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sheildo20's mom's big butt has Blood West

Nov 17, 2023 @ 7:51pm

The new voice actor sucks

Bro the old voice actor was perfect for this game the new one sounds lame

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Originally posted by ghostwalker:

Hi guys,

Kacper here. I am, among others, responsible for casting Stephen for the Revenant. And it breaks my heart to see you guys don't share my excitement, as I'm incredibly proud of our new voice. Just wanted to point to and explain a few things.

First of all, the reason behind changing the VA was not the quality of the performance. The original voice artist did a splendid job and we were just as much in love with his rendition of the Undead Gunslinger as you were. However, we could not in good faith continue working with them, and when it came to recording additional lines for the full release, the only choice was to find a replacement.

We chose to treat this problem as an opportunity instead, and give Blood West players something special, and memorable. You probably can guess a lot of us are big fans of Thief and Garrett, and that led us to the crazy idea of bringing him to Blood West. So, it was a crazy call to try doing something that seemed out of reach at that moment, not a marketing decision, like some of you may think.

But fulfilling your dreams aside, here are the few things about the new VO I'd like to point to.

First, honestly, I felt dissonance, too, at the beginning. I caught myself thinking the best new lines are those the most reminiscent of the previous ones. But I also knew perfectly well how powerful is getting used to the tone in sound and music, and any change is unpleasant if something isn't broken, especially when you have listened to it for months. But you don't hire such a legend as Stephen to mimick someone else, right? That was the one reason behind approaching differently to the protagonist's tone.

Second reason. Note that the first voice not only settled in our ears itself, but also created an expectation of how the Revenant SHOULD sound. Take a second look on the artworks or cinematics - of course you may not agree with me, but he's not an oldish scoundrel there, as the first voice might suggested. And this was the second reason to not follow closely the vibe of the first voice.

Finally, you don't hire such a legend to drown it in reverbs and otherworldly hiss, right? That was our approach, and that's why we left the new VOs pretty dry. But even if it's heartbreaking you don't love the new voice as we do, we'll try our best to fit it more into your image and expectations.

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Showing 106-120 of 135 comments

dyra55

Dec 8, 2023 @ 10:16am

Originally posted by dyra55:
This thread made me curious to check it out in-game and i must agree that old one fit the game's vibe better
Not to say the new one "sucks", maybe it'll grow on me with time but i prefer the gruff sounding voiceover the game had before as it reminded me of Caleb from Blood

Played a bit today to see how smooth it would run on another PC and it seems they fixed up his new voice somewhat and it fits better now, i like it more this way, still prefer old voice but i'm ok with the new one now

#106

Bankai9212 Dec 8, 2023 @ 11:09am

Originally posted by Cubin':
Originally posted by Bankai9212:
This would make a second rare person who doesn't like his voice work oh well.
second? Have you even read the thread?

Not really, my response is simply in reference to Steven as a VA. For this thread its more due to them replacing the OG VA which for those who played during EA I can understand.

#107

Creighmoe

Dec 8, 2023 @ 7:31pm

Despite A lot of people from EA think the original is better I think we all can agree that the game is still amazing.

#108

Emperor Fooble has Blood West

Dec 8, 2023 @ 7:44pm

Hating on voice actors is so cringe.

Honestly, I think the VA is hitting it out of the park and is great.

#109

Professor Badger has Blood West

Dec 9, 2023 @ 3:11pm

I will forever miss the early access voice, finding it hard to get back into the game and I don't think its just the voice but I dunno it might just be depression or something

#110

David Fifield Dec 9, 2023 @ 3:50pm

Originally posted by Bankai9212:
Originally posted by BitsOfSkin:
You know, I was wondering what had happened with the voice, and why it was now grating on my last functional nerve...
Them I come here and read it's Stephen Russell, and it all makes sense.
Hated his voice in Fallout 4, Dishonored, Morrowind, Fallout 3 and Thief.
He tries to sound gruff, but instead it's raspy and nasal at the same time...
This would make a second rare person who doesn't like his voice work oh well.

It's not that rare. The guy sounds super nasally and his cadence reminds me of something from a Wes Anderson movie. I personally strongly dislike it.

#111

Esgal

Dec 9, 2023 @ 3:54pm

Originally posted by ghostwalker:
Hi guys,

Kacper here. I am, among others, responsible for casting Stephen for the Revenant. And it breaks my heart to see you guys don't share my excitement, as I'm incredibly proud of our new voice. Just wanted to point to and explain a few things.

I love the work you did with the voice acting and casting. I played the game with the old voice acting and now I'm playing with the new one. in my opinion there is no difference for the atmosphere.
Thanks again for the great work and great gaming experience :)

#112

Panda V4

Dec 10, 2023 @ 3:13am

Originally posted by Professor Badger:
I will forever miss the early access voice, finding it hard to get back into the game and I don't think its just the voice but I dunno it might just be depression or something

OMG the voice acting is so bad its driving people into depression!!

#113

The Real CHIM Shady has Blood West

Dec 10, 2023 @ 3:38am

I like the new guy, but some lines need work. Mainly lines for picking up items, he should not be saying "get into my gun" when picking up arrows lmao

#114

Creighmoe

Dec 10, 2023 @ 5:49am

Originally posted by The Real CHIM Shady:
I like the new guy, but some lines need work. Mainly lines for picking up items, he should not be saying "get into my gun" when picking up arrows lmao

A lot of the lines are sounding more like dad jokes than something an gunslinger would say. But either way game is still amazing. I think that something we all can agree on.

#115

randir14

Dec 10, 2023 @ 7:06am

Should've used Stephan Weyte. He's got experience voicing old west revenants.

#116

East

Dec 10, 2023 @ 9:42am

Anyone knows what happened that they could "not in good faith continue working with them"?

#117

Panda V4

Dec 10, 2023 @ 8:59pm

Originally posted by East:
Anyone knows what happened that they could "not in good faith continue working with them"?

I heard rumors of him being a jackass towards his gf. And than ofcourse devs decided that they need to virtue signal and he deserves to die in a ditch homeless without a penny to his name. You know the usual "current year" stuff.

Last edited by Panda V4; Dec 10, 2023 @ 8:59pm

#118

Dapper Raptor has Blood West

Dec 10, 2023 @ 9:12pm

Originally posted by East:
Anyone knows what happened that they could "not in good faith continue working with them"?

There's a bunch of screenshots of messages from the dev that are pretty abusive towards their girlfriend that seem to be trying to push her into a worse place mental health wise when she was already suicidal and stuff. Poster above me might want to pretend like the devs are virtue signalling and all that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chronically online people say, but even if you don't agree with the whole situation, it makes sense for the devs to just distance themselves from that sort of thing BECAUSE of how its handled online. Either they don't approve of that behaviour at which point its totally their call to severe ties with him, or they want to avoid drama now that stuff is out in the public and is pretty damning, so they severed ties. Either way is a smart move IMO

#119