Best voice acting in retro games?

[Glimbo]

Oh well... Someone already mentioned VTM Bloodlines, so will proceed to discuss life with a stop sign.
Apart for that I really liked, the voice acting from Looking glass studios games back in the late 90 early 2000. Titles like System Shock series and the Thief series.

The performance of Shodan is great. but every time I think of System Shock I think of this. System Shock 2 ending spoilers I guess.

Spoiler

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Heh, nice counter there buddy! I am gonna counter with… a normal reply! Fear me!
Moving along, despite how I come off, I don’t actually dislike a lot of VAing in games. In fact, I love it and very lenient on it. I love it so much… rarely anything stands out as the “best” but if I had to pick, I adore the noir style of max payne so much.

I’m not American so I can’t explain what makes noir stories so good but I believe it’s a combination of seriousness, broodyness, edgyness, nessness, a single cop acting on his own, fighting against a conspiracy, fits max payne like a tee!
I’d say this prob also applies to the OG DE but I’ve not played it… yet!

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

I adore the noir style of max payne so much.

Oh, right! Max Payne had some great voice acting ?

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

The performance of Shodan is great. but every time I think of System Shock I think of this. System Shock 2 ending spoilers I guess.

I do agree that the game start losing some steam around the Rickenbacker area. The mentioned Shodan showdown and ending are lackluster at best, The Many showdown also it's at fault.
But the ambiance, atmosphere and the enemies cries(The hybrids and the protocol droids especially) are some of the best, i have heard in a game.

 

[DanCalibur]

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure gave the world "Amazing Pirates"

Now that's stuck in my head, thank you very much?

 

[Azuris]

Diablo 1 has some really good Speakers.

I also go for Warcraft 2 and the Mission Announcers

 

[Gaz]

Don't know if anyone has already said it but Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen had some quality voice acting for the time.

 

[Azuris]

Hmm Command and Conquer even having People acting deserves a big Shoutout

 

[Yukyon]

The Spanish dub of Metal Gear Solid was awesome, really made it feel like an old war movie. Shame there was no dub on the rest of entries

 

[Inkingsama]

Surprised to see nobody has mentioned Megaman Legends.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Killer7 and I will never shut up about it.

THE PS2 ISNT RETRO IT WAS ONLY 24 YEARS AGO

Post automatically merged: Jan 15, 2025

 

[Lime]

This game came out in 1982 so he might have been one of the first video game characters ever to have a voice actor to themselves (a radio host called John Doremus according to wikipedia). Hearing him in game is still a bit terrifiying.

 

[Maresia]

The Spanish dub of Metal Gear Solid was awesome, really made it feel like an old war movie. Shame there was no dub on the rest of entries

I believe that the Metal Gear and Soul Reaver dubs were the best we got at that time

 

[Lee__Kanker]

 

[Parasite_Steve]

The ps2 exclusive platformers like Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank had imho incredible voice acting and animation, especially the Jak & Daxter games which were Disney animated movie levels of smooth.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

The ps2 exclusive platformers like Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank had imho incredible voice acting and animation, especially the Jak & Daxter games which were Disney animated movie levels of smooth.

Jak&Daxter is amazing for being only a year into the ps2, so expressive

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Killer7 and I will never shut up about it.

Since I got recently into Suda51's stuff with NMH I'll play that one soon.

 

[hazys]

Koudelka for PS1 had a surprisingly good English dub.

 

[Mago]

The old Lucas Arts games still have the best voice acting ever imo.

 

[OmegaPunch's icon OmegaPunch OmegaPunch]

Does it count if I do an excellent job reading the dialog out loud whilst playing?? You should hear me reading Vagrant Story - my Shakespearean cadence embelishes the gravitas of the script.

I do the same thing whenever I play any game that doesn't have voice acting

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Koudelka for PS1 had a surprisingly good English dub.

And motion capture for ps1 in game models, Ive Never seen that in any other game

 

[kamille]

 

[Turbo Kid]

Star Fox knew how to use voice acting at just the right times to make a moment feel epic

At 1:53

I will forever love the use of audio in this game. A great soundtrack from a composer who only worked on this one entry, smart use of limited voice acting, and the charming gibberish the team uses to communicate during the levels (which was briefly used again in the Starlink: Battle for Atlas video when they first announced Team Star Fox being in the game).

 

[Gabi]

Meh i will just say i like the
"WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOORRRR???!!!!"

 

[petran79]

The reason I bought Toonstruck back when it was released was mainly because of the voice actors.
I think no other video game features so many known and celebrated voice actors

Dan Castellaneta, Tim Curry, David Ogden Stier, Dom DeLuise, Jeff Bennett, Corey Burton, Jim Cummings, Tress McNeille, Rob Paulsen, April Winchell, Frank Welker

plus live acting by Christopher Lloyd and Ben Stein