Full voiced protagonist for the first time!

The biggest issue that I had with the lack of a speaking protagonist in previous Bethesda games is that it would often feel like your dialogue choices didn't mean anything. You would have the choice between different bits of dialogue, but they both were saying pretty much the same thing. A lot of the time, it didn't feel like that it really meant anything when you had a meaner character, or a more polite character.

I hope that FO4's approach with a voiced protagonist makes this game more similar to a game like Mass Effect, with a more cinematic and immersive approach to character interactions.

 

To be honest, I have never really liked the silent protagontist approach. I can't connect to the character that way, and I don't really care about them.

It happened to me in the Half-Life series, I cared more about other characters than Gordon Freeman himself, so I am very happy with this change!

Hopefully though, like mentioned, they will have an option to turn the voice off for people who prefer not having it.

 

It's going to be really interesting to see how it plays out. The gaming community at large is a little worried, because it looks like you're going to be pigeonholed into conversations. Another potential issue is the "LA Noire" issue where you pick certain responses but it's taken to an extreme and not what you meant to do at all. I'm really excited about the voice acting itself, but I'm worried about how much freedom we're going to have with dialogue.

 

For me is the other way around. I think having a silent character doesn't make you connect with him. Also you can really get into the story with a voiced character.

 

I hate silent protagonists. It's a cop-out for not wanting to develop the story. I've never played a game trying to pretend I was the protagonist. I like having a voice, and Bethesda games are perfect for it because they have such great writing. I thought having Commander Shepard say things in various tones was hilarious a lot of times.

 

I'm going to be the black sheep here, and say that I really hate the fact that now the main character is voiced. I don't feel like it's MY character anymore, it's not my avatar, because I keep hearing a voice that's not what I want from my character and so on, or maybe I'd like to speak a line of dialogue my way and not how the game wants him to. I hope you can turn off the voice, somehow. Also this time you have way less choice in dialogues (only 4), so that's even more disappointing.

 

I think it's great that we'll get to hear our own words. It adds a more lively feature to the game.

 

Well, most people enjoy the silent protagonist - It lets them customize their character to be more akin to what they'd like and imagine their own personal voice for them, giving a feeling of involvement. Of course, a well defined character is fun to play as, but I don't know they're going to combine both a fully voiced protagonist and customization (if the customization is on any level near their other games).

And also yeah, as one person added, it's going to make modding a bit more difficult.

 

Well we saw a bit of the customization options for the character in that first gameplay video they showed at E3 this year. I've never really liked Bethesda's character editors because the characters tend to be ugly anyways, but this time seeing as they're making the game with a new graphics engine I hope we have enough options to make our own character at least somewhat pretty!

 

I'd say this is both exciting and just a little, little, disadvantageous. Of course the production value of the game will be higher, and the gameplay experience might end up immersing the player more. However, a great feature of (atleast) the PC version of the latest Bethesda games was its easy moddability. And there is no way that the voice actor and actress of the fallout player character will voice act in a feature extending mod, atleast not for free.

So in effect we can expect less quest & adventure mods for FO4 now, which is a shame, as I am planning on playing it on the PC mostly.

 

I prefer voiced protagonists over mute ones unless the voice is absolutely terrible. It all depends on the voice actors and how they pull off emotions for me.