It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Let’s look back at the best gaming voice actors from 2017. Voted on by our editors, these performances stood out as the best and most memorable from games this year. Let’s start our top vote-getting honorable mentions, runner-ups, and finally, of course, our overall winner!
Honorable Mention: Alastair Duncan – Celebrimbor
The Best Voice Actor of 2017
Celebrimbor, who is one of the player controlled characters in Shadow of War, is very complex. In this year’s game, he’s both a villain and a sidekick, and therefore your relationship with him is quite unstable. Since you work with him, you have to trust him a lot of the time, but there’s always a feeling that he could turn against you any second. The way Duncan plays both the calm aide and screaming villain sides of Celebrimbor is what makes it such an impressive performance.
As Celebrimbor changes as the game progresses, the nuance in Duncan’s performance become clearer. Despite not being the main character in the game, his scenes are the most memorable, with him becoming a hated figure and causing anger whenever you hear his voice. Duncan’s performance manages to evoke different feelings from the player at different points in the game, and that is what makes Celebrimbor one of the most memorable characters of the year.
Second Runner Up: Abubakar Salim – Bayek
The Best Voice Actor of 2017
The Assassin’s Creed series has a history of great characters. From the charismatic Ezio to the determined Evie Frye, we’ve seen protagonists that we can both relate to and enjoy playing as. However, this year’s Origins may have introduced the best character yet, and he is played perfectly by Abubakar Salim.
Bayek is a complex person; one who struggles to balance his personal feelings and his knowledge of what is right. Salim’s performance conveys how the character is both filled with rage and deeply kind, with both sides being entirely believable. He’s capable of extreme violence, yet never forgets the consequences of his actions, and Salim masterfully captures how loving Bayek is when it comes to his family.
Also, the performance is even more impressive when you take into account that it is Salim’s first video game role. Everything, from Salim’s performance is meticulously crafted and it is what makes Bayek one of the best assassins we’ve seen in the series.
First Runner Up: Brian Bloom – B.J. Blazkowicz
The Best Voice Actor of 2017
The weird and wonderful characters in Wolfenstein II are what make Machine Games’ title one of the best shooters of the year. Each of them add heart and humor to the story but none are as instantly recognizable as the series’ long time protagonist, B.J. Blazkowicz.
B.J, at first glance, is a no nonsense action hero who will run through anything to kill some Nazis. However, in The New Colossus, he is much more than that, and his complexity is portrayed fantastically by Brian Bloom. Throughout the game, Blazkowicz is troubled by the loss of a friend, and the pressure to stay alive for his blossoming family. He talks to himself, jumping back and forth between being a weak man on the verge of death and an unstoppable killing machine. It is how well Bloom plays both sides that makes the performance so impressive. He adds emotion to the character in the quieter, more sombre moments, yet is able to maintain the threatening aura the character is known for. How Bloom makes what could be quite a simple character so believably complex is what makes it one of the best performances of the year.
Winner: Claudia Black – Chloe Frazer
The Best Voice Actor of 2017
The Uncharted series features some of the most recognizable characters in PlayStation history, with pairings such as Nathan Drake and Nolan North being being among the most famous in gaming. One of the series’ most popular characters, Chloe Frazer, returned this year for The Lost Legacy and was the star of the show.
We do see a slightly different Chloe in the game, with her being the leader and therefore having to show more perseverance. However, it is her relationship with Laura Bailey’s Nadine that makes the performance stand out. The two characters play off each other excellently, joking at times, but being serious when they need to be. Black perfectly conveys the humor needed to develop the protagonists’ relationship, whilst making it clear that Chloe is more interested in the artifacts and their connection to her family. She is strong throughout, taking on everything that is thrown at her, yet is sensitive when necessary. One of the best things about The Lost Legacy is being able to spend more time with Chloe than we did in Uncharted 2, and that is made possible thanks to the excellent performance from Claudia Black.
Published: Dec 14, 2017 05:00 pm