Artyom Not Talking Breaks Immersion

[Valyus]

I really hope they fix this in the next game. It's absolutely one of my biggest gripes about this one. He is not an avatar for the player as he has established feelings, goals, and relationships. The whole reason why he doesn't talk is so stupid that I really can't understand why they thought it'd be a great idea to keep him quiet. I know some people don't agree but there has be a specific way to create a character in order for them to BE the player. Artyom and the loading screen talking literally doesn't help the cause of those that believe he shouldn't talk in game because he does have a voice.

The whole part where Anna gets sick after the wedding or being captured by those cannibals and Artyom really not showing much concern other than grunts or shoulder rubbing will never replace someone showing genuine care or dialogue. The games story really takes a nosedive because of the lack of any type of talking. Especially in conversations with other people on the Aurora, they ask him questions but they quickly deflect because the game designer was like, "Oh ♥♥♥♥, we can't have our character having character. QUICK! ABORT! ABORT!" then that character (whoever you're talking to) will bypass the question to Artyom into a long winded talk. It's not clever and it's sucks. We are not Gordon Freeman (a nameless blank that doesn't have anything outside the games events) or Link (another person who essentially has nothing outside the games adventure). It simply doesn't work for Metro anymore as it did with the first game.

I feel like a lot of events in the game would be way more smooth if we even got dialogue choices to be aggressive or passive. I'm so sick of characters in the game finding out Artyom isn't aggressive because he has his weapons lowered but doesn't say anything AT all about not being aggressive. The characters have to deduce that themselves because mute boy can't talk because reasons.

[zombie-flesheater]

Yeah, as much as i love the Metro series, this always bothered me. He wasn't mute in the books either.

What makes it even more ridiculous is him being able to talk at all would be quite relevant for the story, i. e. he would have needed to speak on the radio right at the very beginning, if it would have worked.
Proposing to Anna probably would have been difficult without speaking, too. LOL

It's okay to have a stoic character, but at least some vocal interactions would make things less ridiculous.
A mute character without interacting with other people is perfectly fine, as would be a mute character if the whole story would be written around that character being mute, but for metro, there are many instances where it just comes off as immersion breaking and clunky...

[Valyus]

Originally posted by Xenophobe:

if they voiced him for dialog only I'd be okay with it. I couldn't finish Sam's story because on top of dialog voicing (which I liked) they had had an 'oh yeah' or 'need this' type of comment every time he picked something up ... got real old real fast.

Totally get that, I heard Two Colonels made this way better due to only speaking when they need to. No making observations or saying he seen ammo and such. Some games over rely on talkative characters like in Uncharted where they quip about everything.

[Death Approaches]

This has been discussed a lot. But counterpoint, yes Link in Zelda, but this is a console jrpg-style thing turned more 3d, whereas similar type FPS games Bioshocks, Dishonoreds, even our hosts protagonist Gordon Freeman in HL/HL2... it's not that unusual for a first-person environmental "immersive" game to have a silent main character.

I agree it can be immersion-breaking with Artyom enough in Exodus and in the Stations in the prequels, to want to comment on it, because it's made so immersive elsewhere to make you care, and not being cutscenes you can't easily skip these parts, well in some cases you can just be antisocial and walk off, though.

re: as it did with the first, at least it's an intentional developer decision, not that they didn't like the VO for some of the languages and left it out... it could just be logistics, maybe they couldn't afford to back in M2033 & M:LL times, and now it's just canon that Artyom doesn't speak?

Also - I will say playing "psychopath Artyom" the silence fits into it well; seething brooding killer. So just kill everyone, even mid-dialogue, even when they ask you to lower you weapon - stab them in the chest and slit their throat.

[cuss]

Memoirs yes. How often do we bother to recall what we said unless it had significance?
Artyom's just a dogsbody. "Artyom, go steal a train." "Yes sir, Colonel sir.
Seriously, what's he gonna say of any significance? "erm.. Colonel sir, while I'm out, is it OK if I scour the map and kill everyone and steal their stuff?
I don't think so and I doubt the Colonel would be impressed. "Just get it done" he'd say.

[SwampDragon]

A voiced protagonist leaves no room for the player to inhabit that character. I don't like games that force me to 'be' someone else and think in a certain way.

[Valfary]

It's very weird since I've always felt like he talks, NPCs hear him talk, and only the player doesn't. In 2033 and Last Light I was fine imagining the answers myself, but in Exodus it really feels weird.

[Valyus]

Originally posted by SwampDragon:

A voiced protagonist leaves no room for the player to inhabit that character. I don't like games that force me to 'be' someone else and think in a certain way.

You are voiced. Literally everyone in the game has built up a report with Artyom between games and he has wants, needs, and ambitions. Sorry, you can't have an avatar when it's a written established characters with this things. You may "pretend" you're that character but man, that cognitive dissonance must be hardcore going off when he's voicing the loading screens.

[SwampDragon]

Originally posted by ♥Hearth♥Hope♥Health♥:

Originally posted by SwampDragon:

A voiced protagonist leaves no room for the player to inhabit that character. I don't like games that force me to 'be' someone else and think in a certain way.

You are voiced. Literally everyone in the game has built up a report with Artyom between games and he has wants, needs, and ambitions. Sorry, you can't have an avatar when it's a written established characters with this things. You may "pretend" you're that character but man, that cognitive dissonance must be hardcore going off when he's voicing the loading screens.

I am not pretending I am the character, I am playing the character how I imagine he should be played, and the more wriggle room I am allowed to do that the better. The diary entries don't dictate his every thought and reaction. This is just my opinion, mind. I was adding my opinion.

Take Dying Light for example: I would have much preferred that game if every aspect of the protagonist's character wasn't forced on me. I would have enjoyed the game much more if he didn't talk. There are numerous examples. It's just preference.

[Roler42]

Originally posted by SwampDragon:

Originally posted by ♥Hearth♥Hope♥Health♥:

You are voiced. Literally everyone in the game has built up a report with Artyom between games and he has wants, needs, and ambitions. Sorry, you can't have an avatar when it's a written established characters with this things. You may "pretend" you're that character but man, that cognitive dissonance must be hardcore going off when he's voicing the loading screens.

I am not pretending I am the character, I am playing the character how I imagine he should be played, and the more wriggle room I am allowed to do that the better. The diary entries don't dictate his every thought and reaction. This is just my opinion, mind. I was adding my opinion.

Take Dying Light for example: I would have much preferred that game if every aspect of the protagonist's character wasn't forced on me. I would have enjoyed the game much more if he didn't talk. There are numerous examples. It's just preference.

Here's the problem: The entire events of the game, specially THIS game, are happening because of Artyom.

It's Artyom who wants to leave the Metro and seek greener pastures, it's Artyom who loves and cares for his wife and his fellow soldiers, and it's Artyom who is insisting there's more beyond the Metro, and despite being the pivotal catalyst of the plot, he has nothing to say when the plot is actually unfolding in-game.

Most silent protagonists have dialogue options to indicate they are actually talking back to the other characters, but this game doesn't, when the game is as story driven as Metro, this makes one-on-one conversations between Artyom and the rest of the cast one-sided and arkward it actually hurts the narrative because then the characters have to dump a lot of exposition to compensate for Artyom's silence, and that's a preety terrible subsitute for dialogue.

[Purity+Control<]

I disagree, a talking FPS protagonist is always a bad idea and breaks immersion, its always something different from what we would do, sound, etc.

Just look how badly fallout 4 turned out.

3rd person, sure why not, but fps i'd rather he remains silent.

[TheIrishViking]

Originally posted by TheTrust<:

I disagree, a talking FPS protagonist is always a bad idea and breaks immersion, its always something different from what we would do, sound, etc.

Just look how badly fallout 4 turned out.

3rd person, sure why not, but fps i'd rather he remains silent.

4 problems with you argument in this situation
1. Arytom is a fully realised character with known desires, actions, and goals. who in this game is the cause of the inciting incident because of those elements of his charter
2. he already has a voice in the game its only used in the loading screens
3. this game has multiple points in it where its a 1 on 1 conversation that can last for minutes where its just 1 person talking
4. fallout is an RPGFPS, metro is a Story Rich FPS, may as well compare WoW to Xenoblade in that case

now it is canon that Arytom has an injury with his throat that makes speaking painful for him(think its even witnessed in the first game), its also canon that because of this fact its what makes him a good scout, but when a character is fully capable of talking but doesn't it says something

like I don't expect him to start spouting off paragraphs, but a line hear or there in cutscenes and those aforementioned 1on1 conversations would work better

TLDR: Artyom isn't a silent empty shell character for us to inhabit, he's a strong silent type with goals and agency

[Wehzy]

Originally posted by TheIrishViking:

Originally posted by TheTrust<:

I disagree, a talking FPS protagonist is always a bad idea and breaks immersion, its always something different from what we would do, sound, etc.

Just look how badly fallout 4 turned out.

3rd person, sure why not, but fps i'd rather he remains silent.

4 problems with you argument in this situation
1. Arytom is a fully realised character with known desires, actions, and goals. who in this game is the cause of the inciting incident because of those elements of his charter
2. he already has a voice in the game its only used in the loading screens
3. this game has multiple points in it where its a 1 on 1 conversation that can last for minutes where its just 1 person talking
4. fallout is an RPGFPS, metro is a Story Rich FPS, may as well compare WoW to Xenoblade in that case

now it is canon that Arytom has an injury with his throat that makes speaking painful for him(think its even witnessed in the first game), its also canon that because of this fact its what makes him a good scout, but when a character is fully capable of talking but doesn't it says something

like I don't expect him to start spouting off paragraphs, but a line hear or there in cutscenes and those aforementioned 1on1 conversations would work better

TLDR: Artyom isn't a silent empty shell character for us to inhabit, he's a strong silent type with goals and agency

Good job on necro'ing a 2 years old thread.

[temps]

I think it's fine being a silent protagonist. Half-Life games are some of the best around for atmospheric FPS storytelling and also are known for silent protagonists.

[SwampDragon]

Originally posted by Wehzy:

Good job on necro'ing a 2 years old thread.

Have game updates or some other event made this discussion no longer relevant?
Better to simply unsub if it bothers you.

[PunxsutawneyPhil]

It is a 1st person game. The game wants the player to speak and that is the most intense form of immersion.