I remember the days when spoken words weren’t even part of video games and now you have over 13,000 of them for the lead male/female characters in Bethesda’s upcoming post-nuclear RPG Fallout 4. That’s absolutely boggling when you think of the time and effort it takes to not only write that dialogue but record it as well. That’s exactly what lead actors Courtenay Taylor and Brian T. Delaney have done and it’s taken them over two years to do it.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Bethesda’s Todd Howard acknowledged not only the work involved but the concerns over making sure they do it right. Let’s take into consideration that this is the first time Bethesda Game Studios have added a fully voiced lead character into any of their games. It might not be new to gaming but it’s new territory for them. “We had the same worry as everyone else,” stated Howard when commenting on the fact that their lead characters had to interact with so many other characters in game. Concerns that the conversation would be limited and therefore hamper the experience definitely seemed to be on their mind.
Still, Howard gives a nod to the work Courtenay and Brian have done which assures us that BGS isn’t going into this halfway. “We were lucky to find two great voice actors, and it’s interesting because she may read things or act things differently than he does. So scenes play out differently depending on whether you are playing the game as male or female.” Now, this doesn’t necessarily warrant a complete gender swapping, second play-through (well, heck why not?) but knowing that you could get an entirely different feel depending on your choice of leads makes for a good reason to consider it.
There’s no doubt that undertaking fully voiced leads in a game the size of Fallout 4 is a daunting task. Sure there’s plenty of games with lots of dialogue but to be able to give players the chance to explore and play the game as they see fit there are certainly a lot of challenges present. In an open world such as this one you don’t want to restrict the player based on limited dialogue. “A lot of games have voiced characters, but what they don’t want to give up is all the dialogue options. So for us a lot of it was logistical. The voice actors have been recording for 2 years, they’ve each done over 13,000 lines of dialogue. So to be able to do that makes the difference; you still have choice.”
If there’s one thing we’re sure of it’s the fact that Bethesda Game Studios knows how big the hype on Fallout 4 is. We’re also sure the last thing they want to do is disappoint. If the effort they’ve put into voicing their lead characters is any indication, we’ve got a lot to look forward to this November.
