Truly terrible voiceacting

[Cybergopher]

This game is great as long as you play it without sound. The voice acting is atrocious I had to turn it off. The translation is pretty crappy too. I don't think I could recommend this game unless you want to play it in the original language. (not sure what that is) It's unfortunate because the game has an interesting story and great visuals.

[saluk]

Yeah it's incredible how bad the voice acting is. Almost deliberately bad. Most bad voice acting is due to over acting, or just not very good reading of the lines. Here, the actors use the opposite emotion from what is required, have really odd inflections, and most of the time sound like they are just reading aloud from a script. I've never heard "Uhm" quite like this :)

[Andeddu]

It sounded more like bored improv to me.

[RosePlayedThis]

Tell that to the company directly on their site and/or Facebook! I'm wary of saying it because I'm an English-native translator in the same city, and don't want to look like I'm touting for trade. But yes, the localisation is REALLY bad and I doubt I would have played it if it weren't a German company, i.e. I could just play it in German (the language I translate from). The German original, by contrast, was excellent, even using famous voice actors.
Seriously speaking though - the company produces great stuff but will never break out of Germany unless they realise they need to work with professional translators and voice artists. The only way they'll take this seriously is if players like you tell them.

[BlueStinger]

The voice acting is the worst i have ever heard. Even worse than Dead Mountaineer's Hotel. And that's saying something! Sounds like they used microsoft text to speech.

[Cybergopher]

Yeah, I literally thought it was text-to-speech for a while at the beginning. So bad.

[falcotron]

At the start of the game, it didn't seem bad. Bent wasn't too bad. And Fay's "I DO not know HOW to use contractions AND I am ALWAYS putting THE stress on random WORDS" and completely inappropriate emotional responses seemed intentional. Like they were trying to make her sound alien, but in a cute way—sort of like ET, Yoda, or Andie MacDowell.

Unfortunately, once we heard other future humans sound like soap opera characters, and z couple of modern humans who sounded like their dialog was spliced together by recording them one word at a time, that ruined the illusion, and it became clear that there was nothing intentional going on here, just a bunch of bad actors apparently working under a director who's never heard even English on TV…

Still, it DID not ruin THE game for MYSELF.

[RosePlayedThis]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von abarnert:

At the start of the game, it didn't seem bad. Bent wasn't too bad. And Fay's "I DO not know HOW to use contractions AND I am ALWAYS putting THE stress on random WORDS" and completely inappropriate emotional responses seemed intentional. Like they were trying to make her sound alien, but in a cute way—sort of like ET, Yoda, or Andie MacDowell.

Unfortunately, once we heard other future humans sound like soap opera characters, and z couple of modern humans who sounded like their dialog was spliced together by recording them one word at a time, that ruined the illusion, and it became clear that there was nothing intentional going on here, just a bunch of bad actors apparently working under a director who's never heard even English on TV…

Still, it DID not ruin THE game for MYSELF.

I'm curious - do you think the translation was bad AS WELL AS there being bad voice acting?

[spacemanchuck]

I have to say, I was so close to buying the game, it looks awesome, but having heard how bad the voice acting is I cant justify dropping the loot. Thats really too bad, maybe they will fix it?

I am however re-thinking it on a comedic level. Lingocode, you're cracking me up dude!

[NoAgenda]

I don't think the english voice acting is bad. I think everyone is mainly criticizing the voice acting for the fay character, but I think it works for her character. It is channeling Sandra Bullock in Demolition man where Sandra's character has a awkward speech pattern and interprets past culture differently in a naive sort of way. Add the fact that Fay has been living underground in a future with not that many people and no form of entertainment. All she knows is what she experienced living with 5+ other people who are not exactly social themselves.

Bottomline, Fay literally has lived under a rock for most of her life. So awkward speech is to be expected.

[Cybergopher]

Were you the bad voiceactor!?! I don't see how there can be any disagreement here...... It was technical and recording issues, not that the actor meant to speak awkwardly.

[NoAgenda]

I was just commenting on the actual voice acting itself. All the comments have been about the voice acting.The recording and technical issue is a seperate issue and yes the recordings are overmodulated.

[rjunosuke]

The French version is pretty decent. I know this is useless to non French speakers, but just so you know. :)

[taytothief]

I had to turn it off. It was painful.

[Nefylym]

How are the German or Polish versions? Can one play a game in one language audio wise and have subtitles in English? For instance, could I play this game fresh off Steam with German audio and English subtitles? Or Polish audio and English subtitles? Been looking to get this for a long time now. Sad to hear the one key ingredient of a game like this, the voice acting, is so subpar. :(

[Nefylym]

Nevermind, just read another post in this forum that states you can change the languages, but not in game. You have to adjust it in Steam under the game's properties before launching it. You know, I watched a few minutes of the opening on a YouTube recording of the game, and it doesn't seem to be too bad. Secret Files 2 in my opinion has the WORST voice acting so far. Just my opinion though.