In my opinion Carter is just a boring character with a boring script, but there was nothing wrong with his voice acting though (for the most part, I can admit that sometimes he sounded bored). I can say the same for some of the other Noble team members. Some of the troopers (in particular the one that says “the covenant are on reach, I repeat”) were kind of bland and poorly acted unlike the previous Halo games where the marines were great (esp. with the IWBYD skull on!).
The best voice acting in reach (and probably every halo game) was Buck, voiced by Nathan Fillion. I’m not saying that because I’m a Firefly fan either (I’ll admit that Alan Tudyk was bland and disappointing in ODST for the most part). He genuinely filled his character’s dialogue with humor and emotion. His firefight voice seems like Marty just handed him a microphone and said “Go nuts”. He was even nominated for an award for his voice work in reach it was that entertaining! I’ll be Goram disappointed if he doesn’t return in the reclaimer trilogy!
(Ok, maybe I was saying that because I’m a firefly fan)
I was a little disappointed with the lack of dialogue from the Army Troopers, to be honest. Halo 3 had a buttload of randomly triggered dialogue, so much so that I’d still be hearing lines that I’d never heard before. Reach, it seems, didn’t get the same treatment, resulting in the Troopers repeating the same thing multiple times through a level. It doesn’t help that the IWHBYD skull does absolutely nothing in Reach, unfortunately.
> I was a little disappointed with the lack of dialogue from the Army Troopers, to be honest. Halo 3 had a buttload of randomly triggered dialogue, so much so that I’d still be hearing lines that I’d never heard before. Reach, it seems, didn’t get the same treatment, resulting in the Troopers repeating the same thing multiple times through a level. It doesn’t help that the IWHBYD skull does absolutely nothing in Reach, unfortunately.
I agree. That’s true. They say a FEW new lines with the skull on but mostly nothing.
> > I was a little disappointed with the lack of dialogue from the Army Troopers, to be honest. Halo 3 had a buttload of randomly triggered dialogue, so much so that I’d still be hearing lines that I’d never heard before. Reach, it seems, didn’t get the same treatment, resulting in the Troopers repeating the same thing multiple times through a level. It doesn’t help that the IWHBYD skull does absolutely nothing in Reach, unfortunately.
>
> I agree. That’s true. They say a FEW new lines with the skull on but mostly nothing.
Six, Jorge, and Carter continue roaring down the bumpy dirt road as a gaggle of Moa dash away from the invading covenant forces. As six turns around a bend, the radio begins to crackle and the voice of an army trooper is heard. "This is Private Gerald from Charlie Squad requesting immediate back-up from any available units. We’ve been engaged by… what seems to be…" The trooper begins to murmur for a few seconds, before a second trooper is barely heard in the background." "Tell 'em Gerald! We need backup! Hurry!" "No, this can’t be happening! It’s impossible!" Gerald’s voice is panicked and desperate. "Damn it, Gerald, give me the mic!" A brief struggle is heard; Gerald’s screams and protests being muffled by frantic movement. A second or two of silence passes before the transmission is continued by the second trooper. "It’s the Covenant. They’ve found us."
Even this piece of crap script that I wrote in 5 minutes would have been better than that infamous piece of dialouge on Winter Contigency.
> > Carter… You know, Until today, I didn’t know what he said at the start of Winter Contingency? In the falcons? First line of gameplay and he mumbles it. “Shoot down attempts are likely, so keep your distance”… I genuinely thought he said something like “Keep down the temperature lightly”.
>
> Oh, that’s what he said…
>
> To me it always sounded like “Shoot down the central likeness, so keep your distance.” or something like that.
Until this day I also didn’t know what he said. I attributed that to his general “mumbliness”. And for me it always sounded like “shoot down sensors lightly” which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
As for the voice acting, the only character’s voice acting I like is Jorges. Don’t know how else to describe it, but with everyone else I have that picture in my head of the voice actors standing in the studio and reading their lines when I hear them talking during the campaign. But not with Jorge.
It’s not so much that the Chief sounds amazing, Noble Team had less than brilliant voice acting and it was far more noticeable as they were talking all the time.
> I find it funny people complain about how Noble Team’s voice acting sucks, but get won over with one-liners by Master Chief.
They have a lot more dialogue than MC ever did. All MC has to do is sound like a badass. And he has zero combat dialogue. He’s never in a panic, he’s the -Yoinking!- masterchief. When a regular marine is under fire and yelling for help, a bit more “acting” is necessary.
People, as much as I don’t want to say this I feel I must. Truly awful voice acting isn’t the fault of the actor. It is the fault of the director for not getting the right emotion out of the voice actor. Really in Reach it seemed like the extras were the problem. I also agree with the opinion on Noble team. Kat and Jorge were fine, Emile and Jun were -bleh-, and Carter was just boring. Also (although we won’t have to deal with this again because THE CHIEF IS BACK BABY!), Noble 6, both the male and female versions, felt like they had zero emotion throughout the whole game. Look at a game like Mass Effect or Dragon Age 2 and the male and female voice actors actually portray a varity of emotions.
> People, as much as I don’t want to say this I feel I must. Truly awful voice acting isn’t the fault of the actor. It is the fault of the director for not getting the right emotion out of the voice actor. Really in Reach it seemed like the extras were the problem. I also agree with the opinion on Noble team. Kat and Jorge were fine, Emile and Jun were -bleh-, and Carter was just boring. Also (although we won’t have to deal with this again because THE CHIEF IS BACK BABY!), Noble 6, both the male and female versions, felt like they had zero emotion throughout the whole game. Look at a game like Mass Effect or Dragon Age 2 and the male and female voice actors actually portray a varity of emotions.
> I understand all of your dismay, but in my opinion they were just trying to emulate how actual military communication should sound. They’re not going to be panicked when speaking across the comm, especially a higher-up. They’re going to be calm.
Was going to say the same thing. Everyone reacts to things differently but I would expect a soldier wouldn’t be all frayed and nervous about it.
> Well, I for one can agree that the voice acting in Reach…SUCKS!
>
> I found there was only one type of effect with the voice, and that is when you can hear them through your com. Other then that, it sounds like you are stood in a sound proofed room when they are speaking to you. They sound very bland. I feel there was no effort put into it.
>
> In the Halo 4 campaign, I would love to hear characters actually trying to shout over explosions, or sound out of breathe if they are under-fire. I would love to just here them have some sort of meaning to their voice.
>
> What do you think?
Well, part of the problem with voice acting in Reach was that there wasn’t really anything to talk about.
“Oh, the covenant is over there. Well, I killed them. Moving on…oh, more guys. I guess I’ll kill them too. Hey, a button…I pressed it. There, something happened. More covenant…they’re dead. Moving on…more covenant.”
Granted, a little more pep would have been nice to inject the languid gameplay with a little something, however superficial it may have been, but working first on the plot and then gameplay and then level design and then, finally, acting would probably be a better way to go about bringing more significant, and better, change.
I think the reason the voice acting is being called out so much is because really, really good voice acting can make even a very typical story seem enthralling. I mean, just look at StarCraft: by today’s standards, that game’s story would be terrible, yet the voice acting is so amazing that it makes the plot seem revolutionary.
> As for the voice acting, the only character’s voice acting I like is Jorges. Don’t know how else to describe it, but with everyone else I have that picture in my head of the voice actors standing in the studio and reading their lines when I hear them talking during the campaign. But not with Jorge.
Yeah, the guy who played Jorge is very talented. Also played Captain Mokoena in Brink and Ike Dubaku in 24.