Worst use of a silent protagonist

[Ikasury]

suppose for my two cents, as i haven't seen anyone mention this yet... and kinda just to snark...

CAIM!! FROM DRAKENGARD!!

here's a guy that is LITERALLY mute, for plot-reasons, yet still manages to make it quite apparent all he wasn't to do is kill you...

so as a 'worst' in the sense of 'DOWNRIGHT PROBABLY EVIL/PSYCHOTIC/TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING' then yea, he'd take the cake :3

but as a character? ...eeeeh... he's still kinda bad... design-wise... but at least he has an excuse for not talking the entire game, and considering his VA for the opening was mostly just growling, that's probably a good thing XD

option 2 goes to probably any silent MC from an SMT/PERSONA game... i love those games to death, don't get me wrong, but there are just points where they need to speak up... ESPECIALLY YOU SERPH!!

 

[DementedSheep]

I'm going to say Dishonored, I'm not as bothered by the silent protagonist too much, I don't mind it in Half-Life for example, but for Dishonored it really feels like a missed opportunity. It seems like the game wants to have emotion, the empress dies in your arms, the little girl gets kidnapped, ect. But instead your just along for the ride, blindly following orders when they tell you to become an assassin. Even reading an internal monolog on loading screens would've added a lot of character and a lot more emotion to the game IMO.

Yeah him just accepting everything without a word, opinion or any protest at all was grating especially with Pendleton using him for a bloody duel under pretense of delivering a letter. Having no dialogue with Emily or Sam was missed opportunity.

 

[TorchofThanatos]

Dragon Age: Origins. A silent protagonist who seems to talk but only when the camera's off since he/she is clearly able to communicate with people. I get why they did it (2 genders + 3 races = potentially 6 voice tracks) but I'm still not a fan.

DA:O's protagonist isn't truly silent, they just aren't voiced. IMO, it's better to have a bunch of dialogue options without a voice rather than a few that are voiced.

I don't know If I agree with that. I personally like the voiced options better. I find that Mass Effects and DA2 style is more engaging. The Witcher also voices all of is dialogue but these games are set up as RPG. You take on the roll of someone else were as DA:O set it up for you to create "yourself." I prefer that latter but I can understand why people like the non-voice. Do you like to read the book and image what the character sound and talk like or watch the movie and enjoy the voices given? Kinda a bad example but it is all I could come up with.

Given that the books almost always has the better story and more believable character interaction than the movies, since they don't have to pay people to deliver the lines, i will take the book and the unvoiced protagonist with multiple dialogue options every day, thank you.
But since you gave DA 2 as a good example of something i allready know that we won't agree on this, so a discussion is probably pointless.

Ah, you are one of those DA2 haters. Well then I may disagree with you there but everyone has their options. I personally liked it but if other didn't they didn't. No need to try and argue on that point. Enjoy the games you like, Amaror.

 

[TorchofThanatos]

Dragon Age: Origins. A silent protagonist who seems to talk but only when the camera's off since he/she is clearly able to communicate with people. I get why they did it (2 genders + 3 races = potentially 6 voice tracks) but I'm still not a fan.

DA:O's protagonist isn't truly silent, they just aren't voiced. IMO, it's better to have a bunch of dialogue options without a voice rather than a few that are voiced.

I don't know If I agree with that. I personally like the voiced options better. I find that Mass Effects and DA2 style is more engaging. The Witcher also voices all of is dialogue but these games are set up as RPG. You take on the roll of someone else were as DA:O set it up for you to create "yourself." I prefer that latter but I can understand why people like the non-voice. Do you like to read the book and image what the character sound and talk like or watch the movie and enjoy the voices given? Kinda a bad example but it is all I could come up with.

I'd agree that the first Mass Effect did a pretty good job with voiced dialogue, there were a ton of options and the delivery was pretty good. ME2 was also pretty good, but the choices were a tad less than the first game. ME3 was when it took a turn for the worse. They pretty much eliminated the "neutral" options, limited dialogue to a paragon choice, renegade choice, and an investigate option, and added heapings of auto-dialogue. DA2 was a similar experience, at least in terms of the auto-dialogue. At the very least, DA:O had FAR more dialogue options than DA2 did, and that really annoyed some gamers (myself included). The Witcher is a completely different situation, because Geralt is already a well established character. You don't create him, you just choose what he says.

As for the analogy you made, I'm not sure if it's applicable. In a book, you don't create the character, you just read about what they do. An RPG with character creation is different because that's YOUR character. Otherwise, I'm not the biggest fan of silent protagonists. I'd argue that games like Dishonored and Protal would benefit greatly from having their main characters voiced. It's hard to have character development without any dialogue, so I'm usually in favor of a voiced protagonist in that case. I can make exceptions in the case of Link and Gordon Freeman, mainly because their lack of voice is mainly due to tradition.

Yeah, to book and movie thing didn't work but the ME series is an interesting to to look at. The first ME game had dialogue choice that did not gain or loss you anything mechanically. Gaining more choice was a skill levelled out side of the dialogue system. ME2 had it so that if you choice to "good" choice you got good point that then unlocked other good choice latter. Picking the neutral choice in that game was terrible because you lost out on gaining point on either side. ME3 tire to fix that by adding the two side's pint together but for some reason getting ride of the neutral. I wonder if that is because the game was rushed. That could also be the reason that the auto-dialogue was terrible. Bioware forced you down a path more openly then the other games. Shepherd had to do this or that which got annoying. I could stand the Auto-dialogue in DA2 because it wasn't used to force plot points on me and it reflected the choice you had made before. If you were the funny Hawk then the auto fallowed that line.

I like that last point that out of tradition Link and Freeman were silent. I wonder if HL was made today if he would be voiced or not. One of my other issues with Freeman is that he so simply a wish-folfillment character. Strange because I can forgive other game for doing that but HL just bugs me. Maybe it is also because it is an old school shooter and I don't like the game play. I can still play DA2 and feel like I made my Hawk but again I enjoyed the game play so I enjoyed the character too. hmmmm.... maybe game play is more important for me to get into a story then characters.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Every game with a silent protagonist. After so many great funny voiced games somehow developers had the need to use the "better identification with the main character" excuse for the missing voice work. It felt always like a backwards step when everyone is talking to you and you play the mute savior. I can accept it for RPGs with lots of dialogue and gender/race options but i heavily dislike it for FPS.

 

[Auron225]

They've been mentioned already but they are the two in my mind that are most guilty of this.

Half-Life definitely needed a voiced Gordon Freeman. They managed to make interesting characters all around Freeman who banter back and forth and argue and stuff but he can't ever participate. Any line directed at him never gets a reaction - for all I know he constantly has a sour "I f*cking hate all of you" look on his face as they order him around. I mean it's not like he's a random nobody with a gun - he's a physicist who's supposed to have an idea of whats going on! Barely anyone finds out about G-Man since he never brings it up. I can only imagine what it would have been like in HL2 (when Freeman got to the Black Mesa hideout near Ravenholm) if he had gotten to put on a lab coat and be a physicist again like Eli was suggesting. Fat lot of help he would have been if he doesn't speak or do something of his own initiative!

Dishonored could have done with a voiced Corvo too. I can gather that Corvo cares more for Emily than the average character; in fact he may well care for her more than anyone else after her mother dies. Their relationship could have been fleshed out so much better with an actual conversation or two. Even if that only happened at the very beginning and the torture near then involved him getting his tongue sliced or something (thus providing a valid reason why he never speaks).

 

[Catfood220]

Isaac Clark in the first Dead Space. Ok, for the majority of the game it doesn't really matter as it is him being told to do stuff by everyone else. But then there is the bit where his girlfriend, who has been looking for all game turns up to help him out, then she speaks to him. And he does not respond in any way.

I know they voiced him in the sequels, but that bit and a couple of others in the game made me wonder why they didn't bother for the first. Even if they had just got the pizza delivery guy to go "hey wait..." when his girlfriend leaves the scene it would have been better.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Dragon's Dogma. Not only feels stupid for the majority of the game, but when at the end of the game

Spoiler

accused of treason,

still doesn't say a fucking thing.

as someone that likes Dragon's Dogma... i'll give you that, it is a rather dumb moment to keep to the whole 'silent protagonist' thing XD

Don't get me wrong, I love the exploration and the combat and the pawns...but the main character becomes braindead in cutscenes, and it really annoys me. It's like "He's summoning the undead, shut your gaping mouth and engage in combat before they massacre everyone!"

 

[J Tyran]

The Half Life series. It's less of an issue in the first game, but I think it's awkward when there's a cast of characters regularly interacting with Gordan and having to play out an emotional scene despite his inability to respond to anything.

This, in that scene in the Citadel when Breen asks Gordon over the intercom "Have you ever created anything? Can you name even one thing?" I always want Gordon to turn around and tell him "Hope" and put a bullet through the screen.

Dishonored could have done with a voiced Corvo too. I can gather that Corvo cares more for Emily than the average character; in fact he may well care for her more than anyone else after her mother dies. Their relationship could have been fleshed out so much better with an actual conversation or two. Even if that only happened at the very beginning and the torture near then involved him getting his tongue sliced or something (thus providing a valid reason why he never speaks).

Having Daud as fully voiced character in the DLC showed just how much the characterisation of Corvo suffered, the main game would have really benefited from him being voiced.

 

[Olas]

I disagree. For starters, it clearly is harder to write dialogue than convincingly design a game around a silent character, because no one has ever managed it. No story driven game exists where the silent protagonist isn't silly and jarring. Games like Metro, Half Life, Dishonored and so on all have their atmosphere severely damaged by the fact that all the events of their stories revolve around seemingly brain-damaged muppets that nobody finds strange or creepy.

I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on what's silly and jarring because I didn't have any problems with any of those characters, at least not with the fact that they're silent. Corvo had too much backstory and baggage for a silent protagonist destroying the 'blank slate' feel that they're supposed to have, but never once did I find the atmosphere of Half Life dampened by Gordon Freeman or Artyom's silence. In fact I think the dialogue in those games is pretty decent[footnote]With Metro you have to play it in Russian with English subtitles, because the English voice acting is shit. It feels more authentic that way anyway.[/footnote] for a videogame.

Why do people assume that Artyom is going to help them? He never said that, he stared at them blankly and then walked off with his gun raised.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, there are several times when people ask you for help but there's no indication, from what I could tell, that they were assuming you would actually help them. I would think in the world they inhabit you can't trust anyone's word 100% anyway.

Corvo Attano has people assuming left right and centre that he wants revenge, but maybe he just wants to open a florist and spend his life tending azaleas and only avenges the Empress because he thought it would be awkward if he contradicted people's expectations. Their silence makes the story seem absurd and compromises the atmosphere of the world.

I would think the fact that he goes out to get revenge would be a good indication that he wants revenge, if he wanted to tend azaleas he could certainly have done that instead. You act as if a character needs to go around openly declaring his intentions and goals to people before going out to do anything, it doesn't take much imagination to fill in those blanks yourself.

Wanting to imprint ones own personality on a character can work, but if the character needs to have meaningful interaction with people they need a voice, or it becomes a farce. My hero in Fable getting married to a woman despite the fact that the only words he ever said to her were "Hey" and "Yes!" fits in the silly atmosphere of Albion. Artyom having a romantic scene with a woman he has NEVER SPOKEN TO ruins the entire scene, and indeed that entire subplot.

That scene would have been stupid no matter how much babbling the two of you do. And no, meaningful interaction does not require WORDS. Have you ever had any pets? If so did you need them to talk in order to care about them? Because I've had many, and none of them could ever talk, but I was still able to form bonds with them and gauge their emotions. People can even form emotional bonds with inanimate objects: toys, dolls, teddy bears, vehicles, it happens all the time.

The idea that emotional investment cannot exist without spoken dialogue is just ridiculous and I think you know that.

You can like a silent protagonist for giving you the ability to imprint yourself onto a cipher who is not truly a character, that's fine. But personally, I can't imagine a game with any modicum of emotional depth or consistent atmosphere where the main character is silent without being silly.

If that's true I find it somewhat sad. It's a fun aspect of gameplay for me. I often find myself talking back to NPCs in games, either in my head or even out loud if I'm particularly high strung. Sure they can't hear me, and in a way I'm glad they can't, but it's still way more engaging for me to have my own imaginary conversations with them than to have the game say something for me and essentially TELL ME how I should feel at the moment.

 

[Reaper195]

Crysis 2 got really annoying. Towards the beginning of the game, Prophet changes his Nanosuit with Alcatraz, and all of the people working with Prophet keep referring to Alcatraz as Prophet, and he doesn't tell them who he really is. It's even worse later when a scientist figures out that it isn't Prophet in the suit and goes to kill Alcatraz, and does Alcatraz saying anything? Nope, he just puts his hand up in the air and requires the suit to play a recording of what happened. Granted, given the mid-plot twist, you could probably say that he didn't have the ability to talk, but it still felt like a ridiculous contrivance to explain away the horrible writing. I would love to say it was just a satire of the silent protagonist, but the game took itself too seriously for me to really believe that.

Dude...that game had a disgusting amount of potential to be good. Aside from Alcatraz having a voice, they really could've dealt with the whole Prophet taking over Alcatraz thing. Instead we're just supposed to accept that Alcatraz is nothing but an autonomous robot from the get-go in prototype, since you never seen any others.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

Dragon Age: Origins. A silent protagonist who seems to talk but only when the camera's off since he/she is clearly able to communicate with people. I get why they did it (2 genders + 3 races = potentially 6 voice tracks) but I'm still not a fan.

Haha, do you know how much backlash there was when DA2 deviated from that route and added VO for Hawke?
I don't really think it qualifies as "silent protagonist" btw. Ok I get it: the grey warded *is* silent, he/she has no VO, but definitely *speaks* in the way of written replies. It's not exactly the same as the others.

I have to agree on Metro 2033, it doesn't really make sense at all for Artyom to remain silent. Especially because he speaks during cutscenes and makes it appear as if he communicated.
Guess they were afraid to ruin their atmosphere, but it could have been handled better imo.

 

[sonofliber]

suppose for my two cents, as i haven't seen anyone mention this yet... and kinda just to snark...

CAIM!! FROM DRAKENGARD!!

here's a guy that is LITERALLY mute, for plot-reasons, yet still manages to make it quite apparent all he wasn't to do is kill you...

so as a 'worst' in the sense of 'DOWNRIGHT PROBABLY EVIL/PSYCHOTIC/TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING' then yea, he'd take the cake :3

but as a character? ...eeeeh... he's still kinda bad... design-wise... but at least he has an excuse for not talking the entire game, and considering his VA for the opening was mostly just growling, that's probably a good thing XD

option 2 goes to probably any silent MC from an SMT/PERSONA game... i love those games to death, don't get me wrong, but there are just points where they need to speak up... ESPECIALLY YOU SERPH!!

did you... just critizice caim?...MOTHER FUCKING CAIM? FUCKING I KILL HUMAN EATING BABY GODS CAIM? MOTHER FUCKER I MAKE CHARACTERS SHIT THEIR PANTS, MASS MURDERER CAIM?, FOR FUCK SAKE HE STABED AN INMORTAL MAN IN THE CROCH SO HARD HE KILLED DEATH, AND HIS ASHES CORRUPTED OUR WORLD MAKING IT UNHABITABLE, YOU CANT GET MORE HARDCORE THAN THAT, AND HE DID ALL THOSE THING WHILE ROCKYNG THEM CROCS.


why yes i did read drakengard lets play by dark id, why do you ask?

 

[Amaror]

Ah, you are one of those DA2 haters. Well then I may disagree with you there but everyone has their options. I personally liked it but if other didn't they didn't. No need to try and argue on that point. Enjoy the games you like, Amaror.

Thank you. Enjoy the games you like, TorchofThanatos.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

"FEAR". The entire game is from first-person perspective (including some cutscenes that I had no idea were supposed to be from anybody's viewpoint - I call this the "Bioshock Memories" syndrome, or "Why the heck are these weird pictures appearing that have nothing to do with anything I'm seeing?" Anyway...) You know NOTHING about the main character, yet there's a huge "twist" that's supposed to be a big shock, I think.

I would say it makes no sense that that character got into the position that he's in if he has the familial connections that he has, but... honestly... I have no idea. The Nazi misogynist asshole PMC that's supposed to be the "good guys" in this game might've hired the protagonist specifically because of his familial connections. Or they might have had no idea whatsoever. Or the guy might've been a secret mole, programmed to obey a key trigger phrase programmed by his kindly master... or something. I have no idea and the game never enlightens me. Because the game has no idea how to tell a story that you're supposed to be the protagonist of.

In short, I really really didn't like "FEAR".

 

[Stabinbac]

Gordon Freeman is silent because Valve wants the player to assume the identity. So your thoughts are his dialogue.

That's a nice idea, but unfortunately my thoughts were usually expressed by me incessantly trying to pull the trigger at the NPC's heads. He has too much "interaction" to be a silent protagonist. Everyone around him is painting his character, and that character is not me. He should be his own character, so I can play as him, and his treatment from NPCs would make sense.

Also HL2 has some of the blandest characters of any medium ever. It's like populating a game with people from Seattle.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

I disagree with Half-Life 2, as rorychief put it better than I did, Gordon being silent helps create this very unique dream like atmosphere, and it wouldn't be HL2 without that.

I actually think it's getting a little ridiculous with the Legend of Zelda series, because it's becoming clear that a few writers at Nintendo have no idea how to handle it well. All they do is staple an expository character to Link such as Navi, Fi, or Midna to react towards everything. While Midna wasn't bad, more often than not - these characters are incredibly annoying and seem to exist to make the once open Zelda universe feel a whole lot more linear. Not saying that giving link a "voice" would magically fix this, but it may help potentially sideline that crutch.

While Portal 2 does the same thing, I would argue that it does it much better. I would much rather listen to Stephen Merchant than Navi.

 

[Strain42]

People have already said it, but I think the worst example of a silent protagonist is Maya from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

Taking a character that was already incredibly fleshed out and was really likeable and then turning her into a silent protagonist for the sake of "tradition" (a tradition which I'm fairly positive had already been broken before that point and certainly has been broken after) just made it feel fairly hollow.

 

[scorptatious]

I've been playing Persona 4 lately and I kinda liked how they handled the silent protagonist in that game. Your social stats start out at bare minimum, and you have to do stuff such as regularly attend clubs, work, study, and do rather scary stuff such as riding out on your scooter in order to improve yourself. By doing so, you can establish social links you couldn't before, apply for higher paying jobs such as tutoring, and even have access to certain dialogue options.

He also does noticeably change over the course in the game in some small ways. For example, at the beginning he didn't really do much with Nanako, but as the game progressed he did stuff such as perform magic tricks for her, help her do her homework, ect. Basically assume the role of big brother for a girl who's home alone practically all the time. It's pretty endearing.

Kinda makes me wish more games with silent protagonists did this sort of thing. It really helps me better fit into the character's role.

As for the worst use of a silent protagonist? While I probably can't say if Gordon Freeman is one of the worst, I can't help but agree that he should of had his own voice and character. Especially since it was established that he was a scientist. But hey, maybe I'm missing the point of his character. Or perhaps even the game for that matter.