Why the main character don't speak?

[The Kaplox]

Really

[MTL5]

Because Half-Life 2. Gordon Freeman is a silent protagonist, so Ethan Brady is a silent protagonist. He speaks in the DLC, though.

[Can_GooRoo]

because there is misbelief among developers (not this devs in particular, but devs in general) that speachless protagonist helps players to immerse more into story and associate himself with the protagonist

[Red]

speaks in the last dlc though. They even commented on that in the game.

[Chris Riley]

he is shy

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Can_GooRoo:

because there is misbelief among developers (not this devs in particular, but devs in general) that speachless protagonist helps players to immerse more into story and associate himself with the protagonist

I wouldn't say it helps immerse into the story, but it does help immerse into the world.

Some of the most atmospheric games games I've played use silent protagonists:
Half-Life, Doom 3, STALKER, Metro 2033, Bioshock, F.E.A.R. - you name it.

I don't think it's because devs think it IMPROVES the atmosphere, but because a talkative character may be annoying for some or many people and really pull the player out of the experience.

But in the end of the day it's all about how it's done
Crysis had the silent Nomad which was fine, but you knew NOTHING about Nomad. You literally became Nomad.
In Crysis Warhead you play as Psycho and the game suddenly gains flavor and character, but ONLY because Psycho is a pretty neat character and people felt like playing as Jason Statham in a supersuit.
However I preferred the silence of Alcatraz in Crysis 2 over Prophet's unnecessary pseudo-wise banter in Crysis 3.


The same may have likely happened to Homefront, where the devs weren't sure if it's better with a silent protagonist or not