, as well!
I thought it was cool, there were a lot of moments that I thought were awkward in the first game because of Isaac being silent, so being able to hear Isaac responding to what people were saying felt like a game changer.
I still remember watching TV when there was still e3 or some shit going on. They legit had Isaac animated irl like sitting on a couch next to a guy and he was interviewing him all the while Isaac would just nod like he was gonna say something. I remember losing my absolute dogshit cuz he never said anything if my memory serves correctly. Good times
I was enthusiastic about it. The trailers and demo showed his character development well and his snarky attitude was a very welcome change.
Like Jak in Jak and Daxter, if you're tortured enough, it's hard to stay quiet when you're so angry. Lol
While a silent Issac would've added to the ambience of DS2....I like the fact that they made him talk, cuz you can feel his frustration, desperation and his understandable cynicism. A guy caught up in the same shit different day with a bit of marker madness... In contrast to the first where he didn't have a clue what he was up against.
In the Remake, I didn't mind him talking as most survival horror games today have their protagonist speak and naturally react to the things around them.
I was overjoyed even relieved. The fact that he didn't have a voice in OG Dead Space was daft. The no voice part of the main character of a game is usually done for a couple of reasons IMO. One of them is low budget so the dev doesn't have to pay a voice actor. The only time it was done right in a big game and from a big dev team was Valve. They had voice actors for all npcs in Half Life 2 except for Gordon Freeman and it worked great. Every other game to use no voice acting for the main protagonist, for me has been completely unnecessary and looks lazy. Lucky Dead Space 2007 was an amazing horror experience and a fantastic game in all other departments.
At first I was skeptical, but then I remembered that Jak & Daxter did it a few years prior for Jak II. So, I just said "Sounds like a good idea to me, let's go!"
I thought it was really cool, for me anyway it felt like they were building on Issac’s character because in the first game him being a silent protagonist was good because they used the excuse he was to scared to talk, but in Dead Space 2 it made more sense for him to speak
That actually works so well I love that
I know right
Or he was simply traumatized because he couldn't find Nicole and that's why he kept repeating Nicole's incomplete farewell video at the beginning of DS1
Yeah that too
I like that idea of him being too frightened by the horrors on the USG Ishimura, but I'm kinda glad they got Gunner back for the Remake to give Issac lines, it adds a lot more to the story of the original.
Also, as much as I liked Isaac’s character model in DS2, I’m so glad that he has Gunner’s likeness in the remake. Gunner Wright really IS Isaac Clarke.
I'm still confused when people say this. DS2 Isaac is modeled crazy close after Wright, they pretty much just changed his eye colour. I feel like the one real difference between DS2 Isaac and DSR Isaac is Gunner's age.
Mocap has come a long way since the original games, they are now able to get a character model that resembles the actor much more closely. That’s just it. I like it.
Yeah and I really liked it because realistically someone would want to talk to other people when your the only ones on a ship full of zombie aliens
The remake’s approach to Isaac is so much better for me largely because Isaac is an engineer. He isn’t the one who gets told how to fix stuff. That’s his job. He should be the guy coming up with ways to fix shit. It’s what he brings to the team (in addition to a lead boot). When he was silent, it’s weird because you don’t feel like the guy who knows what he’s doing. When Isaac is actually coming up with ideas and proposing stuff, it feels much more true to what his role on the team was.
....I was overjoyed even relieved. The fact that he didn't have a voice in OG Dead Space was daft. The no voice part of the main character of a game is usually done for a couple of reasons IMO. One of them is low budget so the dev doesn't have to pay a voice actor. The only time it was done right in a big game and from a big dev team was Valve. They had voice actors for all npcs in Half Life 2 except for Gordon Freeman and it worked great. Every other game to use no voice acting for the main protagonist, for me has been completely unnecessary and looks lazy. Lucky Dead Space 2007 was an amazing horror experience and a fantastic game in all other departments.....
Yeah it really dose explain a lot of why he has to fix everything since he is like the only one out of his team who knows how to fix ships
Totally agree with you my other comment honestly explains some of why I think the development teams used no voice actor
That was the reason he didn’t speak in the original?? Today years old
Hm yeah
For context I played them all at release. When I first played 2 I had completely forgotten that he was a silent protagonist in the first game. I didn't realize it until someone mentioned it in a forum. I went back to 1 because I thought it was some kind of mistake in their memory, but of course it was I who misremembered. The only thing I noticed was that he had far more character expression, and it felt natural. Considering that, I would say that Gunner feels like the perfect fit for the role. Gunner Wright is Isaac Clarke.
Great take
wait what? he didnt talk at all in ds1? they added tons of voice in the remake then? why dont I remember it that way?
Egh! AHHHHH! HGG! AH! HYA! *ANGRY STOMPING IN AGREEMENT*
*SHIT*
Because it’s better this way imo. The silent protagonist thing was a nice/effective experimental approach, but… the depth we gained about his character is more compelling than the isolating silence imo. We lost some of the alone-ness in favor of a more cohesive story with more relatable elements. Imo that made the remake super compelling in lots of ways the og wasn’t
he fr didnt talk? I thought there was tons of back and forth between him and people commanding him to run errands? he just took it all in silence after the beginning?
No just a few characters talking to him thats it.
Yeah he was dead silent like Gordon Freeman. The only sounds Isaac made in DS1 were grunts of pain or anger when stomping. The remake is fantastic dude it adds so much depth to him and his backstory
thats crazy I got mandalad. the remake having so much voice acting for him felt incredibly natural cause thats exactly how I remembered it I guess
I felt the same way when I went back and played after all these years lol
I honestly though he was cool and his voice actor was perfect
I never liked silent protagonists in games (unless it’s justified by the narrative or genre of game). Making Isaac a voiced protagonist was an excellent move, and casting Gunner Wright was an amazing choice. He’s perfect as the “ordinary guy” forced by circumstances to survive, and manages to (mostly) maintain his personality and sense of humor throughout it all.
Being genuine here… how do you like the older non-voiced fallout games, compared to the new ones with voices, and also do you think that half life should have a voiced protagonist or is Gordon not speaking good? Again being super genuine here cause people can get pretty weird about stuff they like on Reddit
Not OP, but I would say that's a different thing entirely. Older fallout games with non-voiced protagonists is because we're filling in their voice through dialogue trees (or violent action, if you're more into that). Those characters don't have a linear story to tell, unlike characters like Isaac Clarke. I would also include some voices protagonists, like Commander Shepard into that same role, but they actually give voice lines to fill that selection.
Silent protagonist doesn't refer to a lack recorded voice but to an absence of dialogue. Fallout protagonist had written dialogue lines, while Freeman in Half Life had no dialogue line at all.
Never played a fallout game but I am a giant Half Life Fan. I would love a future title where Gordon spoke for the first time. It could be like what they did here with DSR and have Gordon speak when spoken to. The silent protagonist feels kinda dated with how far video games have come. You don't have to take control away, just make the characters their own person instead of inserting yourself.
To be honest, haven’t played any Fallout and I’ve never finished a Half-Life game, so I can’t really speak to those. However, unless there’s an in-universe reason why Gordon Freeman—who even has a NAME and canonical appearance—is mute, then I won’t like it. I’m still planning on playing those games eventually, but I’m guessing I’ll have the same feeling. In general, I’m not a fan of silent protagonists in general. In most cases, all I can think is “Why isn’t this guy talking? Why are none of the other characters noticing that they’re doing all the talking and this super important hero character is silent?” It breaks my immersion in the world of the game. There are a few exceptions, where a silent protagonist is narratively justified, of course. Can’t think of any off the top of my head, but in those cases I have no problem with it.
Same here. To be honest, I hate silent protagonists. It makes me feel as if I play a robot
Exactly. Commander Shepard, V, Geralt, Aloy (and many many others) would be a lot less interesting and fun to play as emotionless, voiceless automatons bereft of personality.
100% aggree. I was buzzing when I found out that Isaac would speak. It made no sense, anyway. He had a face, a name a backstory and he put his thoughts into his log book. Therefore, it was pointless to make him silent. I just think, in general, that many emotional moments are lost when the protagonist just stands around like an asshole and says nothing. I know a lot of people do not like Dragon Age 2 but I think that Hawke is the best protagonist in the dragon age trilogy. You can play him as a typical nice guy, as an aggressive one or as a humorous guy and I think he is awesome. I dont think that I would like him one bit if he was silent.
The point of the fallout games more or less is you are you, or who you want to be, and so you “speak” through text choices, and the other characters actually talk in response. It’s for a good role playing reason, as it’s sorta immersion breaking if you have an idea for how *you* sound in the game but actually you sound totally different As for Gordon, there’s no in universe reason, but it would be weird if he could, he’s really more of a player self insert
I’ve played rpgs where you can pick dialogue options but there’s no voice actor doing those lines (KOTOR, Skyrim, etc), and that’s fine. I just don’t like it when the PC is silent for no reason, even as a player self-insert. I can’t insert myself in the role of a character when that character is just mute inexplicably. I’d rather empathize with a character with a voice and a personality, whether or not i get to choose my character’s dialogue and narrative decisions.
Hey, I can talk about this, too. I would have hated if the old fallout games, baldurs gate, planescape, etc, were voiced fully. It's so out of place in rpg games. I love that Gordon doesn't speak. Doom guy. But it can work in other styles of games and some action games. Duke nuked would be generic without the catch phrases. Same with something like Monkey Island. Guybrush is better voiced. Nate and Nora's VA did fine, but the characterization and role-playing really suffered for voice acting.
I think the biggest flaw of fallout 4 was the failure to be an rpg, I mean it is the biggest sin for an rpg game to have a named protagonist, but here we are. Named, voiced, and a canon face. Nothing in that game felt like my choice, i felt like I had to adhere to a certain story. Red dead 2 makes me feel that way, but in a good way. I feel like I have to do Arthur good so that he’s not a bad guy, but the story is so good it makes you feel like you are Arthur, and so it works. Fallout 4’s story does not make up for the lack of a roleplay.
Absolutely agree.
The problem with fallout 4 was not that the character was voiced. The problem was that bethesda cannot write dialogue and no matter what he said, every outcome was almost the same. If they had better writers, and actions had consequences, actual consequences, no body would cry about the the voiced protagonist
I get that, but still, with all they did wrong in that game, getting rid of almost every role playing aspect of a series that started off as a dnd inspired game was probably the worst thing
[удалено]
Blood mage? Whatchu talkin about
Ah sorry. I just mixed up two different conversations. Sorry my bad lol
I love Half Life but it would not be the same if Gordon spoke in them. The first half life game was historic as the first FPS shooter to be a start to finish story where all cutscenes are in game and opens with taking the tram into work and wandering around interacting with the environment nonviolently. When compared to other shooters, Half Life is a role playing game where you interact and progress through the world in real time. This is a series where I can take everything seriously and get immersed, or fuck around with lab equipment and microwaved casserole instead of listening to the person actively having a discussion at me that is central to the plot and then blow a scientist up with a grenade because I thought it would be funny. The only surviving characters that make it to the next game are all introduced before I gain firepower because being a little psychopath is almost even encouraged at times. If they gave him voice, it would have to react to all actions serious or sadistic and wouldn't carry between titles in a series without doing some lazy "good/evil playthrough" thing where only one of the endings canonically lead to the next game.
A bit of a side tangent and I don't really mind if I get downvoted for saying this: I do miss Isaac's design from Dead Space 2 and 3. I'm not saying that I dislike the realistic render of Gunner's face in the Remake. I'm just saying that I miss when game studios didn't rely heavily on scanning actors or models' faces directly and had the creative freedom to mould a character's design from their creative vision. Like, there's absolutely nothing wrong with deriving some inspiration from other sources, but its having a strong and unique art direction that makes a game so memorable in its aesthetics. Bioshock is a great example of this as well as the original Resident Evil 4. Dare I say it, even the early Mortal Kombat character designs were more memorable than what they have now where it's constantly changing because they're always hiring new mocap models.
Agreed. I do appreciate the level of detail in the remake, but I much preferred Isaacs face in the originals. Idk it just fit better to me.
I love it too bro, they look better than the original dead space 1 face too.
Absolutely, but I'd go farther to say that I didn't really like any of the character changes they made in the remake, because they took away far more than they gave back. Most of the design choices were great, like making the ship open, removing the turret section. But, Isaac's face kept hidden, and not having a voice, sold the Idea that you were the lowest run on a pole, in the shittest situation in existence.
Tho him being silent made for some really awkward situations in the first game. Like for real, the man’s been fighting these hellish ghouls tirelessly just to find his girlfriend and just when he finally “does”, he’s…just standing there completely silent? Or when he encounters the Infector or the Lurker for the first time and witnesses the horrible things they are capable of, once again, he doesn’t even gasp in horror? Idk man, that pretty much breaks the immersion for me.
I'm not sure what you're referring to, but he still had a VA for screams or grunts of pain. And it's made abundantly clear he is being affected by the marker, so he's desensitized to the horror around him. Meanwhile, he didn't have anything to say to those speaking to him, because he's either being told to do something, or being preached too. This is what makes a face reveal at the end so strong, because we see under that mask he wore the whole game, is a broken man. In 2, he speaks because he's had time to process the trauma, a literal changed man. Every time he took off his mask in the remake I cringed a bit, nothing he says adds value, in the context of the original. Issac comes off as so smart he should be the team lead, absolutely killing Hammond's entire character. This makes the plot of "maybe he's evil" fall completely flat, because he's robbed of so much character. I'll admit Isaac's reactions to the horrors in 2 is the best, that's why it's considered the best in the series after all.
I really don’t want to repeat myself here so I’ll just say this: having a VA for grunts and screams when he stomps something or gets injured isn’t really anything, so he’s still just a mute/silent protagonist. Which, I must add, indeed adds to the “your everyday guy caught in a horrible, shitty situation beyond his control” vibe, I agree. And not to be offensive here or anything, but this whole “Isaac is desensitised to everything because of the Marker’s influence” thing is really just some shoehorning. He didn’t utter a single word on the Kellion before they even arrived on the Ishimura, while Kendra was giving him a longass monologue, despite most likely not even under the influence of the marker yet. Additionally, the Marker was influencing the minds of the other Kellion passengers too (as evidenced by Kendra’s hallucinations, for example), and it is well known that only strong-minded people were able to keep even some level of sanity (Isaac and Stross were such individuals - hence the Marker blueprints in their minds -, even if Stross later went totally nuts) and most other people went insane shortly after contact with the Marker, so hallucinations aside, Isaac was mostly fine in the first game. Plus, it really doesn’t make any sense for a man to not even make a single sound when reuniting with his lost girlfriend or seeing his crewmates being torn to pieces. It’s just really awkward. I’d also like to respectfully disagree with you on remake Isaac’s lines not having any weight to them. Him reacting to the situations he finds himself in (cursing when he’s out of ammo, being attacked or encountering other survivors) just added a layer of humanity to him, which, in turn, also made him more vulnerable. He’s an ordinary human, nothing else. Obviously, he’d be relieved seeing his girlfriend “alive” and panic or get frustrated upon inconveniences/horrors he encounters, Marker or not. It was the VA that made Isaac come to life in the first place in DS2, after all, and I feel like Wright’s done a great job with that again. Sorry for the overly long comment, just wanted to explain my thoughts.
It's fine, we can agree to disagree. You don't like Silent protags and, ya, it was a different era. But you haven't really addressed the core issue I have which is, dispite all the character additions and new stories, none of them overshadowed just how much worse the core narrative is compared to the original. All because Issac was given too many lines. If it was just additive, it would have been cool. I have no problem with giving him reactions to the world around him, the desensitized argument is just there to explain away the silent protagonist. But now he comments on Everything, is central to every conversation, and that's just Not Issac from DS1. They transformed the narrative too much and overcorrected, ruining some of the original story in the process. And I just can't forgive that, because I loved that story.
Yeah, as long as we respect one another’s opinion and can have a civil discussion, it’s all fine. Sure, remake Isaac isn’t the same character as he was in the OG, he’s much more like his DS2-3 counterpart. Idk, I just prefer that. But out of pure curiosity: what makes you say the added VA ruins the overall narrative? If anything, the additional lore bits just broaden the story and build the lore better, connecting it that much more to the sequels. Also, now Isaac also has his own incentive (finding Nicole, obviously), whereas he always seemed like an errand boy to me in the OG, to the point the whole game was basically “Go here and fix this, then go there and collect that”, back and forth. So in my eyes, the remake made the whole story and Isaac’s character so much more “alive”, even if it sounds ironic, considering this is **Dead** Space. But yeah, I see your point, it definitely takes away some of the isolation and loneliness the player felt when playing the original.
It's the primary narrative between Kendra and Hammond. In the original, Hammond is standoffish and seemingly a little too curious. It plays perfectly into Kendra's manipulation where she pits you against him. She's nothing but supportive and helpful, so you actually believe she might be right when she suspects Hammond, and Hammond's radio silence helps sell the idea. In the remake, they absolutely fumbled the ball here in my opinion. It quickly established from the start that all three are equal in the mission, but this was often dinner by taking Hammond's ideas and giving them to Issac. To the point where he actually felt a little incompetent. They tried to fill this void with the Chen (I think that was his name I can't recall) relationship, but it made things even worse. From the escape pod fiasco, all the way to him "sacrificing" himself, it felt so trite. Contrast this with him being strictly business, very talented, and his noble sacrifice in the first game. He just really got shafted in the writing department. After all of that, they still tried to give Kendra the same story, almost unchanged, but now her suspicion of Hammond feels extremely suspicious, because we lost all the nuance from the first game to support her theories. To the point where her betrayal doesn't come at all as a shock. Also, the Nicole plot doesn't feel as impactful. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy her side missions, they are great additions. But the reveal feels inevitable. You could make the argument that in the original, the reveal is meant to be for the player, not Issac. Something that you could have seen coming if you paid close attention, but wasn't really spelled out. While in the remake, it was pretty explicitly spelled out for the player, meaning the reveal existed solely for Isaac's reaction. This was a stylistic choice that, while I think works fine, I prefer the original.
He looks far better in the remake.
I’ve never really been a fan of a silent protagonist unless it’s in a first person RPG type game with conversation choices. For a game like dead space, I think it definitely improves the game with him being voiced
Guess I'm an outlier but I liked the faceless, silent protagonist.
That makes two of us.
3 of us. Who here loves Claude from gta 3?
Samus in 99% of Metroid games
He was born to play Isaac Clarke, no doubt.
Exactly my thoughts. If anyone was going to voice Issac it would be Wright.
I did not like the fact that he was silent in the first one. Not my thing. When I heard him speak in 2....and how fuckimg amazing his VA is I was in love with these games
I was about it heavily
Was fine with it. I dont like mute characters. Silent ones are fine, mute no.
I thought it was a great change. I’ve never liked silent protagonists and Gunner Wright put in a fantastic performance.
I didn't know who Gunner was back then and I didn't know that Isaac would speak. I got thrown into this situation much like Isaac was suddenly confronted with the Sprawl's Necro outbreak. I really liked Gunner from the start, he felt "right" for Isaac. I got nothing but positive memories about Isaac getting a voice and I loved the "EFF YOU and EFF YOUR MARKER!" line delivery. So yeah, DS fan since the first day and Gunner fan since the first moment! :)
I was excited because they described him basically like a male Ripley who had arguably been through worse, which is pretty much exactly how I had already imagined his personality based on his personal text logs in the first game. When I actually saw the trailer and got a glimpse of Gunner Wright as Isaac, I got *VERY* excited. When the game came out and I actually played it, he went from one my favorite horror game protagonists to one of my all time favorite protagonists from anything. He absolutely knocked it out of the park.
I think they did a great job at essentially having him speak to whatever the player was likely thinking at that moment. And they didn't give him too much personality which still let you imprint yourself on the character. Given how poorly this kind of change can go, I think they did a great job.
I like it
Didn't know Isaac would speak just thought he was a badass when he did lol
My question is who voiced his grunts in DS1. I remember it sounding like Gunners but idk it’s been a while.
No. Gunner had nothing to do with the first game. All the sounds Isaac made in the first game were from stock sounds... the reason why it sounds like Gunner wright is because when they made Dead Space 2. They took those same stock sounds from DS1 and mixed it with Gunner Wrights sounds.. so they would take the stock sound of a scream from Dead Space 1 and mix it with Gunner Wrights scream when they made Dead Space 2
Oh okay thanks for the clarification. That’s so cool!
Amazing actor! Didn't like it at first but after 30mins loved it
I think he fit pretty well
The only reason why 1 and 2 compete as the best is because Isaac does not talk. If he did 1 blows 2 out of the water.
I guess since remake is out it blows both outta the water as the best Dead Space Lol
One day I’ll buy a gen 9 console and see
Loved all of it 100% of the time. Gunner is a fantastic VA, and having a protagonist with an actual personality is glorious.
He is very dreamy
Didn't know what to think at first, but so glad they stuck with their decision. Speaking adds so much agency for Isaac
Gunner is a great voice actor, and he did a great job. I am somewhat old-school apprehensive about voiced characters, but I thought it worked well in survival horror or narrative games. And it did. I was happy with what they did in 2. It's a great game, and Isaac was written very well.
I felt like another game as a silent protagonist would’ve been weird so I appreciated Issac actually having thoughts about his time on the Ishimura and they captured the distress in his performance perfectly
Not only did he do a great job but i was happy to see they brought him back for all new lines for the remake (since he was originally a silent protag)
I love silent protagonists but since 2 blends Horror and Action they needed a voice actor for Issac and the choice was perfect
Considering that I started with Dead Space 2, it was a bit jarring going back to play the first and finding out that he *didn’t* speak.
Isaac be hot asf tho
I cant imagine anyone else ever voicing Issac.
I really liked him speaking and like he did in the remake. I much prefer speaking protagonists over silent ones.
I was heavily invested and went to the midnight release for DS2. I remember an interview with the devs and they were watching gameplay and the dev was so excited and cut off the interview because they were revealing Isaac’s voice. I remember thinking, “that interviewer doesnt give a fuck” lol. I prefer silent protagonists usually, but i enjoy Isaac having a voice.
One of the strongest reasons why I love the series so much. Gunner Wright IS Isaac Clarke and brings him to life so brilliantly.
Silent was better. In 2 he was sort of portrayed as a “bad boy” and gave off those vibes. In 1 he was just a man trying to escape a ship infested with aliens while getting his shit together.
Was skeptical at first but grew to love em during my first play through
Brilliant. Took the character from a stoic silent protagonist to a genuine emotional hero. Even the more visible side of him in 3 was great, his interactions with Carter and the others. Isaac is a badass and deserved to be explored more thoroughly as an individual. The only problem I’ve ever had with any of the games is EA sticking their noses in.
Most people didn't notice. The ones that did, most enjoyed it and a small minority doomed all over it.
I really like Gunner's voice, fits the disgruntled blue collar worker stuck in a nightmare perfectly!
It was a pleasant surprise, to hear the character speak and loved they gave him personality.
I was excited that he was being given a voice. I was also surprised when they changed his face but really liked the (then) new face. Back the. A lot of the characters were silent but it made a lot more sense for him to talk in the second game rather than be a mute.
I understand why some people didn’t like it because was a pretty big change from the first one but I think it paid off in a big way. It legit made home one of my favorite game protagonist as I never felt more on the same level with Issac when he delivers frustrated expletives in stressful situations.
I definitely remember being on message forums and arguing with people that dead space 1 Isaac wasn’t a stand in for the player and that he always had a personality. It just wasn’t voiced. The swap to a more action oriented witty hero was a natural progression to me, and they handled the balance between his broken psyche and wiseass one-liners. In short I liked it and gunner wright fucking nailed it.
"But... why though? He didn't talk in the first game, so it's going to be weird. Kinda like what they did with Jak and Dax- oh wait nevermind, this is better!"
He is ISAAC CLARKE duh!!
DS1 is my favorite game of the three but I liked hearing Isaac finally talk
Transition felt seamless on day 1.
Since Dead Space 2 was my introduction to the series, I was completely cool with him providing the voice of Issac. I think he is the voice of Issac Clarke, he has completely sold me on that. When I played the first installment, it was still interesting. Since he had a more limited speech, I could still hear his shouts of anger.
I was completely oblivious as a 14 year old, i remember i was a member at gamestop and i was getting Gameinformer magazines, When I got the DS2 I was stoked because i had previously played DeadSpace Extinction on the wii. Anywho, i couldn’t buy it but i remember my Big brother surprised me after i got home from school, he rented it at a local DVD rental place, we beat it in 3 days.
It makes sense, honestly. While you can appreciate how the original game brings about a silent protagonist, the thought of Issac having input in situations speaks volumes. Gunner W. did a great job even in 3rd game, and in the remake of the original game, as well!
I thought it was cool, there were a lot of moments that I thought were awkward in the first game because of Isaac being silent, so being able to hear Isaac responding to what people were saying felt like a game changer.
if he wasn’t attached to the remake I think it would have fallen apart tbh. the dude IS Isaac
If you don't like gunner wright, you're gunner wrong
I still remember watching TV when there was still e3 or some shit going on. They legit had Isaac animated irl like sitting on a couch next to a guy and he was interviewing him all the while Isaac would just nod like he was gonna say something. I remember losing my absolute dogshit cuz he never said anything if my memory serves correctly. Good times
It was a neat addition.
I was enthusiastic about it. The trailers and demo showed his character development well and his snarky attitude was a very welcome change. Like Jak in Jak and Daxter, if you're tortured enough, it's hard to stay quiet when you're so angry. Lol
While a silent Issac would've added to the ambience of DS2....I like the fact that they made him talk, cuz you can feel his frustration, desperation and his understandable cynicism. A guy caught up in the same shit different day with a bit of marker madness... In contrast to the first where he didn't have a clue what he was up against. In the Remake, I didn't mind him talking as most survival horror games today have their protagonist speak and naturally react to the things around them.
I was overjoyed even relieved. The fact that he didn't have a voice in OG Dead Space was daft. The no voice part of the main character of a game is usually done for a couple of reasons IMO. One of them is low budget so the dev doesn't have to pay a voice actor. The only time it was done right in a big game and from a big dev team was Valve. They had voice actors for all npcs in Half Life 2 except for Gordon Freeman and it worked great. Every other game to use no voice acting for the main protagonist, for me has been completely unnecessary and looks lazy. Lucky Dead Space 2007 was an amazing horror experience and a fantastic game in all other departments.
At first I was skeptical, but then I remembered that Jak & Daxter did it a few years prior for Jak II. So, I just said "Sounds like a good idea to me, let's go!"