Dear Bethesda: 10 Things I Want To See In The Elder Scrolls: Online

By Reggie Fells / August 2, 2013

9. Voice Acting....

Any Skyrim vet can name the above figure as a Khajit, wielding a Steel War Axe, wearing a gold & ruby Circlet, etc., etc.,. You'd likely also be able to say any number of phrases in the "Khajit voice", seeing as how there's one for the male, and one for the female. This same distinction is shared with the reptilian Argonians, and the disfigured, warlike Orcs. Now... Skyrim itself is a relatively vast expanse. Why is it that every male orc sounds alike? Why does Deeja at the dock in Solitude sound exactly the same as the bartender who works the Bee N' Barb in Riften? So on and so forth, but the limitations of voice recordings notwithstanding, I just believe there should be more variety in the voices. That being said, Bethesda DID employ over seventy people into the cast of recorded tracks for NPCs - but even with a game so large, it's understandable if some voices sound familiar - Lucan Valerius sounds like Mercer Frey who sounds like Cynric Endell... it goes on. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong), but the only "unique" voices I remember from the game were Brynjolf, Karliah, Nazir, Delvin Mallory, and... well, Alduin doesn't count. He's a dragon.

Damn it. He heard me.

Now, I'm not criticizing the job that the actors and actresses did - with over 60,000 lines to record for the game, it was a very ambitious project, and perfectly understandable that voices would be heard multiple times. But then again, seventy people voicing an entire province would obviously have limitations. Indeed, the voice acting itself was fine - it just unnerved me after a while when people sounded alike.

Also... and maybe this is just something I recognized being a person of ethnic descent... none of the Redguards I encountered in the game, save for Nazir, sounded ethnic - this statement is flawed, but then again, out of that massive cast, only TWO of the actors are of ethnic descent (diversity issues much?). Now that being said, there's multiple races that were performed with four or fewer voices - which is why plenty of Dunmer (Dark Elves) and Altmer (High Elves) sound alike as well - this is just something I hope isn't as noticeable in The Elder Scrolls: Online. But then again, that game will be taking place across a wider region, so perhaps I'm worried about nothing.

What can I say? My hopes for improvements in my favorite games can render me pessimistic sometimes. Eh.