I can only imagine that providing your voice for a video game is akin to acting in a silent film. This may seem like a stretch considering that the film requires pure pantomime whereas a video game asks the opposite from a performer. Yet both forms of acting require an artist to direct their performance towards an audience who can only accept it with a singular sense. Yes, voice actors in video games are given an avatar to inhabit, but the actor rarely has a hand in creating this visage. They instead have to rely solely on their vocal theatricality to create a character through cadence, timing and a true ability to imagine and understand the virtual world that isn’t quite around them.
As games have matured throughout the decades, it’s become more and more commonplace for titles to feature a litany of high-caliber Hollywood names. When a remarkable thespian like Ben Kingsley appears in Fable III, it’s obvious that video games have the ability to draw in the highest of talent. If you need more proof, look no further than the call sheet for Mass Effect 2. The second act in Bioware’s sci-fi trilogy features the notable voices of Academy Award winners and science fiction royalty. But it takes more than a litany of successes to excel in voicing a video game. It isn’t their prior achievements that elevate the game’s narrative, but rather the actor’s ability to wholly realize the story that they each inhabit.
