2y ago

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will have a voiced main character: 'it draws the player in that much more', says the game's ex-Bioware narrative designer

www.pcgamer.com

42 comments

I personally feel like having a voiced main character usually has the opposite effect. Being able to project myself into an unvoiced protagonist is far more immersive.
- I think I'm the exact opposite. An unvoiced main character often feels incomplete and breaks my immersion. Unless there is a believable reason for the characters muteness.
  
  An unvoiced character =/= a mute character. In the first VtMB, the main character was unvoiced but had tons of dialogue options.
- And it's pretty much the opposite of the first game
NOOOO!!
Voiced protagonists just limits dialogue so so much! Just look at Fallout 4 :(
The original Bloodlines is one of my all time favorite games, mostly because of the 10/10 dialogue.
- Not if done right. IE; look at "the not-gold standard" Baldurs Gate 3.
  
  BG3 doesn't have a fully voiced protsgonist.
I'm not surprised they choose to go down this route, but it does make me a bit bummed. Fair to assume we won't be seeing a return to clans having completely rewritten dialogue. Now, no matter who I try to make, I'll just be the male or female "Vampire Shepard".
Wasn't Bloodlines 2 supposed to be released like 5 years ago now? It'll get out of my vaporware pile when I see it in action.
I frankly haven't liked anything i've heard and seen these days about this game. Feels very unlike the first one. One of the things i loved about the first one's dialogue is that you had every type of follow up you could reasonably think of when having a conversation, with each clan having their own style of logic and speech. With voiced protagonists i have never found that to be the case.
- Voiced also means either you listen to the dialog you already read in the dialog selection or you replace the selection menu with generic prompts like friendly, threatening, silly, etc and then don't know what you are actually going to say. Neither of which I enjoy.
- The Chinese Room's Bloodlines 2 might well turn out alright in its own way, but I'm sad we'll never get the full Brian Mitsoda-led sequel. The first game had such a distinct and charming style, writing and atmosphere and I doubt this studio will be able (or even interested in trying to) replicate that. It's especially a shame that Rik Schaffer came back to do music for the sequel for Hardsuit Labs, but I'm guessing they'll go in another direction there as well. His Bloodlines OST is so iconic and was a huge part of the atmosphere.
- I'm assuming you are talking about Redemption and not the first Bloodlines. In the first Bloodlines unless you were Malkavian all the Clans had generally had the same dialogues with minor variances were it made sense. IE Tremere talking to Strauss, Nosferatus having the initial conversations with people, etc.
We really don't know enough to tell whether it's gonna work out or not, feels like people are just using it to confirm their existing bias at this point. Vampyr was a AA game with a voiced protagonist and it was excellent, really elevated the game further for example. Maybe it will be the same here.
- I'm not sure how to respond to this. Vampyr reviews were all over the place, and John being voiced was one of the criticisms.
  I actually didn't have much of a problem with that. Well, I guess it contributed to the "illusion of freedom with walls too obvious" attitude a bit.
It really doesn't when you're talking about an RPG. If this sequel is anything at all like the first one, the ambiguity of the protagonist makes it much easier to see them as anything you want. Including how they might sound if they are not voiced.
At least make sure there's options, like in Saints Row 2.
I agree, Mass Effect / The Witcher is vastly more immersive than silent protagonist alternatives like Fallout 3, Skyrim or The Outer Worlds. That said though, Skyrim and The Outer Worlds could never work with a voice protagonist, Skyrim because the variation is just far to intense to make any logistical sense (as in so many race+gender combos). And The Outer Worlds dialog trees and complexity there would be crazy expensive to voice out fully. Though both are budget bound so with AI assistance it might be possible without super intense spending.
- The Witcher works because Geralt is a character, same with Shephard. Joe Generic in Fallout 4 is so boring because they are trying to still have the make your own character aspect intact.
  
  Thats the key here, Sheperd, Geralt, and Henry of Skalitz are all characters in their own right. Ya just get to choose what they do.
Oof. Another Fo4 style diaster. At least it won't hurt modding the same way, but its still a lot of voice acting for little benefit.
- That's quite a conclusion to jump to. Mass Effect has a fully voiced player character and it is great.
- FO4 variable voice characters were pretty good.

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